When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through Read online

  WHEN THE

  LIGHT OF THE WORLD

  WAS SUBDUED,

  OUR SONGS CAME THROUGH

  A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry

  EDITORS

  Joy Harjo • Executive Editor

  LeAnne Howe • Executive Associate Editor

  Jennifer Elise Foerster • Associate Editor

  A BLESSING

  N. Scott Momaday

  THIS ANTHOLOGY is a most welcome addition to American literature. The Native Americans have always been deeply invested in language. The songs, spells, and prayers of the Native oral tradition are among the world’s richest examples of verbal art. The present collection is a comprehensive celebration of that tradition and that art.

  Prayer for Words

  My voice restore for me.

  Diné

  Here is the wind bending the reeds westward,

  The patchwork of morning on gray moraine:

  Had I words I could tell of origin,

  Of God’s hands bloody with birth at first light,

  Of my thin squeals in the heat of his breath,

  Of the taste of being, the bitterness,

  And scents of camas root and chokecherries.

  And, God, if my mute heart expresses me,

  I am the rolling thunder and the bursts

  Of torrents upon rock, the whispering

  Of old leaves, the silence of deep canyons.

  I am the rattle of mortality.

  I could tell of the splintered sun. I could

  Articulate the night sky, had I words.

  —N. SCOTT MOMADAY

  CONTENTS

  A Blessing by N. Scott Momaday

  Introduction by Joy Harjo

  NORTHEAST AND MIDWEST

  Writing a Poetry of Continuance by Kimberly M. Blaeser

  Anishinaabeg Dream Song

  The Water Birds Will Alight

  1678 // Eleazar // (unknown)

  Eleazar’s Elegy for Thomas Thacher

  1800 // Jane Johnston Schoolcraft // Ojibwe (Anishinaabe)

  To the Pine Tree

  On leaving my children John and Jane at school, in the Atlantic states, and preparing to return to the interior

  1800 // William Walker Jr. // Wyandot

  Oh, Give Me Back My Bended Bow

  1861 // Emily Pauline Johnson // Mohawk

  Marshlands

  The Song My Paddle Sings

  1869 // Olivia Ward Bush-Banks // Montaukett

  On the Long Island Indian

  1913 // Anonymous Carlisle Student

  My Industrial Work

  1934 // Gerald Vizenor // Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation

  Seven Woodland Crows

  Family Photograph

  Fat Green Flies

  1935 // Peter Blue Cloud // Mohawk

  The Old Man’s Lazy

  Rattle

  1943 // Jim Northrup // Anishinaabe–Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior

  Shrinking Away

  Rez Car

  1945 // Gail Tremblay // Onondaga // Mi’Kmaq

  Indian Singing in 20th Century America

  1946 // Chrystos // Menominee

  The Real Indian Leans Against

  Ceremony for Completing a Poetry Reading

  1947 // Roberta Hill // Oneida

  Dream of Rebirth

  In the Longhouse, Oneida Museum

  These Rivers Remember

  1950 // Linda LeGarde Grover // Anishinaabe–Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe

  Everything You Need to Know in Life You’ll Learn in Boarding School

  1950 // Ray Young Bear // Meskwaki

  John Whirlwind’s Doublebeat Songs, 1956

  Our Bird Aegis

  One Chip of Human Bone

  1952 // Marcie Rendon // Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation

  What’s an Indian Woman to Do?

  1953 // Alex Jacobs // Akwesasne Mohawk

  Indian Machismo or Skin to Skin

  1953 // Denise Sweet // Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation

  Song for Discharming

  Mapping the Land

  1954 // Salli M. Kawennotakie Benedict // Akwesasne Mohawk

  Sweetgrass Is Around Her

  1955 // Kimberly M. Blaeser // Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation

  Dreams of Water Bodies

  Apprenticed to Justice

  Captivity

  1955 // Gordon Henry Jr. // Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation

  November Becomes the Sky with Suppers for the Dead

  When Names Escaped Us

  Sleeping in the Rain

  1957 // Diane Burns // Anishinaabe–Lac Courte Oreilles // Chemehuevi

  Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question

  Big Fun

  1958 // Al Hunter // Anishinaabe // Rainy River First Nations

  Prayer Bowl

  1960 // Karenne Wood // Monacan Nation

  Chief Totopotamoi, 1654

  Hard Times

  1965 // Eric Gansworth // Onondaga

  Eel

  1966 // James Thomas Stevens // Akwesasne Mohawk

  Tonawanda Swamps

  St. James Lake

  1971 // Kimberly Wensaut // Potawatomi

  Prodigal Daughter

  1975 // Steve Pacheco // Mdewakanton Dakota

  History

  1979 // Laura Da’ // Eastern Shawnee

  Nationhood

  Measuring the Distance to Oklahoma

  1979 // b: william bearhart // Anishinaabe–St. Croix

  When I Was in Las Vegas and Saw a Warhol Painting of Geronimo

  PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS

  Placed with Our Power by Heid E. Erdrich

  1870 // Elsie Fuller // Omaha

  A New Citizen

  1876 // Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) // Yankton Dakota

  The Red Man’s America

  1904 // D’Arcy McNickle // Métis // Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

  Man Hesitates but Life Urges

  1930 // Elizabeth Cook-Lynn // Crow Creek Sioux

  At Dawn, Sitting at My Father’s House

  1934 // N. Scott Momaday // Kiowa

  Angle of Geese

  The Gourd Dancer

  The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee

  1937 // Victor Charlo // Bitterroot Salish // Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

  Frog Creek Circle

  1940 // Lois Red Elk // Isanti // Hunkpapa // Ihanktonwa

  Our Blood Remembers

  1940 // James Welch // Gros Ventre // Blackfeet

  Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation

  The Man from Washington

  Riding the Earthboy 40

  1941/ Richard Littlebear // Northern Cheyenne

  NAMȦHTA’SOOMȦHEVEME We Are the Spirits of these Bones

  1944 // Lance Henson // Southern Cheyenne

  Sitting Alone in Tulsa at 3 A.M.

  Anniversary Poem for Cheyennes Who Died at Sand Creek

  1945 // Suzan Shown Harjo // Southern Cheyenne // Hodulgee Muscogee

  The Song Called “White Antelope’s Chant”

  1946 // John Trudell // Santee Dakota

  Diablo Canyon

  1948 // Henry Real Bird // Crow

  Thought

  1951 // nila northSun // Shoshone // Anishinaabe

  99 things to do before you die

  cooking class

  1954 // Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya // Yuchi // Comanche

  Poem for Sonya Thunder Bull

  1954 // Louise Erdrich // Anishinaabe–Turtle Mountain Band

  Jacklight

 
I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move

  Advice to Myself

  1957 // Gwen Nell Westerman // Dakota // Cherokee

  Wicaŋĥpi Heciya Taŋhaŋ Uŋhipi (We Come from the Stars)

  1958 // Mark Turcotte // Anishinaabe–Turtle Mountain Band

  Burn

  Battlefield

  1959 // Elise Paschen // Osage

  Wi’-Gi-E

  High Ground

  1963 // Heid E. Erdrich // Anishinaabe–Turtle Mountain Band

  Pre-Occupied

  Offering: First Rice

  The Theft Outright

  1965 // Tiffany Midge // Standing Rock Sioux

  Teeth in the Wrong Places

  Night Caller

  1973 // Layli Long Soldier // Oglala Lakota

  38

  Dilate

  1973 // Sy Hoahwah // Yapaituka Comanche // Southern Arapaho

  Family Tree or Comanches and Cars Don’t Mix

  Typhoni

  1975 // M. L. Smoker // Assiniboine and Sioux

  Crosscurrent

  Casualties

  1976 // Trevino L. Brings Plenty // Minneconjou Lakota

  Ghost River

  Blizzard, South Dakota

  1976 // Heather Cahoon // Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

  Blonde

  1985 // Tanaya Winder // Duckwater Shoshone // Southern Ute // Pyramid Lake Paiute

  learning to say i love you

  the milky way escapes my mouth

  PACIFIC NORTHWEST, ALASKA, AND PACIFIC ISLANDS

  Poetry of the Pacific Northwest: The Arc of the Edifice by Cedar Sigo

  Poetry of Alaska by Diane L’xeis´ Benson

  Poetry of the Pacific by Brandy Nālani McDougall

  Kumulipo Wā ‘ekahi

  1786 // Chief Seattle // Suquamish // Duwamish

  Excerpts from a Speech by Chief Seattle, 1854

  1892 // Lincoln Blassi // St. Lawrence Island Yup´ik

  Prayer Song Asking for a Whale

  1918 // Mary TallMountain // Koyukon

  Good Grease

  There Is No Word for Goodbye

  1919 // John Dominis Holt // Kanaka Maoli

  Ka ‘Ili Pau

  1927 // Nora Marks Dauenhauer // Tlingit

  In Memory of Jeff David

  Letter to Nanao Sakaki

  How to make good baked salmon from the river

  1930 // Leialoha Perkins // Kanaka Maoli

  Plantation Non-Song

  1936 // Vince Wannassay // Umatilla

  Forgotten Coyote Stories

  1938 // Duane Niatum // Klallum

  Chief Leschi of the Nisqually

  Center Moon’s Little Brother

  The Art of Clay

  1941 // Fred Bigjim // Iñupiaq

  Spirit Moves

  1946 // Ed Edmo // Shoshone-Bannock

  Indian Education Blues

  1946 // Phillip William George // Nez Perce

  Battle Won Is Lost

  1946 // Imaikalani Kalahele // Kanaka Maoli

  Make Rope

  1947 // Michael McPherson // Kanaka Maoli

  Clouds, Trees & Ocean, North Kauai

  1947 // Mahealani Perez-Wendt // Kanaka Maoli

  Uluhaimalama

  1947 // Wayne Kaumualii Westlake // Kanaka Maoli

  Hawaiians Eat Fish

  1949 // Dana Naone Hall // Kanaka Maoli

  Hawai‘i ’89

  1949 // Andrew Hope III // Tlingit

  Spirit of Brotherhood

  1949 // Haunani-Kay Trask // Kanaka Maoli

  An Agony of Place

  Night Is a Sharkskin Drum

  Ko‘olauloa

  1950 // Earle Thompson // Yakima

  Mythology

  1950 // Dian Million // Tanana Athabascan

  The Housing Poem

  1951 // Gloria Bird // Spokane

  In Chimayo

  Images of Salmon and You

  1951 // Elizabeth “Sister Goodwin” Hope // Iñupiaq

  Piksinñaq

  1953 // Dan Taulapapa McMullin // Samoan

  The Doors of the Sea

  1953 // Joe Balaz // Kanaka Maoli

  Charlene

  1954 // Diane L’xeis´ Benson // Tlingit

  Ax Tl’aa

  Potlatch Ducks

  Grief’s Anguish

  1955 // Robert Davis Hoffman // Tlingit

  At the Door of the Native Studies Director

  1959 // Elizabeth Woody // Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

  Weaving

  Translation of Blood Quantum

  1966 // Sherman Alexie // Spokane

  The Summer of Black Widows

  The Powwow at the End of the World

  1968 // dg nanouk okpik // Iñupiaq

  The Fate of Inupiaq-like Kingfisher

  No Fishing on the Point

  1974 // Christy Passion // Kanaka Maoli

  Hear the Dogs Crying

  1976 // Brandy Nālani McDougall // Kanaka Maoli

  He Mele Aloha no ka Niu

  Ka ‘Ōlelo

  1977 // Joan Kane // Iñupiaq

  Variations on an Admonition

  Nunaqtigiit

  1978 // Lehua M. Taitano // CHamoru

  Letters from an Island

  1978 // Cedar Sigo // Suquamish

  A Small Secluded Valley

  After Self-Help

  1978 // Cathy Tagnak Rexford // Iñupiaq

  The Ecology of Subsistence

  1978 // Donovan Kūhiō Colleps // Kanaka Maoli

  Kissing the Opelu

  1980 // Craig Santos Perez // CHamoru

  ginen the micronesian kingfisher (i sihek)

  1981 // Ishmael Hope // Tlingit // Iñupiaq

  Canoe Launching into the Gaslit Sea

  1983 // Carrie Ayaġaduk Ojanen // Iñupiaq

  Fifth Saint, Sixth & Seventh

  1987 // Abigail Chabitnoy // Koniag // Tangirnaq

  Anatomy of a Wave

  1987 // Noʻu Revilla // Kanaka Maoli // Tahitian

  Smoke Screen

  1990 // Michael Wasson // Nimíipuu, Nez Perce

  A Poem for the háawtnin’ & héwlekipx [The Holy Ghost of You, the Space & Thin Air]

  1991 // Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio // Kanaka Maoli

  Kumulipo

  SOUTHWEST AND WEST

  “I’m here to make a poem” by Deborah A. Miranda

  1889 // Arsenius Chaleco // Yuma

  The Indian Requiem

  1866 // Carlos Montezuma // Yavapai–Apache

  Indian Office

  1904 // Don Jesús Yoilo’i // Yaqui

  Yaqui Deer Song

  1937 // Frank LaPena // Nomtipom Wintu

  The Universe Sings

  1939 // Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez // Chumash // Tohono O’odham // Pima

  The Dolphin Walking Stick

  1939 // Paula Gunn Allen // Laguna

  Laguna Ladies Luncheon

  1941 // Simon Ortiz // Acoma

  My Father’s Song

  Indian Guys at the Bar

  Selection from From Sand Creek

  1945 // Emerson Blackhorse Mitchell // Diné

  Miracle Hill

  1946 // Adrian C. Louis // Lovelock Paiute

  Skinology

  This Is the Time of Grasshoppers and All That I See Is Dying

  1947 // Linda Noel // Koyongk’awi Maidu

  Lesson in Fire

  1948 // Leslie Marmon Silko // Laguna

  Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer

  Long Time Ago

  1949 // Janice Gould // Koyongk’awi Maidu

  Earthquake Weather

  1952 // Anita Endrezze // Yaqui

  The Wall

  1952 // Ofelia Zepeda // Tohono O’odham

  Bury Me with a Band

  Ocean Power

  1952 // Laura Tohe // Diné

  When the Moon Died

  No Parole Today

  1953 // Luci Tapahonso // Diné

&nbs
p; Blue Horses Rush In

  Hills Brothers Coffee

  This Is How They Were Placed for Us

  1961 // Deborah A. Miranda // Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen // Chumash

  I Am Not a Witness

  Mesa Verde

  1962 // Rex Lee Jim // Diné

  Saad

  1962 // Margo Tamez // Lipan Apache

  My Mother Returns to Calaboz

  1968 // Esther G. Belin // Diné

  Assignment 44

  First Woman

  1970 // Hershman R. John // Diné

  A Strong Male Rain

  1972 // Crisosto Apache // Mescalero Apache // Chiricahua Apache // Diné

  Ndé’isdzán [“two of me”]

  1972 // Shaunna Oteka McCovey // Yurok // Karuk

  I Still Eat All of My Meals with a Mussel Shell

  1975 // Sherwin Bitsui // Diné

  from Flood Song

  from Dissolve

  The Caravan

  1976 // Orlando White // Diné

  To See Letters

  Empty Set

  1978 // Casandra López // Cahuilla/Tongva/Luiseño

  A New Language

  1978 // Julian Talamantez Brolaski // Mescalero and Lipan Apache

  Stonewall to Standing Rock

  1981 // Bojan Louis // Diné

  If Nothing, the Land

  1982 // Tacey M. Atsitty // Diné

  Sonnet for My Wrist

  Rain Scald

  1982 // Natalie Diaz // Mojave/Gila River

  It Was the Animals

  When My Brother Was an Aztec

  1984 // Tommy Pico // Kumeyaay

  from Nature Poem

  1991 // Jake Skeets // Diné

  Drunktown

  SOUTHEAST

  Renewal by Jennifer Elise Foerster

  1800s // Choctaw

  Evening Song 93

  1806 // Peter Perkins Pitchlynn // Choctaw

  Song of the Choctaw Girl

  1833 // Joshua Ross // Cherokee

  Sequoyah

  unknown // Lily Lee // Cherokee

  Literary Day Among the Birds

  1844 // John Gunter Lipe // Cherokee

  To Miss Vic

  unknown // James Harris Guy // Chickasaw

  The White Man Wants the Indian’s Home

  1860 // J. C. Duncan // Cherokee

  The Red Man’s Burden

  1861 // Evalyn Callahan Shaw // Mvskoke

  October

  1873 // Alexander Posey // Mvskoke

  To A Hummingbird

  Tulledega

  To Allot, or Not to Allot

  1877 // Samuel Sixkiller // Cherokee

  To Class ’95

  1892 // Stella LeFlore Carter // Chickasaw

  Inauguration Day

  1895 // Winnie Lewis Gravitt // Choctaw

  Sippokni Sia

  1897 // Ruth Margaret Muskrat Bronson // Cherokee