How We Became Human

I'm a big fan of poetry. And Native poetry has really caught my ear this semester. I was a huge fan of Qwo-Li's work. Most of Joy Harjo's book didn't really resonate with me however. I find her singing voice irritating. But I love her sax.

My favorite part of How We Became Human was the introduction, simply because of the stories. I love the dimly lit, smokey and dingy bar atmosphere. My family is all from England. I visit there a lot and I love the traditional pub feeling. It is home. I don't smoke, but I love the stuffy cigarette filled pub because it has soul. Her stories of the introduction are soulful. My favorite part of the intro was the story of the palm reader during her deep depressed period. There are a lot of unconventional spiritual beliefs that I hold personally, and this story truly resonated with me.

Few of her poems moved me. Some however, I found very interesting. I read through most of the book... and these are the ones I found myself coming back to.

I Am A Dangerous Woman: the final stanza is incredible. Words and knowledge are power. Harjo expresses this by the clicking of the gun inside her head.

I am a dangerous woman,

but the weapon is not visible.
Security will never find it.
They can't hear the clicking
of the gun inside my head.

The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window: The title alone had me expecting great things.

She thinks she will be set free.

I love the rhetoric here of "thinks". Also that she is not alone. How she also thinks back on memories and life. The people below. Finally the indecisiveness at the end left me hanging in a way I cannot explain. The entire poem I was reading to the end wondering what she was going to do. I didn't want a happily ever after and I didn't want her to jump either. Harjo's use of "or" let me take both.

Remember: My favorite poem of the entire book.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. he is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.

Upon reading this part I had to stop and read the entire thing over, and then again out loud to the woman I love (who was driving the car). The depth of line three left me stunned. The memory here is so true. Also that of earth whose skin we are is so true. They say you are what you eat... but it goes so much deeper than that. Also the colors of earth being representative of the different skins of people, and that brown is in its own line. We are earth.

Songs From The House Of Death, Or How To Make It Through To The End Of A Relationship: First I like the numbering of the sections and what they all are. This is one of the first poems of ending that fill most of the end of the book. We all leave things behind in this world. And the people we touch the greatest of all. "All Cities will be built and then destroyed."

Again, there wasn't much I took from How We Became Human, but the poems which I did love I cherish none the less.

WE ARE POWER

http://www.angelfire.com/psy/intheheart/TrudellJohn/tdell1.html

various excepts from a speech by John Trudell in THE INDIGENOUS VOICE, Vol.2.

I enjoyed reading this. I have always reacted towards the oppressors with anger but reading this has caused me to step back and evaluate the ways in which I choose to stand against the "enemy". Reading the comments near the bottom has also caused me to think about the use of the word enemy and its dehumanizing/demonizing nature. Trudell's idea of acting with love toward the people opposed to hate toward the "enemy" is interesting, but I'm not sure whether I have enough restraint for that or not.

The page is titled Resistance Consciousness. I think the title is very adequate. It suggest being aware of how we resist. It is very important to be cognitive and not act irrationally.

"This former chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM) learned that he has 17 thousand pages in his f.b.i. file when he was able to get 60 of them from the Freedom of Information Act. He was a main spokesperson in the American Indian take-over at Alcatraz Island, and led at least one march protesting f.b.i. tactics against Indian people in the 1970s (during the height of the f.b.i.'s illegal "Counter Intelligence Program" aka "COINTELPRO"). During the angry protest, Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of f.b.i. Headquarters. 12 hours later a fire killed his wife, his three children and his wife's mother. The f.b.i., which has jurisdiction on federally mandated Indian reservations, declined to investigate."

really sets the page on fire right from the start.

We Shall Remain

Episode one of We Shall Remain was so moving. I loved every second of it. From the friendship of the Wampanoag chief Massasoit and New England leader to the betrayal of the English men of the Indians. I loved how the acting was done. Most documentary/story films are cheaply done but We Shall Remain was a fantastic production. My favorite quote was the son of Massasoit telling the English that they should be shown the same respect that Wawpanoag showed the English when he whites were the weak people now that the Wawpanoag were strong. Another of my favorite uses of rhetoric was when they stated the fact that modern interpretation of Thanksgiving is a myth. I can't wait for episode II.

Flowing silk skirts

Our discussion Wednesday was inspiring. Listening to Qwo-Li read his poems opened my heart and gave me such a deep understanding of those specific poems. The images were so powerful. Also hearing the story of Qwo-Li turning to that man and saying "Dude! I'm a cross-dresser" was awesome. I want to wear skirts now. I'll look into that...

From the heavy debris of loss
we emerge

feast on the memory of your first laughter
sing an honor song
to the slow heart beat
of your final breaths

weary from wailing

Hold up hot fierce
blueness of Colorado sky

Listen for your breath
caught in branches

where sun stains sky
crimson and gold

What is breath
if it cannot hurl storms across the continent

What are words
that can't block blows

feathered smoke rising from sage

braid thunder through your hair

<3

Walking With Ghosts

I put my headphones in and play Pink Floyd's The Division Bell. Great reading music. And my roommate is watching Braveheart, which is distracting me. These poems are short and spaced very broadly apart. I'll be finished with this book soon is my initial thought as I finish the first 10 pages. I loved the Beginning Cherokee. The lessons were very powerful. Map of the Americas was very powerful as well. I like the formatting of north and south America on the second page. My other favorites were Ghost Dances and Wild Indians. I'm not sure which of those two was my favorite of the entire collection, but I'd put them on the top. However the most moving poem of the book for me was A Long Story Made Short. The most powerful thing I have ever read regarding homosexuality. I want to share this poem with everyone. As I came to the last 5 pages or so my CD finished. The desire to listen to Queen's greatest hits album was quite strong.

A friend of mine had written a note on Facebook less than a week ago asking for recommendations of books to read over the summer. Halfway through reading Walking With Ghosts I put it on there.

I checked this book out from Milner, though they didn't have it in stock so I had it brought in from UofI in Chicago. I will be purchasing this book along with Flight and Grapes of Wrath first thing this summer.

Thanks for sharing this book with us.

Rape of the Land

Wow...

This excerpt left me speechless.

Some real shit. I don't know what to even write about it. The work speaks for itself. I had heard of the government testing nuclear weapons on their own people in the Pacific islands, but the graphic truth written here blows me away. And the ignorance of some people's take on environmentalism and population control is way f**ked up. So the Constitution reads that in the case of a corrupt government it is the peoples right to overthrow its own government. Anyone marching to D.C with me? I really don't know what else to say about this piece. The violence perpetuated by our government is sick. So many human rights are violated and the justifications are almost worse.

I need to get out of this country and go home to Canada or England.

Smith and Laduke

Andrea Smith's article on Indigenous Feminism is quite different than the views presented in the Sacred Hoop on gynocentricism. Smith opens by outright rejecting the possibility that American Indian women's feminism is less valid than white feminism. I agree because the same issues that face women of any other color, also face Native women. But they also have more problems to deal with due to their situation post-colonialism. I only partial agree with her statement that "This allegiance to “America” or “Canada” legitimizes the genocide and colonization of Native peoples upon which these nation-states are founded. By making anti-colonial struggle central to feminist politics, Native women place in question the appropriate form of governance for the world in general." One can be loyal to the Country they live in while still fighting to make it a better place, despite the apparent corruptions within it. Her only similarity to the views in Sacred Hoop are that native cultures were primarily matriarchal pre-colonialization. I also agree that native feminism should be accepted by people other than native women, under the logic that it will take a great many people to win the revolution.

Laduke's information on the pollution of their lands is jaw dropping. The amount of chemicals being produced by the U.S is stunning. And that American media has the nerve to point the finger at China is embarrassing. The effects that the Mohawk are receiving are terrible. And the fact that companies like GM have to nerve to cover it up is terrible. Though, the fact that Obama has taken the initiative to ask the CEO of GM to step down shows that we are making some small progress. The steps that it would take to reverse all these pollutions will be difficult, and the people effected will never fully recover. The only thing our government can do is try to learn and make much harder regulations.