The Voices of the Survivals
in the Poetry of
Contemporary Native-American Women
The contemporary Native-American poems written by women have been attracting more and more attention in recent years for several reasons. First, these poems are growing. Second, they are considered to be tremendous asset to American Literature. Third, they create and interactive understanding with the main stream literature. The cross-cultural understanding between a minor and the major groups leads to a better appreciation to the indigenous American Peoples, especially the experiences of the female poets whose poems have been published since the 1979's to the present.
Based on the above reasons, this paper intends to analyze some poems written by eight contemporary Native-American female poets, such as Paula Gunn Allen, Wendy Rose, Linda Hogan, Mary Tallmountain, Roberta Hill Whiteman, J. Ivalvoo Volbroth, Joy Harjo, and Leslie Silko. Their poems are worth studying because they are showing specific characteristics of the contemporary Native-American poems written by women. Al of these poets are expressing their ideas on preserving tradition in the written verses. Besides, their poems also reveal common themes on the experiences of the breeded native American women.
These significant themes relate to the paradoxes of searching for self-identity. This redefinition of self is experienced through the dichotomy of the past and present phenomena of the native-American women.
The first paradoxical phenomenon is shown through the traumatic historical event-the genocide of the ancestor of the contemporary native-American poets. This brutal holocaust is encountered with the process of Americanization. This paradox brings pain, suffering, and alienation, as well as depression to the contemporary native-American. Nevertheless, they are innovative and creative in expressing their wail. The native-American were dispossessed of much of their land in the early 17th century to the 19th century by the European settlement. Yet, they have survived and have succeeded in retaining their identity. This survival needs great appreciation as the native-American become the victims of genocide assented by Legters (in De Bryn and Jordan, 1995:348).
The genocide was conducted inhumanly. The members of the native-American were killed. Apart from this, they were harmed physically and mentally. Deliberately inflicting on the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in the whole was another effort to abolish the native-Americans. Forcibly transferring their children to another group was another form of the European inhuman deeds to the Native Americans. These young people were forcefully Americanized. Further generation were put into reservations (Legters, 1995:349).
The above inhuman assimilation leads the contemporary Native-American female poets to be in pain and suffer. Furthermore, the contemporary Native-American female poets lose their certainty on their identity. Paula Allen Gunn states that "The breed is an Indian who is not an Indian." "That so breeds are a bit of both worlds, and the consciousness of this makes them seem alien to Indians while making them feel alien among whites" (Lincoln, 1983:214-215). To regain their self-identity Wendy Rose pleads the Americans to admit the existence of indigenous oldest minor ethnic by remarking it in "American":
give me a color
The poem reclaim the existence of the Native American people shows unrestrained inner lament outlet as being a discarded ethnic. The speaker cannot forget the past lament that is caused by the broken treaties of "yesterday's promises." In fact, the survival of the Native-American People sublimates their traumatic historical events through paradoxical creativity, as it is seen in "becoming today's raining wail."
Furthermore, as breeded women, thought they reclaim their self-identity by referring their memories in the past, they face a contrary situation. As it is seen in Rose's "The day I was conceived," "so my origin is one":
of rocks and badgers; I sing
As half breed, the speaker is put into two different worlds; she dance the Pow Wow and yet at the same time she does not pray in traditional religious ritual. The paradoxical life of the breeded women is also seen from the last line of the poem. This line proves that the speaker grows as a Native-American among the white society. Because of this, alienation haunts her because she does not live with their original community.
Roberta Hill gains her identity by looking back the painful experience of the Native-American abolishment. In her poems, she sees the holocaust in Wounded Knee as "Bones flash like shells/in salt green grass." Further, she "Dreams of Rebirth" so that "some of us (Native-American) may wake ashamed" as native-Americans who were stereotyped as killers, uneducated people, and rapers. "Some will rise that clear morning like the swallows," instead, "If I (the speaker) could only full or change this slow hunger" of recognition "this midnight swallowed four hundred years." In fact, this is a dream that will not be fulfilled. To release this disappointment "We (Native-American) need to be purified by fury."
Instead of dreaming of rebirth, Mary Tall Mountain alludes the sweet memories of hunting "Good grease" in the traditional life of the Native-American. The activities of obtaining good grease reveal Native-American traditional values of gathering, sharing, pride, and victory as well as communal enjoyment. These values are shown in the following lines:
The hunters went out with guns
As darkness hunt at the river
The grease would warm us
Grease was beautiful
Brown hands shining with grease.
Remember the marrow
The good grease also provided secure feeling for the future food storage "when hungry winter howled." This good plan created peaceful life for the community in the Native-American tribal system. This positive image of the traditional live of the Native American is needed to be voiced to counter the negative image of the Native-American given by the white.
Nevertheless, the pain, suffering, anger, and alienation as well as depression caused by their efforts to redefine their self-identity can be recognized as they have experienced the assimilation to become "American." They cannot deny the advantages of Americanization. Because of this, they are able to give voices and make eternal their paradoxical situation of regaining their identity as the indigenous American people. Paula Gunn Allen need to contemplate this paradox of redefinition of self by being alone and optimistic to approach the future as it is depicted in the "Transformation."
Out in the light on sitting alone.
The other conflicting circumstance is the ginocratic tribal system encountered with the partriarchal system. The Native-America traditional beliefs inform us that the first people of the American continent comes from those first women-Itayatiku or Is'its'tsinako (Thought Women, White Buffalo Calf Woman or Mother Raven.) It is believed that the creation of he Native-American people intimately involved with the femine. This is shown in Silko's opening lines of Ceremony:
Ts'its'tsinako, Thought-Women,
Some anthropologists and sociologists, such as Maria Braveheart Jordan and Lemira de Bruin assert that "American Indian women were powerful figures in Indian culture and were instrumental in the creation of the Lakota and many other tribes (Jordan and De Bruin, 1995:354). Because of this belief, the traditional Native-American women were highly respected and honored. Furthermore, the traditional Native-American people applied the genocratic tribal system as it is noted by Paula Gunn Allen in her book The Sacred Hoop, as she states that "Traditional tribal life styles are more often genoratic than not, and they are never patriarchal" (Allen, 1992:2).
That is why Joy Harjo want to "Remember" the glorification of women as the creator of the Native-American people and the universe. This creator can be in the form of moon, sun, wind, or even water as they are shown in the following lines:
"Remember the moon, know who she is.
Paul Gunn Allen refers "He Nas Tye Woman" or water woman to describe the admiration on woman as /"the essence of you (Native-America). So, /"He na Tye (Woman) this is recognition and remembering"/"Gentle. Soft. Sure"/ flows through /"Lakes and rivers/in the universe. Water is an important source of life for human beings since/"After a lifetime of draught / water /finally cleanses the air"/"making everything new'/. Nevertheless, water is something very significant to every object either animate or inanimate in this universe because:
Water in Falls, misting and booming on the rocks
Tall pines in the mist, the deep craved caves.
Water thundering down long dry arroyos, the
Apart from being divine figures, the traditional Native-American women possess other important roles as tribal leaders, governmental heads, decision makers of the people, preserver of the tradition, keepers of stories, medicine people, gatherer of food. The last four roles are shown in the following lines:
Some make potteries
Potteries are important reservoirs either for food or for rain water. In a land of little rain, like Laguna, those potteries prove very useful cradle and carrier of rain and food to meet the people's daily and basic needs; as it is shown in the following lines:
Brown hand shaping
The high status and roles of the traditional Native-American women were undermined by the 16th-century Anglo European male. Jo Whitehorse Cochran states that the Anglo-European men insistence on only men being in power changed Native-American societies from matriarchal to patriarchal. Further she writes:
This first interaction and assumption was
To accomplish the above mission, some tactical endeavors were implemented by the Anglo-European male. The introduction of alcohol was an effort to intoxicate leaders to facilitate the signing of treaties done by the federal was practised with Indian men alone. Women were excluded. Those treaties were imposed upon lands of the Native-American that was considered as "mother earth." Smallpox infested blankets were traded deliberately as an attempt to abolish the population. Apart from those tactics, the federal policy of forced assimilation was enacted to erase the originality of the Native-American. All those tactics lead to devastate the role and status of the Native-American Women.
The devastation of the role and status of the Native-American women is so depressing. Their role as a mother who is regarded as a very honored and respected role was abolished by the forced assimilation. This brain-process was executed through the boarding schools designed by the Anglo-European society. Because of this, the Native-American younger generations have been sterilized form their own tradition, as is shown in "Laguna Ladies Luncheon."
Gramma says it's so depressing
In the boarding school the children are forcefully taught, halfstarved, dipped in sheepdip, shorn, redressed in the western way. Apart from these, they are renamed with Christian names, instead of their traditional names. They are not allowed to see their families for years. Giving half-rotted and barely digestible alien food is another effort to separate them from their original meal. Besides this, they are shamed and humiliated publicly, and forbidden to speak their own language, except English. Furthermore, they are indoctrinated to believe that their loved ones are naked, murderous, shameful savages, hardly on a par with the beast (Wiget, 1990:12).
The status of the traditional women are no longer paid attention to by men since these men are addicted to alcoholic drink and gambling. These addictions lead the women to be ignored by the men /"gambled everything, no matter how":
their sister pleaded
(Allen, 1982:128)
The lamentation of massacre on the ancestors, the abolishment of the roles of mother and the ignorance of the men effectuate the Native women in confusion. Further Allen in her poem "Suiding Indian Women" expresses her worries and sympathy towards the depressing condition of the native-American women by forwarding unanswered question:
How can you escape the ties
Instead of enjoying the light of the room, some Native-American women cannot stand any longer the effects of partriarchal system on them because the men:
... abandoned you (Native-American Women)
It is seen from the above extract that there are some Native-American women preferring to commit suicide than facing the devastation of their status and their role in gynocratic tribal system.
The last paradox analyzed in this paper relates to the meaning of nature to the contemporary native American women. The paradox is shown through the ecological interdependency that is contradicted to pollution. It is believed that nature is not only a place where the Native American live but it is also their "mother." The other objects of nature such as flora, fauna, and stars, stones, seas, lakes are considered as brothers and sisters. Tessie Naranjo, Chair person of the Native-American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act asserts that the Native Americans are:
... part of an organic world in which interrelationships at all levels of life are honored. Our relationship to the place where we live, which includes the land, water, sky mountains, rock, animals, and plants are tangible and extremely important (Naranjo, 1994:5)
This belief is clearly stated in Silko's poem written in the final part of her story "Lullaby." The short poem shows the attitude of the Native-Americans towards nature. Their relationship to the earth or nature is in term of a family. The earth is not something to be bought and sold, something to be used and mistreated. The earth is the source of their lives. They believe that the Earth is their Mother, and the rest of creation, all around, shares in that family relationship. Thus, the sun is the Father, while the animals are their brothers and sisters. The Native Americans see the role on this Earth, not as conquerors of nature, but as beings entrusted with a very special mission that is to maintain the natural balance, to take care of their mother, to be keepers of the Earth. So to the Native-American the earth does not belong to man. On the other hand, man belongs to the earth since:
The earth is your mother,
Sleep,
Sleep,
The brothers and sisters can also be animals such as humming birds, or coyotes. These can be seen in some poem in Silko's Ceremony:
Hummingbird looked at all the
The Hummingbird as a brother guides the Laguna People to survive during the draught. He advises the people to bring a pottery jar filled with some sweet corn flour and a little water and have ritual songs so that the corn will grow. Corn is very important plant for the Laguna people since this is the only plant that provides them sufficient food. As the Laguna area is a dry place, jars are also playing an important role in their life because the pottery is the place where they can keep water and dry seed corn during the rainy season.
Coyote is also another animal that is respected as clever protector and ludicrous creature as shown in J. Ivaloo Volburth's poem "Animal Thirst":
Molten Moon
Because of Coyote's smartness he is able to protect the Native-American from the attack of the other wild animals. Its cunningness leads its enemy to failure in ambushing them.
Nevertheless, the sacred earth is seized by the white. The earth is no longer respected as "mother" as it is littered by the /"broken beer bottles, cracked"/pow wow drumsticks'/ (Rose, 1992:175). Apart from this, the earth is also polluted by the smoke of the native-American women who are assimilated with the western, are influenced to manipulate nature by their use of cars, littering the earth after the Pow Wow dance, consuming the flora and fauna.
The paradoxes faced by the contemporary Native-American women reveal the continuance of the Native-American culture. This continuance results shift-from pessimistic to optimistic, from despair to hope as Linda Hodan asserts in "The Women Speaking": "We love/"that belong to us all"/ (Allen, 1992:172), including the bitter experience of holocaust.
Bibliography
Allen, Paula Gunn. 1985. The Sacred Hoop. Boston: Beacon Press.
Allen, Paula Gunn. 1982. Shadow Country. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Bruyn, Lemyra de and Jordan, M.B. 1985. So She May Walk in Balance. In Adteman, M.A. and Gloria Enguidanus (Eds.), Racism, Sexism Jeanne. New York: Haworth Press, Inc.
Cochran, Jo Whitehorse. 1991. Steadily, One-by-one Pulling Ourselves Out. In Jo Whitehorse Curchan Dubuque (Ed.), Changing Our Power. Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
Lincoln, Kenneth. 1985. Native American Rennaisance. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Tall Mountain, Mary. 1991. Good Grease. In Jenny Keyser (Ed.), Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing. Minnesota.
Naranjo, Tessie. 1994. Native People. Spring.
Rose, Wendy. 1994. America: The Day I was Conceived. In Paul Lanter (Ed.),The Heath Anthology of American Literature Vol II. Toronto: Heath, Co.
Silko, Mormon Leslie. 1979. Ceremony. New York: Penguin.
Silko, Mormon Leslie. 1994. Lullaby. In Paul Lanter (Ed.), The Heath Anthology of American Literature Vol. II. Toronto: Heath Co.
Whiteman, Roberta Hill. 1994. Dreams of Rebirth. In Paul Lanter (Ed.), The Heath Anthology of American Literature Vol. II. Toronto: Heath Co.
_____________
Indrani Dewi Anggraini and Tri Pramesti are lecturers at the Faculty of Letters, University of 17 Agustus 1945 in Surabaya, Indonesia.
to step in
a color for my
table a color to trash
my hand in
my inner swirls
are gray with yesterday's promises
becoming today's raining wail.
..................
but do not carve. My origin is one
of moondust and medicine;
I dance but do not pray
My origin is one of maize and mesquite; I grow but do not live.
at dawn.
We had no meat in the village,
no food for the tribe and the dogs.
No carribow in the cashes.
All day we waited.
At last!
we children saw them far away.
Yes! They were carrying carribow!
We jumped and shouted!
By the fires that night
we feasted.
The old one chucked,
sucking and smacking,
sopping the juices with sourdough bread.
when hungry winter howled.
oozing,
dripping and running down our chins.
We talk of it
when we see each other
far from home.
Sweet in the bowls?
We grabbed for them like candy
Good.
Gooooooooood
Good grease
(Tall Mountain in Keyses, 1991:71-72).
Sorting, straightening tangled skins.
(They're always trying lives in knots.)
I would like to be sleeping. Not
dreaming, just black out:
no one bumping, around in my brain-
no angels, no deaths, just quite
empty nests, just threads
lying straight and ordered and still.
outside the window I can see
sweet winter birds
Rise up from tall weeds
chattering. They fly
into sunrisen sky that holds them
in light.
(Allen, 1992: 1989)
is sitting in her room
and whatever she thinks about
appears.
She thought of her sisters
Naw' Ts'ity'I and Itcts'ity'I
and together they created the Universe
this world and four world below.
Thought-Women, the spide,
Named things and
as she named them
they appeared.
(Silko, 1997:1)
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundawn
and the giving away to night.
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 the wind. Remember her voice.
She knows the origin of this universe.
(Harjo in Lauter, 1994:3054)
below.
Water in rivulets. Gathering speed, drops joining
in headlong flight.
Unnamed rivers, flowing eternally underground,
unchanging, unchanged.
ancient causeways
of our faith. Draught over, at last. Carrying silt,
bits of broken glass, branches, pebbles, pieces,
of abandoned cars.
Parts of lost houses and discarded dreams. Downstream,
storms of water and we
deluged
singing
hair plastered to our aesthetic skulls,
waving wild fists at the bolts hurled at us from
above
teeth shimmering in the sheets of rain (the sheem)
eyes blinded with the torrents that fall from throughout them:
rain. The rain that makes us new.
That rain is you.
How did I wait so long to drink.
(Allen, 1992:123-124).
some weave and spin
remember
the woman /celebrate
webs and making
out of own flesh
earth
(Allen, 1992:112)
earth into earth
food for bodies
water for fields
they use
old pots
broken fragments
cast away
bits.
to make new
mixed with clay
it makes strong
bowls, jars
new
she brought
light
we remember this
as we make
the water bowls
(Allen, 1992:113)
to change the role and status of Native women for
over four hundred years in Native
country. It was to lead to the total
disappearance of Native women as the
policy and political leaders.
(Cochran, 1991:197).
all those Indian women
their children ever to be born
and they didn't know
they'd been sterilized
(Allen, 1982:126)
so the women couldn't nag
and they wouldn't even do
the necessary dancing
("Suiding Indian Women")
of brutal drunken father
gossipy sisters/aunts
scolding uncles/brothers
who want you to buy and
cook their food
you eat little yourself
you say. Why must
you in your strong toothed beauty
huddle helpless on the edge
laugh mocking your own terrible
pain, why are you things so rotten
that you can't see another world
around you like the lamps
soft and comforting
around this room?
(Allen, 1982:129)
defied the women
gambled and lost
they don't tell how
they put women
out of the sacrifice
except in your emblem
and death and
destruction
have followed them
the people lost
the beautiful first home
to the raging war golds
they have taken your name
(Allen, 1992:131)
she holds you
The sky is your father,
he protects you.
sleep.
Rainbow is your sister,
she loves you.
The winds are your brothers,
they sing to you.
sleep.
We are together always
We are together always
There never was a time
when this
was not so.
(Silko in Lauter, 1994:2738-2739).
skinny people
he felt sorry for them.
He said, "You need a messenger.
Listen, I'll tell you
what to do.
Bring a beautiful pottery jar
painted with parrots and big
flowers
Mix black mountain dirt
some sweet corn flour
and a little water.
Cover the jar with a new buckskin
new buckskin
and say this over the jar
and sing this softly
above the jar:
After four days
you will be alive
After four days
you will be alive
After four days
you will be alive.
(Silko, 1997:72).
drips down into the pine needles
Coyote tracks embers.
all along the embankment.
(Volborth in Houston, 1982:132).