Dancing on the Rim of the World

AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY NORTHWEST NATIVE AMERICAN WRITING

Edited by ANDREA LERNER

Sun Tracks and The University of Arizona Press Tucson Contents

Acknowledgments xiii Preface xv

The Rim of the World An Introduction by Elizabeth Woody and Gloria Bird I

JIM BARNES One for Grand Ronde, Oregon n At the Burn on the Oregon Coast 12 Near Crater Lake 12 Contemporary Native American Poetry 13 GLORIA BIRD Bare Bone Winter 17 Nine Months Waiting 17 GLADYS CARDIFF Enoch Speaks of Omens 21 Pretty Bird 23 VICTOR CHARLO Flathead River Creation 27 Dixon Direction 27 Frog Creek Circle 28 The Milltown 28 CHRYSTOS 1 Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government 33 Meditation for Gloria Anzaldua 34 Dear Mr. President 35 Winter Evening 36 Out the Top I Go 36 In the Grief River 37 JO WHITEHORSE COCHRAN

c Halfbreed Girl in the City School 41

vii First of February, New Snow 42 Lover's Note 43 From My Grandmother 43 Nearing Winter 44 ROBERT DAVIS Soulcatcher 47 Leveling Grave Island 48 Into the Forest 49 Danger Point, Bainbridge Island 49 Drowning 51 DEBRA CECILLE EARLING Winter Keeps 55 Summer Humming 1946 56 Montana Burial Wind 57 Summer of Bees 60 ANITA ENDREZZE The Dieter's Daughter 65 I Was Born 66 The Light That Passes 67 October Morning Walk 68 The Map-Maker's Daughter 69 MAXINE FRANKLIN Skagit River Spirits 73 "Fields roll away .. 73 The Man Who Shot Ravens: Three Views 74 Wyoming Remembered 76 PHIL GEORGE An-Himh Hi-hi (White Winter) 79 Grand Entry 79 Northwest Natives: Where Have All Our People Gone? 80 Thumbing Guy 82 Ice Fishin' 83 JANET CAMPBELL HALE Ancestress 87 Autobiography in Fiction 88

4 viii • CONTENTS ROGER JACK An Indian Story 101 KING KUKA For the Old Men Then and Now 115 All Medicine 116 Untitled 117

JUNE MCGLASHAN Night After the Storm 121 Ever Have One of Those Days? 121 The Wait 122 Afraid 123 Devil's Night 123 A True Story 124 Seagull Egg Story 125 DIAN MILLION The Highway 129 Currency 132 Invocation 133 Bainbridge: she thinks of home 135 NANCY NEAL Julie-Anna 139 Christmas Poem 140 DUANE NIATUM Round Dance 143 Son, This Is What I Can Tell You 143 Yellow Pine Cliff Song 145 Old Tillicum 146 NILA NORTHSUN what the anthros don't hear 151 sometimes 152 hunter 153 ^anblechia 154 two worlds 155 SANDRA OSAWA The Makahs 159 0

CONTENTS • ix My Song 160 The Catch 160 To Igogaruk 161 Two Brothers 162 AGNES PRATT Empathy 165 So Quickly Came the Summer 165 Death Takes Only a Minute 166 Summer '76 166 May 1977 166 Reverie 167 RALPH SALISBURY To Take Life, To Kill 171 VICKIE SEARS The Orphanage Lost 181 Music Lady 183 GLEN SIMPSON Front Street 189 Yukon River 189 Stick Dance, Nulato 190 Overnight at Boundary House, 1984 190 Steamers on the Yukon, 1944 191 The Shaman's Words 191 R. A. SWANSON An Old Man Asks 195 Two Sisters 195 The Drums Touch 196 We Are All Warriors 197 The Wanderer's Prayer 197 "Whenthe spirit moves you ..198 MARY TALLMOUNTAIN Untitled Poem 201 Koyukons Heading Home 203 Gaal Comes Upriver 204 The Spy's Nest 205

X • CONTENTS 4 EARLE THOMPSON Vigil 209 Design in Blue 209 She Walks in New-Born Leaves 210 Afternoon Vigil 211 Spirit 211 Whale Song " 212 Dancer 213 GAIL TREMBLAY Coyote, Hanging in a Museum, Comes Off the Wall 217 The Returning 218 It Is Important 219 Light Shakes 220 VINCE WANNASSAY Murder on the Tri-Met 223 Observations 223 Broken Tradition 223 Treaties 224 Higher Power 225 JAMES WELCH Riding the Earthboy 40 229 Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat 229 The Only Bar in Dixon 230 Thanksgiving at Snake Butte 231 DAVID WHITED Damn Moon; She's a Hard One! 235 Blending Wind & Stones 235 Empty Rats in the Cupboard 237 "The Modockind of remind me of the Nez Perce ..237 RAMONA WILSON Passing Battlefields 241 Spokane Museum 242 December on the Coast 242 Second Goodbye for Sue 243

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CONTENTS • xi ELIZABETH WOODY In Memory of Crossing the Columbia 247 Hand into Stone 247 Of Steps to Drowning 248 Originating Fire 249 WILLIAM S. YELLOW ROBE, JR. The Burning of Uncle 253 Bibliography 261 Publication and Portrait Credits 265

xii • CONTENTS