Jess Kalinowski’s Reviews > When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry > Status Update

“A poem can be considered a sacred site, in which so much of our culture is stored, made into form to be acknowledged, given a place, even a place to hide. Many of our oldest and most traditional poems and songs contain maps of the stars, road maps, or precepts of spiritual knowledge.”

“There is no such thing as a Native American. Nor is there a Native American language. We call ourselves Muslims, Diné, or any of the other names of our tribal nations. In many cases these names often translate as ‘the people.’”

“At contact with European invaders we were estimated at over 112 million. By 1650 we were feeer than six million. Today we are one-half of one percent of the total population of the US. Imagine the African continent with one-half of one percent of indigenous Africans and you might understand the immensity of the American holocaust.”

“We are more than 573 federally recognized indigenous tribal nations in the mainland United Stayes; 231 are located in Alaska alone.”

“What is shared with all tribal nations in North America is the knowledge that the earth is a living being, and a belief in the power of language to create, to transform, and to establish change. Words are living beings.”

“those of us who read and listen to poetry want our ears and perception “bent” for unique insight and want to see how the impossible becomes momentarily possible in the arrangement of language and meaning.”

“The equating of written languages to literacy came with an oppositional world view, a belief set in place as a tool for genocide. Yet our indigenous nations prized and continue to value the word. The ability to speak in metaphor, to bring people together, to set them free in imagination, to train and to teach, was and is considered valuable, more useful than gold, oil, or anything else the newcomers craved.”