Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community

Contents

Contents Foreword xi Introduction xiii Acknowledgments xx 1 Changing Women 3 kateri akiwenzie-damm Sleepwalker 5 Esther Belin First Woman 8 Kimberly Blaeser Shadow Sisters 10 Elizabeth Cook-Lynn A Woman’s Old Age 14 Pauline Danforth Piece Quilt: An Autobiography 15 Susan Deer Cloud Welcome to the Land of Ma’am 23 Nicole Ducheneaux Picking Indian Tea 26 Heid E. Erdrich Craving: First Month 28 She Dances 29 Allison Adelle Hedge Coke In the Fields 30 LeAnne Howe Choctalking on Other Realities 35 Linda Noel Stitch upon Stitch 50 Suzanne Rancourt Sipping 51 vii Margo Tamez One at a Time 54 Term 57 Limp Strings 59 Karenne Wood Red Hawk Woman 61 Evangeline Parsons Yazzie Vicks 63 2 Strong Hearts 65 Elizabeth Cook-Lynn A Cousin from California Shows Up at My House, the First Time in Thirty Years 67 Susan Deer Cloud Doe Season 68 Louise Erdrich The Shawl 70 Lorena Fuerta Anna Ghostdancer 78 Revah Mariah S. Gover Conjure 79 Long Division 80 Linda LeGarde Grover Chi-Ko-ko-koho and the Boarding School Prefect 82 Debra Haaland Mother’s Love 84 Inés Hernández-Avila Tough Audience 96 Brother’s Passing 97 Linda Noel Close to Bone 99 Laura Tohe In Dinétah 100 Karenne Wood In Memory of Shame 105 viii 3 New Age Pocahontas 107 Susan Deer Cloud Her Pocahontas 110 Heid E. Erdrich Butter Maiden and Maize Girl Survive Death Leap 112 Lise Erdrich Fleur-de-Lis 114 Lorena Fuerta Untitled 121 Terry Gomez Miracle 122 Linda LeGarde Grover Ikwe Ishpiming 133 To the Woman Who Just Bought a Set of Native American Spirituality Dream Interpretation Cards 134 Teresa Iyall-Santos Grandmother, Salish Mathematician 136 Sara Littlecrow-Russell Escape from the Rez on a Saturday Night 137 Marcie Rendon what’s an indian woman to do? 138 Annie Cecilia Smith The Frybread Queen 140 Love is Blind 142 Not Indian Enough 143 Kimberly Wensaut Alina in Kansas 145 Venaya Yazzie after powwow 147 ix 4 In the Arms of the Skies 151 kateri akiwenzie-damm the one who got away 153 Esther Belin Emergence 154 Vee F. Browne Smile 159 Diane Glancy The Great Spirit’s Wife 160 The Abandoned Wife Gives Herself to the Lord 161 Joy Harjo How to Get to the Planet Venus 162 Heather Harris Coyote Meets His Match 177 Husbands 178 Roberta Hill Elegy for Bobby 179 The Power of Crushed Leaves 181 Sara Littlecrow-Russell My Books & Your White Women 183 Is It Too Much to Ask? 184 Laura Tohe The Big Rectangle 186 Tsoodziã, Mountain to the South 187 Eulynda Toledo-Benalli Ashkii Nizhóní 189 Kimberly Wensaut the way around losing you 195 Contributors 197 Information on Tribes 219 Notes 226 x ...