Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community

Kimberly Wensaut

Kimberly Wensaut Potawatomi Alina in Kansas Alina Alina, lovely Lina you are tucked away on the high Midwestern plains between the Mission of mercy— whose black robes wrote our ancestors’ names in their baptismal books quill strokes reshaping the Yellow Thunders into Johnsons the Red Clouds into Jacksons —and the wooden dance hall whose singers’ voices rise up the walls like prayerful smoke remembering the people’s names drawing them close to the circle Lina Lina, lilting Lina you dreamed that rust weary car would carry you across the country like carriage under moonlight like wagon under hot sun tired horses anxious to please your small courage which became immense and filled the sky Lina you found a home on the prairie and there you sit mending the holes in our memory moccasins worn thin by the long march from the shores of our Lake Michigan and weaving the dusty threads into colorful patterns that will surely last another century 145 Lina Lina, little sister I believe you have never told a lie for it is you who appears singing in the midst of my nightmares your purity blanketing my dream horizon like clouds fresh with rain bringing showers to the thirsty and trickles of laughter to forgotten spring holes 146 ...