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Introduction
- Minnesota Historical Society Press
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Introduction Writing the introduction to this anthology is like a naming ceremony. All the relatives have come together to celebrate this new thing that is just now going out into the world to make her voice—voices—known. We pause to wish her well on her way and to pray for her journey. The name has been dreamed and now we speak it: Sister Nations, as we remember how it came to be and thank all who came before it. This anthology got its start when my friend, poet and editor Jim Cihlar, suggested I edit a collection of Native American women’s writing. As we talked about the project, Jim wondered what point of coherence such an anthology might find and I immediately suggested a theme of community. I had thought about such a collection of writing for some time. Whenever anyone mentions the oral tradition and storytelling, I think of the stories Native American women tell among themselves. Not the traditional tales, although there are those, but the jokes, love life woes, gossip, and memories we all share. The greatest gift of being born into the Indian* world might be the friendship , the kinship, that comes from talking with Native women from many nations. If women writers from the hundreds of tribes and indigenous communities in North America had felt that blessing as well, then I knew we could have our book. So we began to gather voices that would explore the warmth, the fierceness, the cutting humor, and the tough love that is the heart of “Indian Country,” that is the Native American woman in her world, in our world. Of course there have been other collections of Native Women’s writing, and it is only right to say, humbly, that Rayna xiii * See notes for discussion of interchangeable use of Indian, Native American, Indi’n, and other terms. Green’s That’s What She Said and Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird’s Reinventing the Enemy’s Language are ancestors to whom Sister Nations owes debt. Still, the scarcity of books that have collected Native American women’s writing—what amounts to one major publication a decade for the past three—makes clear the need for an anthology that not only shows the variety and complexity of Native women’s roles in society, but that holds those writings closely together in a particular and relevant context. We sent out a call that asked for poems and prose that “celebrated , recorded, and explored aspects and traditions of Native American women’s communities.” We wanted work that would be of interest to both an audience familiar with such traditions and to one being introduced to the lives and ways of contemporary Native American women. Our hope was that Native American readers and students might recognize their own experience in some of the selections, and non-Native Americans might learn something about their neighbors and friends. I’m grateful that Jim Cihlar suggested I ask Laura Tohe, who had been his colleague at the University of Nebraska, to be my co-editor. Laura is Navajo, a published poet, and professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe. She brought an interest and knowledge of the Southwest tribes to complement my own interest in tribes of the northern Great Lakes and Plains areas. Together we began the long process of reading manuscripts by over a hundred writers who responded to our open call and by others whom we solicited ourselves. The experience of reading the words of so many Native American women and girls was humbling, moving, and a great honor. We made selections based on the theme of community as well as on the quality of the work we received. There were a great deal many more poems and stories we would have liked to have had the chance to publish, and we hope that we will be able to read those words in another book someday. xiv [3.133.131.168] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 21:40 GMT) Otoe-Missouria/Muscogee writer Annette Arkeketa sent us a manuscript of student writing that would make a powerful book on its own. One poem, “About Me,” written by then seven-year-old Whitney Hernandez, somehow reveals the spirit we saw in all the submissions: In the Kickapoo village We have friends and family. Sandra, Amanda, Armando, Frank, Ramon, Freddie Jr., Jose, Jose Jr., Irene my mom. Sometimes my grandpa and me play together like hide and seek...