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  • A Few Words on American Indian Authors
  • Duane Niatum (bio)

I

In introducing a few of our authors, it might help to clarify things by quoting N. Scott Momaday, one of our classic authors. He said that contemporary American Indian "poetry proceeds from an older tradition than that which we think of as literature in the strict sense. Its roots run down into the very origins of language." What Momaday is implying here is equally true about fiction. Storytelling, whether a poem, short story, or novel, goes just as deep into the inner depths of the psyche of the author as it does for the reader.

The discussion of these authors will be kept relatively brief and there will be no discussion of our earliest writers. This essay will focus on discussing what some scholars and critics have called a Native American Renaissance in literature and art. We can consider this as a reawakening that had its origins in the liberating 1960s, an era that inspired many artists and writers in America with different cultural roots.

It seems well to keep in mind that the most important element of art, no matter what the genre, is that it is the most accurate expression of the human spirit, even if it lies when it feels the necessity to do so.

II

We might remember a few themes of these authors: facing the smashed mirror of the self, the broken hoop to ancestors, the perfume of death in our dreams, the ambiguity and constant erosion of human relations, and each new life-storm that turns us completely around, so we find we are going in the opposite direction than which we intended.

These authors choose to resist believing the rhetoric of their white conquerors—that the continuity among generations of American Indians is broken and that our life and cultures are so fragmented as to soon vanish from the earth. First Nations people are determined to see that lie for what it is, and this fact is best revealed in the literature and art. The words that make up their poems, stories, and novels reflect the spirit of a common cultural heritage that has been continuous for twelve thousand years or more from Alaska to the tip of South America.

Perhaps it is best to begin the discussion with the poets, since many of them are multi-talented and will appear again in our discussion of the fiction. With that blossoming and reawakening of the 1960s and 1970s, the time of the poets who opened up the verbal gates to new discoveries and experiences, we can start the list with the elder generation: Jim Barnes, Choctaw (1933—), Joe Bruchac, Abenakie (1942—), Lance Henson, Cheyenne (1944—). Roberta Hill, Oneida (1947—), N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa (1934—), Simon J. Ortiz, Acoma (1941—), Anita Endrezze, Yaqui (1952—), Wendy Rose, Hopi (1948—), Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna Pueblo (1948—), James Welch, Blackfeet and Gros Ventre (1940-2003), Ray Young Bear, Sauk and Fox (1950—), Maurice Kenny, Mohawk (1929—), Linda Hogan, Chickasa (1947—), Joy Harjo, Creek (1951—), and Louise Erdrich, Chippewa (1955—).

Two of these poets also supported American Indian writers by publishing their work in magazines and presses. Joe Bruchac published Indian writers in his magazine, The Greenfield Review and in the Greenfield Review Press. Maurice Kenny also published Indian writers in his magazine, Contact/II and was editor for Strawberry Press and Many Moons Press.

III

As stated earlier in this essay, a number of the poets are amazing fiction writers as well. In fact, two of the best, James Welch and Leslie Marmon Silko quit writing poetry early in their careers to devote all their writing to fiction. Other poets also wrote fiction but never quit writing poetry. Linda Hogan wrote Mean Spirit (1990), a powerful piece, a novel of immense depth and range, and also writes short stories and essays. N. Scott Momaday, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn (1968), also creates stories, essays, and a memoir or two. Leslie Marmon Silko produced Ceremony (1977), a novel that captivates in such a way that you want to finish it before putting it down. Louise Erdrich wrote Love Medicine (1984), her first...

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