“The Truth Is” By: Linda Hogan

The poem “The Truth Is” written by Linda Hogan manages to tell a story, her story of coming from a culture of mixed races or dual ancestry. With her father being a Chickasaw Indian and her mother of European descent, her internal struggle appears in this poem. While not easy to interpret, the voice of another person comes through when the writer uses the first person and later refers to herself by her own name “Linda, girl, I keep telling you” The use of the first person may also indicate that she suffers with her identity and who she is. Growing up in Oklahoma, and being a writer which focuses on feminist perspectives, and women’s lives and feelings, there is evidence of this dynamic in her writings for a constant hope that she should try to forget the past and live for today. Linda is clearly conflicted and this can be seen in the first stanza. She speaks often of hands and their lack of cooperation which points to her mixed race and an unsettled past. The left hand represents her father’s side of the Chickasaw tribe and her right hand represents that of her mother’s white background. The writer also speaks of falling in love too easily and sleeping in a twin bed which is a clear indication that she is single and alone. Along with her marital status, she writes as having no possessions or having empty pockets. However by the last line in the first verse we can see that having material possessions is not important to her as its love she seeks and not money. In the poem “The Truth Is” there appears to be no formal elements to Hogan’s writing as evidenced by her symbols, metaphors and imagery. A good example is the writings about her hands which symbolize her mixed heritage. The emptiness of her pockets reflects her current way of life.

“How to Make Good Baked Salmon from the River” by: Nora Dauenhauer This whimsical poem by Nora Dauenhauer describes how to make baked salmon from the river ‘then’ and ‘now’, meaning that you don’t necessarily need today’s technology or high end kitchen gadgets to get the same end result – a good meal. The comparisons are made throughout the stanzas switching back and forth from modern to the old Indian traditional way of how Salmon was cooked. One such verse “Have some cool water from the stream with the Salmon, in this case, cool water from the faucet will do.” The poem insinuates that all is not lost, just that cultures have shifted. On page 22 Nora’s reference to finding skunk cabbage by the stream to serve the salmon refers to the ‘natural’ way of serving so is in direct contrast to the society of today which is to serve it with plastic forks, paper plates and cups. Having been born and currently living in Alaska, Nora’s focused use of the salmon in this poem makes the reader easily make the connection between her geography and her meal of choice. Her tribe relied heavily on fish and other marine life in order to survive. She prefaces the poem by dedicating it to Simon Ortiz, also a Native American poet, proving that the tribes are close nit and share the same historical Indian traditions. Nora’s heritage comes alive again on page 23 when she reminds her readers ‘how to eat’ the salmon by using her native language “…glottalized alveolar fricative action as expressed in the Tlingit verb als’oos’.” Nora’s free versed poem shows little rhyme or rhythmic patterns in her stanzas. However it is wrought with assumptions. Verbal irony is seen in the form of sarcasm, but in a positive force. One such example is when she says “In this case, think about how nice the berries would have been after the salmon, but open a can of fruit cocktail instead.” Nora uses the repeated phrase “In this case.” She uses this phrase when prefacing any comparisons to the more modern way of cooking salmon, almost as if it’s the wrong way, but it will just have to do! Again, this is evidence of her sarcasm but with a positive, somewhat humorous delivery. “Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation” By: James Welch
In this narrative four stanza poem, Welch recounts today’s American Indian and how alcoholism has affected their current lifestyles. Harlem, Montana, a small town community in northern Montana borders the American Indian reservation of Fort Belknap. Welch, a descendent of the Blackfeet tribe, narrates the existing hardships and ways of life in this reservation town where “booze is law” and “money is free if you’re poor enough.” Welch’s reference of free money indicates that most are probably on welfare; hinting at the poverty level within the reservation of Harlem. He also points out that it’s not just this reservation town but the same quandaries exist in other Native American communities. To be rich one only has to have food as evidenced by the three ‘young bucks’ who shot the grocery up.
Dislike for the westerners comes through clearly in his third stanza on, “Disgusted, busted whites are running for office in this town.” Additionally, Welsh refers to the whites as liars when he writes of a photo that hangs in the New England Hotel lobby “shows them nicer than pie” a time when the whites pretended to like the Indians to get their land. We see a lot of anger in this poem by Welch and the struggle for the constituents of this town to survive even though it appears the community is falling apart. Comments like “Harlem on the rocks” and “your children are raggedy-assed but you go on, survive the bad food”.
One constant throughout the poem is the use of the pronoun ‘we’. “Help us, oh God, we’re rich” and “We need no runners here” indicates that the narrator of the poem still considers himself a part of this lifestyle that has become so severe for the people on the reservation. No matter how hard one tries, their ties to this community can’t be broken and they are affected by its influence. They wear the experience of poverty like a permanent tattoo. Welch uses free versed poetry assumptions to get his message across. Hidden messages found in the use of terms like “Redskin” and “Buck” indicates that he is putting his anger toward the Indians.

“The Creation According to Coyote” By: Simon Ortiz Simon Ortiz’s poem openly tells a story of the beginning and end of time through the eyes of a coyote. A reference to creation can be seen in his third stanza “It turned muddy then, and then green and brown things came without legs” appears to be a direct reference to the progression of things. The Coyote has a sense of humor in the telling of the story when he says “Coyote told me this, and he was b.s.-ing probably.” There is mention of the two sons being born that gives light to the fact that people are in the story, and not just animals. The poem discusses a long stretch of time by saying “they were young then later on they were older.”
According to the power point, as a child, Ortiz was immersed into the culture of the Acoma Pueblo Indians. Ortiz had an attention for the stories of his tribal elders and as such relates this recount told by a coyote who observes and analyzes Indian and modern American lifestyle. Western society is cast into the poem when the coyote refers to them as ‘poor creatures’.
Throughout this descriptive poem, Ortiz uses many adjectives to describe important events; words like, ‘exciting’, ‘colorful’, and ‘tragic’. He also repeats the phrase “all these, all these” which calls the reader to pay close attention to the points in these lines as they are most important. The traditions of storytelling, to which Ortiz grew up doing, is most evident in the last stanza “My uncle told me all this…always talking to the gods, the mountains, the stone all around.” In his mention of the twins Uyuyayeh and Masaweh who were the Keresan War Twins and were said to have many adventures while learning what life was about. Ortiz is highlighting the storytelling traditions of the elders by using parallelism comparing his own life journey to the journeys of the Twins.