WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:04.260 align:middle line:90% My name is Larry Evers. 00:00:04.260 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:90% I'm from the English department. 00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:10.860 align:middle line:84% Ofelia Zepeda and I had an idea to do this kind of a series 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:12.990 align:middle line:84% about a year ago and started talking about it 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:17.100 align:middle line:84% with various people, and we were fortunate to convince 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% Rudy Troike who's the acting head of the English department 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:22.560 align:middle line:84% and Jay Stauss, American Indian Studies, 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:25.500 align:middle line:84% to support us in organizing this. 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:29.550 align:middle line:84% Subsequently, a number of other people 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:31.350 align:middle line:84% helped us out as co-sponsors and I'd 00:00:31.350 --> 00:00:35.820 align:middle line:84% like to mention them, the University of Arizona Poetry 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:39.360 align:middle line:84% Center, the Center for Creative Photography, 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:42.090 align:middle line:84% the University of Arizona Library, 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:44.820 align:middle line:84% and the Inter Tribal Graduate Council. 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:48.090 align:middle line:84% This is one in a series of readings. 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:51.450 align:middle line:84% I won't go through the names of the other readers 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:52.190 align:middle line:90% in this series. 00:00:52.190 --> 00:00:53.370 align:middle line:90% You have a brochure. 00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:57.180 align:middle line:84% We still have brochures left out in the lobby. 00:00:57.180 --> 00:00:58.530 align:middle line:90% So please pick one up. 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:02.640 align:middle line:84% There is one change that I need to mention tonight. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.310 align:middle line:84% And Victor Masayesva gave me a call 00:01:05.310 --> 00:01:08.550 align:middle line:84% to tell me that he's going to be in Ecuador 00:01:08.550 --> 00:01:12.930 align:middle line:84% and won't be able to be here for his scheduled reading 00:01:12.930 --> 00:01:16.420 align:middle line:84% so on February 24 that's the bad news. 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:18.420 align:middle line:84% The good news, and it's a very good news indeed, 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:23.940 align:middle line:84% is that Ofelia Zepeda has agreed to give a reading that night. 00:01:23.940 --> 00:01:24.990 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I agree. 00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:28.360 align:middle line:90% 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:30.790 align:middle line:84% What we plan to do about this room situation, 00:01:30.790 --> 00:01:33.400 align:middle line:84% let me just take a minute to give you 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:39.070 align:middle line:84% the story of my week on the phone which brings us back 00:01:39.070 --> 00:01:40.540 align:middle line:90% to this space. 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:42.880 align:middle line:84% We called all over campus and are 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:51.280 align:middle line:84% unable to find a larger suitable room for us before the week 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:54.520 align:middle line:90% after spring break. 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:57.910 align:middle line:84% So of course, we'll continue to look 00:01:57.910 --> 00:02:00.280 align:middle line:84% and we have been talking with the community 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.750 align:middle line:84% center and the Temple of Music and Art and so forth, 00:02:02.750 --> 00:02:04.930 align:middle line:90% but that raises other issues. 00:02:04.930 --> 00:02:09.520 align:middle line:84% We've been able to pull this off with a lot of goodwill, 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.250 align:middle line:84% a lot of hard work and not very much money. 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:14.230 align:middle line:84% And if we have to move downtown, we're 00:02:14.230 --> 00:02:16.610 align:middle line:84% going to need money that we don't have right now. 00:02:16.610 --> 00:02:19.450 align:middle line:84% So we'll continue to work on this problem, 00:02:19.450 --> 00:02:21.580 align:middle line:84% but probably what we're looking at 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:25.900 align:middle line:84% is a situation where we will move over 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:30.440 align:middle line:84% to the Student Union ballroom the week after spring break. 00:02:30.440 --> 00:02:32.080 align:middle line:84% This is what we expect to happen. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.420 align:middle line:90% Stay tuned next week. 00:02:34.420 --> 00:02:38.320 align:middle line:84% We expect to move over there for the Jim Welch reading, 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:40.810 align:middle line:84% for the Scott Momaday reading and for the Leslie 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:46.580 align:middle line:84% Silko reading at the very least and then see where we are. 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:47.710 align:middle line:90% That's the plan. 00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:54.100 align:middle line:84% We managed to get a live monitor hooked up out in the lobby. 00:02:54.100 --> 00:02:56.030 align:middle line:84% I realize for those of you who are out there, 00:02:56.030 --> 00:03:01.690 align:middle line:84% it's a gesture, but a gesture that we tried to do something. 00:03:01.690 --> 00:03:07.160 align:middle line:84% We have a reception that follows this. 00:03:07.160 --> 00:03:10.040 align:middle line:84% Last week we ran out of punch in about five minutes. 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:16.190 align:middle line:84% So we quadrupled our order of lemonade. 00:03:16.190 --> 00:03:19.460 align:middle line:84% So if you sprint out to the lobby after the reading, 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:21.440 align:middle line:84% you might be able to get a little drink. 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:25.100 align:middle line:90% 00:03:25.100 --> 00:03:27.170 align:middle line:90% Please don't sprint. 00:03:27.170 --> 00:03:30.620 align:middle line:84% What I'd like to do now is turn the mic over 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:35.105 align:middle line:84% to Ernie who is going to say a few words about the Inter 00:03:35.105 --> 00:03:37.140 align:middle line:84% Tribal Graduate Student Organization. 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:40.180 align:middle line:90% 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:40.680 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:42.480 align:middle line:84% This is really just a commercial and I 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:45.370 align:middle line:84% ain't going to take a whole lot of your time. 00:03:45.370 --> 00:03:48.570 align:middle line:84% We're really proud to be the co-sponsors 00:03:48.570 --> 00:03:53.710 align:middle line:84% of this poetry and politics, poetics and politics 00:03:53.710 --> 00:03:56.530 align:middle line:90% session here. 00:03:56.530 --> 00:03:58.000 align:middle line:84% Larry was telling you we ain't got 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.510 align:middle line:84% no money the man goes for the whole campus for everybody. 00:04:02.510 --> 00:04:05.920 align:middle line:84% So in order to cover our end of the bargain 00:04:05.920 --> 00:04:08.830 align:middle line:84% when we decided we'd co-sponsor this thing, 00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:11.290 align:middle line:84% they gave us permission to sell stuff. 00:04:11.290 --> 00:04:14.560 align:middle line:90% So see this t-shirt. 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:16.600 align:middle line:84% All of you walked by him out front 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:21.040 align:middle line:84% there don't forget to pick one up on your way out. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:22.900 align:middle line:90% It would be a great help. 00:04:22.900 --> 00:04:25.240 align:middle line:90% And yeah, pay for it. 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:29.110 align:middle line:90% 00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:31.120 align:middle line:84% And if we can make this thing work, 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:34.245 align:middle line:84% we can do it again next semester and the semester after 00:04:34.245 --> 00:04:35.620 align:middle line:84% and the semester after and that's 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:37.330 align:middle line:90% what we'd like to do here. 00:04:37.330 --> 00:04:42.040 align:middle line:84% Also speaking of no money, as you can see, 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:46.360 align:middle line:84% we're recording these sessions and we keep the tapes 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:48.580 align:middle line:84% over at the American Indian Graduate Center 00:04:48.580 --> 00:04:50.930 align:middle line:90% over on 7th Street. 00:04:50.930 --> 00:04:51.860 align:middle line:90% We got a problem. 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:57.320 align:middle line:84% We don't have a VCR or a TV, and we're really 00:04:57.320 --> 00:05:01.250 align:middle line:84% afraid to let anybody borrow the tapes. 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:02.750 align:middle line:84% How many know about Indian history? 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:05.510 align:middle line:90% 00:05:05.510 --> 00:05:07.820 align:middle line:84% Yeah, well, you know what happens when we let 00:05:07.820 --> 00:05:09.830 align:middle line:90% people borrow things from us. 00:05:09.830 --> 00:05:13.260 align:middle line:90% 00:05:13.260 --> 00:05:15.780 align:middle line:84% Traditionally, we hang on to that stuff. 00:05:15.780 --> 00:05:19.490 align:middle line:84% So if anybody's got a VCR and a TV 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:21.260 align:middle line:84% they'd like to unload so we can all 00:05:21.260 --> 00:05:24.065 align:middle line:84% look at these events, especially the folks 00:05:24.065 --> 00:05:25.940 align:middle line:84% out in the hallway that don't get to come in. 00:05:25.940 --> 00:05:27.450 align:middle line:90% We'd appreciate it. 00:05:27.450 --> 00:05:28.490 align:middle line:90% Thanks for your time. 00:05:28.490 --> 00:05:34.882 align:middle line:90% 00:05:34.882 --> 00:05:36.840 align:middle line:84% Proceeds from the sale of the poster by the way 00:05:36.840 --> 00:05:40.800 align:middle line:84% go to the Inter Tribal Graduate Organization. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:43.440 align:middle line:84% It's one other commercial that I need to do. 00:05:43.440 --> 00:05:46.470 align:middle line:84% I promised all the good bookstores around town 00:05:46.470 --> 00:05:48.370 align:middle line:90% that I'd give them a plug. 00:05:48.370 --> 00:05:51.000 align:middle line:84% We attempted to arrange to have books for sale 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:52.020 align:middle line:90% out in the lobby. 00:05:52.020 --> 00:05:54.750 align:middle line:84% So far, we haven't been able to work that one out either. 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:59.880 align:middle line:84% But ASUA bookstore, Coyote's Voice, Dave Laird's, Books West 00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:03.510 align:middle line:84% Southwest, Haunted, most of the good bookstores in Tucson 00:06:03.510 --> 00:06:06.120 align:middle line:84% are making a special effort to handle works 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:10.380 align:middle line:84% by all of the writers in our series, including Simon Ortiz. 00:06:10.380 --> 00:06:13.650 align:middle line:84% So I encourage you to get over to one of them 00:06:13.650 --> 00:06:17.880 align:middle line:84% and buy some books to support the writers. 00:06:17.880 --> 00:06:20.340 align:middle line:84% Simon Ortiz comes to us from his home 00:06:20.340 --> 00:06:22.500 align:middle line:90% at Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:26.670 align:middle line:84% He's the author of many books, Going for The Rain, 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:29.490 align:middle line:84% A Good Journey, Fight Back for the Sake of the People, 00:06:29.490 --> 00:06:32.730 align:middle line:84% For the sake of the Land, from Sand Creek which 00:06:32.730 --> 00:06:36.930 align:middle line:84% is still barely in print, there are few copies around, 00:06:36.930 --> 00:06:38.220 align:middle line:90% and others. 00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:41.610 align:middle line:84% The University of Arizona press and the Sun Track series 00:06:41.610 --> 00:06:45.750 align:middle line:84% will be reissuing in a single volume edition 00:06:45.750 --> 00:06:48.690 align:middle line:84% 3 of his books with a new introduction this-- 00:06:48.690 --> 00:06:51.060 align:middle line:84% we hope this summer, early summer 00:06:51.060 --> 00:06:54.960 align:middle line:84% under the title Woven Stone, so please watch for them. 00:06:54.960 --> 00:06:59.490 align:middle line:84% Simon has recently taken to writing film scripts 00:06:59.490 --> 00:07:04.210 align:middle line:84% and has finished apparently just this week, 00:07:04.210 --> 00:07:08.160 align:middle line:84% this month a piece for an upcoming PBS series 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.970 align:middle line:90% titled Surviving Colombia. 00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:14.910 align:middle line:84% He is an active versatile writer. 00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:22.050 align:middle line:84% Jim Harrison recently wrote about Simon's work in his book 00:07:22.050 --> 00:07:23.520 align:middle line:90% Just Before Dark. 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:26.460 align:middle line:84% He says this about Simon's poetry, 00:07:26.460 --> 00:07:29.400 align:middle line:84% "It is the kind of poetry that reaffirms your decision 00:07:29.400 --> 00:07:30.990 align:middle line:90% to stay alive." 00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:31.860 align:middle line:90% Simon Ortiz. 00:07:31.860 --> 00:08:17.075 align:middle line:90% 00:08:17.075 --> 00:08:17.575 align:middle line:90% Guw'aadzi. 00:08:17.575 --> 00:08:21.580 align:middle line:90% 00:08:21.580 --> 00:08:26.050 align:middle line:84% Hello, and I hope everybody is well. 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:31.270 align:middle line:84% I'm glad to be here to be a part of your evening, 00:08:31.270 --> 00:08:34.080 align:middle line:90% to be a part of this day. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:39.059 align:middle line:84% Thank you for making me feel very welcome. 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:43.500 align:middle line:84% And especially I want to thank the American Indian studies 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:46.410 align:middle line:84% program at the University of Arizona 00:08:46.410 --> 00:08:48.960 align:middle line:84% as well as the Department of English 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:54.870 align:middle line:84% and the Inter Tribal Graduate Council and the American Indian 00:08:54.870 --> 00:08:58.730 align:middle line:90% Center here on campus. 00:08:58.730 --> 00:09:07.900 align:middle line:84% It makes me feel very good to know that people want 00:09:07.900 --> 00:09:15.520 align:middle line:84% to listen to the voice of Indian people, Native American people. 00:09:15.520 --> 00:09:20.830 align:middle line:84% To me it means wanting to and a willingness 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:28.160 align:middle line:84% to listen to the land, culture, and community, the spirit 00:09:28.160 --> 00:09:35.560 align:middle line:84% of this land, the spirit of the Mother Earth 00:09:35.560 --> 00:09:40.095 align:middle line:84% and the creators of the life here. 00:09:40.095 --> 00:09:43.460 align:middle line:90% 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:49.790 align:middle line:84% I will speak poetry that I've been fortunate enough 00:09:49.790 --> 00:09:59.800 align:middle line:84% to write not because I have the ability to use the words, 00:09:59.800 --> 00:10:04.790 align:middle line:84% but because of the power of poetry 00:10:04.790 --> 00:10:12.010 align:middle line:84% that comes to us from out of the Earth, from the wind, 00:10:12.010 --> 00:10:16.180 align:middle line:84% from the sky, from all the directions of North, West, 00:10:16.180 --> 00:10:22.830 align:middle line:84% South, East, above, and from below and all around. 00:10:22.830 --> 00:10:28.320 align:middle line:84% Poetry is the voice that we all speak. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.990 align:middle line:90% 00:10:30.990 --> 00:10:40.780 align:middle line:84% I believe that American Indian people in this hemisphere 00:10:40.780 --> 00:10:47.820 align:middle line:84% are truly wanting to have that voice heard 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:57.710 align:middle line:84% and be shared with a sense of responsibility and relationship 00:10:57.710 --> 00:11:01.040 align:middle line:90% for what we all have. 00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:05.180 align:middle line:84% And what we all have is a beautiful life 00:11:05.180 --> 00:11:09.230 align:middle line:84% that is given to us from the creators, 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:10.640 align:middle line:90% from the Mother Earth. 00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:13.640 align:middle line:90% 00:11:13.640 --> 00:11:18.610 align:middle line:84% Really it's not just this hemisphere, but from the source 00:11:18.610 --> 00:11:21.970 align:middle line:84% that the Earth is that is all around. 00:11:21.970 --> 00:11:23.830 align:middle line:90% Poetry comes from that. 00:11:23.830 --> 00:11:27.700 align:middle line:90% 00:11:27.700 --> 00:11:33.410 align:middle line:84% I'm from Ako, Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. 00:11:33.410 --> 00:11:40.970 align:middle line:84% What I grew up with I think is a sense of the spirit 00:11:40.970 --> 00:11:43.055 align:middle line:90% that Ako is. 00:11:43.055 --> 00:11:45.620 align:middle line:90% 00:11:45.620 --> 00:11:50.920 align:middle line:84% Ako is not only a place on the map, 00:11:50.920 --> 00:11:58.300 align:middle line:84% but it truly is a place within the human soul, the spirit. 00:11:58.300 --> 00:12:01.180 align:middle line:90% 00:12:01.180 --> 00:12:06.010 align:middle line:84% And of course what is truly within the Acoma soul 00:12:06.010 --> 00:12:11.490 align:middle line:84% is also truly within the spirit of everyone. 00:12:11.490 --> 00:12:18.590 align:middle line:84% My poetry, the stories come from that source. 00:12:18.590 --> 00:12:20.660 align:middle line:84% It's true that some of that voice 00:12:20.660 --> 00:12:30.660 align:middle line:84% has its source in a traditional sense from ancient stories, 00:12:30.660 --> 00:12:37.060 align:middle line:84% but also it has its source in the contemporary stories 00:12:37.060 --> 00:12:42.880 align:middle line:84% that people are experiencing today. 00:12:42.880 --> 00:12:49.100 align:middle line:84% I want to start off my reading with a beginning from Surviving 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:53.660 align:middle line:84% Columbus, living the Pueblo story of land, culture, 00:12:53.660 --> 00:12:54.980 align:middle line:90% and community. 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:57.850 align:middle line:90% 00:12:57.850 --> 00:13:03.770 align:middle line:84% It's a TV documentary about the Pueblo Indian people 00:13:03.770 --> 00:13:07.300 align:middle line:90% in the Southwest. 00:13:07.300 --> 00:13:09.750 align:middle line:90% Ako is one of the 19 Pueblos. 00:13:09.750 --> 00:13:12.680 align:middle line:90% 00:13:12.680 --> 00:13:18.840 align:middle line:84% The story includes the Hopi of Arizona, 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:24.210 align:middle line:84% and it's a story that is not only about the 500 00:13:24.210 --> 00:13:33.140 align:middle line:84% years of colonization, 500 years of in quotes "discovery," 00:13:33.140 --> 00:13:41.050 align:middle line:84% but it's also a story that goes back to the origins of time 00:13:41.050 --> 00:13:44.830 align:middle line:84% as we see it of time and place as we 00:13:44.830 --> 00:13:48.430 align:middle line:84% the Pueblo of the Southwest see it. 00:13:48.430 --> 00:13:52.080 align:middle line:90% 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:55.140 align:middle line:90% Surviving Columbus. 00:13:55.140 --> 00:14:01.040 align:middle line:84% Telling a story is always more than just telling a story. 00:14:01.040 --> 00:14:06.190 align:middle line:84% It is actually enacting the movement, power, significance, 00:14:06.190 --> 00:14:08.100 align:middle line:90% and quality of experience. 00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:11.080 align:middle line:90% 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:16.000 align:middle line:84% One morning recently I was telling my nephew about an old 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:22.570 align:middle line:84% Acoma homesite, a ruin as such places are too commonly called, 00:14:22.570 --> 00:14:28.330 align:middle line:84% a couple of miles south of where I live in McCartys, 00:14:28.330 --> 00:14:32.770 align:middle line:84% near where he and his wife and children want to ask for land 00:14:32.770 --> 00:14:36.730 align:middle line:84% from the antelope elders, the [? kəətsi ?].. 00:14:36.730 --> 00:14:40.690 align:middle line:84% Not too far from there just below [SPEAKING ACOMA],, 00:14:40.690 --> 00:14:44.410 align:middle line:84% that hill up to it, there's an old place 00:14:44.410 --> 00:14:48.760 align:middle line:90% right there [SPEAKING ACOMA]. 00:14:48.760 --> 00:14:51.250 align:middle line:90% There's an old place there. 00:14:51.250 --> 00:14:56.020 align:middle line:84% When I was just a boy, this small, your grandpa 00:14:56.020 --> 00:15:02.110 align:middle line:84% and grandma, me, and others would go in a wagon up to Acoma 00:15:02.110 --> 00:15:07.130 align:middle line:84% to our corn and bean fields to take care of them. 00:15:07.130 --> 00:15:11.980 align:middle line:84% And every time we went by the old place, grandma, 00:15:11.980 --> 00:15:17.120 align:middle line:84% my mother would say that's where the [SPEAKING ACOMA] lives. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:20.260 align:middle line:90% 00:15:20.260 --> 00:15:25.000 align:middle line:84% And we had to give cornmeal to the old salt woman who 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.640 align:middle line:90% lives at that old place. 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:32.920 align:middle line:84% You give her a corn meal, she would say, and ask her 00:15:32.920 --> 00:15:35.740 align:middle line:90% to not the wind blows so hard. 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:37.390 align:middle line:90% That's what she do. 00:15:37.390 --> 00:15:43.450 align:middle line:84% She's the one who takes care of the wind, grandma would say. 00:15:43.450 --> 00:15:47.080 align:middle line:84% As I told that to my nephew Oo, I 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:51.520 align:middle line:84% remembered that boy who was that small writing 00:15:51.520 --> 00:15:55.410 align:middle line:90% in the back of a wagon. 00:15:55.410 --> 00:16:01.380 align:middle line:84% Telling that story is renewing that experience back then 00:16:01.380 --> 00:16:07.080 align:middle line:84% and also sharing the experience of recalling 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:12.330 align:middle line:84% that time for my nephew who is looking for a homesite 00:16:12.330 --> 00:16:16.350 align:middle line:84% to build a house for him and his wife and their children. 00:16:16.350 --> 00:16:21.360 align:middle line:90% 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:24.340 align:middle line:90% And the narrative starts. 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:29.530 align:middle line:84% I always tell a story from the beginning, 00:16:29.530 --> 00:16:33.880 align:middle line:84% Zuni Pueblo elders tell this to their young. 00:16:33.880 --> 00:16:38.140 align:middle line:84% This is the way all things has been. 00:16:38.140 --> 00:16:43.450 align:middle line:84% Creation is mythic and real in time and place. 00:16:43.450 --> 00:16:49.330 align:middle line:84% Creation is the existence of all things, the tiniest flower, 00:16:49.330 --> 00:16:55.240 align:middle line:84% the horizon of Blue Mountains, rain clouds swiftly flowing 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:58.780 align:middle line:84% mountain streams, snow on the mesas, 00:16:58.780 --> 00:17:03.730 align:middle line:90% the sun and stars, all things. 00:17:03.730 --> 00:17:08.470 align:middle line:84% Pueblo people in their plaza, working in their corn fields, 00:17:08.470 --> 00:17:11.530 align:middle line:84% sitting down to eat, driving to work, 00:17:11.530 --> 00:17:17.020 align:middle line:84% a child playing, the horizon of the Hamish mountains beyond. 00:17:17.020 --> 00:17:20.770 align:middle line:84% Pueblo elders and youth walking together. 00:17:20.770 --> 00:17:24.369 align:middle line:90% All things, [SPEAKING ACOMA]. 00:17:24.369 --> 00:17:28.600 align:middle line:84% Creation is present existence in the mythic. 00:17:28.600 --> 00:17:31.900 align:middle line:84% It is not an inexplicable event that 00:17:31.900 --> 00:17:34.750 align:middle line:90% happened countless epochs ago. 00:17:34.750 --> 00:17:37.840 align:middle line:90% Creation is happening today. 00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:42.160 align:middle line:84% The moment of the past is the moment of the present. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:45.610 align:middle line:84% This is the story from the beginning 00:17:45.610 --> 00:17:51.430 align:middle line:84% and this is the story of the present. 00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:57.990 align:middle line:84% That's the beginning of Surviving Columbus. 00:17:57.990 --> 00:18:00.360 align:middle line:84% There's another section that I want to-- 00:18:00.360 --> 00:18:04.710 align:middle line:84% another-- a poem that I want to read 00:18:04.710 --> 00:18:11.430 align:middle line:84% which has to do with a later time, 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:17.970 align:middle line:84% later in a historic sense of time. 00:18:17.970 --> 00:18:27.880 align:middle line:84% In 1540-- 1539 really and then 1540 AD 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:33.570 align:middle line:84% the first Spaniards came to this part of the Southwest. 00:18:33.570 --> 00:18:39.360 align:middle line:84% It was Fray Marcos de Niza coming from Mexico, present day 00:18:39.360 --> 00:18:41.760 align:middle line:90% Mexico. 00:18:41.760 --> 00:18:44.730 align:middle line:84% And you've heard the story of Estevanico 00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:51.910 align:middle line:84% a Moorish slave who was the guide for de Niza who 00:18:51.910 --> 00:18:57.970 align:middle line:84% eventually was killed at Zuni, present day Zuni Pueblo because 00:18:57.970 --> 00:19:01.990 align:middle line:84% of his outrageous behavior and really 00:19:01.990 --> 00:19:06.490 align:middle line:84% because of the fact that he was leading strangers who 00:19:06.490 --> 00:19:11.950 align:middle line:84% had already been heard about who would do harm to the people 00:19:11.950 --> 00:19:19.100 align:middle line:90% and who were the pre invaders. 00:19:19.100 --> 00:19:23.720 align:middle line:84% And the invasion, of course, came in 1540 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:28.880 align:middle line:84% with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:39.060 align:middle line:84% Later on in 1598, Juan de Onate led the colonization 00:19:39.060 --> 00:19:43.700 align:middle line:84% of present day New Mexico from the south 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:47.870 align:middle line:84% and began to settle the land along the Rio Grande 00:19:47.870 --> 00:19:49.980 align:middle line:90% in New Mexico. 00:19:49.980 --> 00:19:53.330 align:middle line:90% Acoma is west of the Rio Grande. 00:19:53.330 --> 00:20:00.780 align:middle line:84% It's about as you may know 70 miles west of Albuquerque. 00:20:00.780 --> 00:20:03.560 align:middle line:90% From whom I'm descended. 00:20:03.560 --> 00:20:10.800 align:middle line:84% It's on a high tall rock monolith a mesa which rises out 00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:20.330 align:middle line:84% of the flat valley floor, very much a impregnable place, 00:20:20.330 --> 00:20:27.860 align:middle line:84% but Juan de Oñate's soldiers under Vicente de Saldivar 00:20:27.860 --> 00:20:36.260 align:middle line:84% attacked Ako in the winter in January of 1599 and finally did 00:20:36.260 --> 00:20:40.420 align:middle line:90% defeat the Acoma people. 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:46.450 align:middle line:84% Oñate had ordered the complete destruction of the Pueblo 00:20:46.450 --> 00:20:49.195 align:middle line:90% of Acoma and its people. 00:20:49.195 --> 00:20:52.340 align:middle line:90% 00:20:52.340 --> 00:20:59.650 align:middle line:84% Later on bells were brought to Ako 00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:03.070 align:middle line:84% the mission there which was built in the 1620s 00:21:03.070 --> 00:21:06.800 align:middle line:90% to the 1640s. 00:21:06.800 --> 00:21:08.870 align:middle line:84% The legend goes that the bells were 00:21:08.870 --> 00:21:15.320 align:middle line:84% brought in exchange for the children that were taken. 00:21:15.320 --> 00:21:20.530 align:middle line:84% After the battle in 1599 in January, 00:21:20.530 --> 00:21:25.810 align:middle line:84% children were taken from Ako to the south. 00:21:25.810 --> 00:21:28.490 align:middle line:90% They weren't given away. 00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:34.920 align:middle line:84% They were taken to the south, stolen in other words. 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:37.890 align:middle line:84% And people were enslaved and many died. 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:41.730 align:middle line:84% In fact, 800 Acomas were killed, were 00:21:41.730 --> 00:21:50.040 align:middle line:84% massacred in those days of war to destroy Ako. 00:21:50.040 --> 00:21:54.090 align:middle line:84% Later when the bell brought and they're still there at Acoma, 00:21:54.090 --> 00:22:00.280 align:middle line:84% they were brought sometime in the 17th century. 00:22:00.280 --> 00:22:04.380 align:middle line:90% But the children are remembered. 00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:09.660 align:middle line:84% In the South wall of the graveyard presently at Ako 00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:15.270 align:middle line:84% or there's a whole and this is the poem 00:22:15.270 --> 00:22:19.950 align:middle line:84% about that memory, which is not only a memory, 00:22:19.950 --> 00:22:26.770 align:middle line:84% but it is the way in which the people remember what happened 00:22:26.770 --> 00:22:32.455 align:middle line:84% and what must be done in order to keep on being alive. 00:22:32.455 --> 00:22:39.660 align:middle line:90% 00:22:39.660 --> 00:22:44.250 align:middle line:84% They say the children were taken. 00:22:44.250 --> 00:22:50.660 align:middle line:84% To the South they were taken and they never returned. 00:22:50.660 --> 00:22:54.800 align:middle line:84% Many years later from the South bell for the church 00:22:54.800 --> 00:22:56.730 align:middle line:90% were brought. 00:22:56.730 --> 00:23:03.870 align:middle line:84% They say the [? Kashdura ?] rey, the King sent the bells. 00:23:03.870 --> 00:23:08.700 align:middle line:84% He sent them for the children who were taken to the South. 00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:13.680 align:middle line:84% The bells were for the children who would never return. 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:18.240 align:middle line:84% In the South wall after wall around the graveyard 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:20.361 align:middle line:90% there is the hole. 00:23:20.361 --> 00:23:23.280 align:middle line:90% The whole is small. 00:23:23.280 --> 00:23:29.250 align:middle line:84% It is just big enough for a child to climb through. 00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:34.320 align:middle line:84% They say it is for the children who were taken away. 00:23:34.320 --> 00:23:39.600 align:middle line:84% It is a door, the hole for the spirits of the children 00:23:39.600 --> 00:23:45.820 align:middle line:84% to climb through to return to Acoma one day. 00:23:45.820 --> 00:23:49.270 align:middle line:90% The people wait for them. 00:23:49.270 --> 00:23:52.435 align:middle line:90% The people wait for them. 00:23:52.435 --> 00:24:05.110 align:middle line:90% 00:24:05.110 --> 00:24:07.930 align:middle line:84% I want to thank the University of Arizona 00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:14.230 align:middle line:84% press and the Sun Track series that Larry-- 00:24:14.230 --> 00:24:20.610 align:middle line:84% Professor Larry Evers edits for publishing 00:24:20.610 --> 00:24:25.520 align:middle line:90% my next book Woven Stone. 00:24:25.520 --> 00:24:30.640 align:middle line:90% It's a reprint of three of my-- 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:35.110 align:middle line:84% three of my previous books, Going 00:24:35.110 --> 00:24:37.060 align:middle line:84% for the Rain, A Good Journey, and Fight 00:24:37.060 --> 00:24:43.890 align:middle line:84% Back for the sake of the people, for the sake of the land. 00:24:43.890 --> 00:24:48.990 align:middle line:84% I want to read a few poems from each of the books. 00:24:48.990 --> 00:24:51.010 align:middle line:90% In Woven Stone. 00:24:51.010 --> 00:24:55.910 align:middle line:90% 00:24:55.910 --> 00:25:01.740 align:middle line:84% The creation according to Coyote [AUDIO OUT] First of all, 00:25:01.740 --> 00:25:03.850 align:middle line:90% it's all true. 00:25:03.850 --> 00:25:08.680 align:middle line:84% Coyote he says-- he says this, [? da'a ?],, this way. 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:14.590 align:middle line:84% Humble yourself motioning and meaning what he says. 00:25:14.590 --> 00:25:17.770 align:middle line:84% You were born when you came from that body 00:25:17.770 --> 00:25:24.460 align:middle line:84% the Earth your black head burst from granite, the ashes cooling 00:25:24.460 --> 00:25:27.160 align:middle line:90% until it began to rain. 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:32.440 align:middle line:84% It turned muddy then and then green and brown things 00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:35.320 align:middle line:90% came without legs. 00:25:35.320 --> 00:25:37.240 align:middle line:90% They looked strange. 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:40.120 align:middle line:90% Everything was strange. 00:25:40.120 --> 00:25:43.330 align:middle line:90% There was nothing to know then. 00:25:43.330 --> 00:25:47.650 align:middle line:84% Until later, Coyote told me this-- 00:25:47.650 --> 00:25:51.310 align:middle line:90% and he was BSing probably-- 00:25:51.310 --> 00:25:53.950 align:middle line:90% two sons were born. 00:25:53.950 --> 00:25:57.550 align:middle line:90% Uyuyayeh and Masaweh. 00:25:57.550 --> 00:26:03.340 align:middle line:84% They were young then and then later they were older. 00:26:03.340 --> 00:26:07.390 align:middle line:84% And then the people were wondering what was above. 00:26:07.390 --> 00:26:09.910 align:middle line:90% They had heard rumors. 00:26:09.910 --> 00:26:15.340 align:middle line:84% But tsushki, Coyote, [SPEAKING ACOMA],, 00:26:15.340 --> 00:26:21.550 align:middle line:84% he was mainly bragging when he said, I think my brothers, 00:26:21.550 --> 00:26:23.890 align:middle line:90% [SPEAKING ACOMA]. 00:26:23.890 --> 00:26:28.390 align:middle line:84% The twins then said, let's lead these poor creatures 00:26:28.390 --> 00:26:30.750 align:middle line:90% and save them. 00:26:30.750 --> 00:26:37.170 align:middle line:84% And later they came to light after many exciting, colorful, 00:26:37.170 --> 00:26:41.460 align:middle line:84% and things of adventure, and this is 00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:46.680 align:middle line:90% the life, all these, all these. 00:26:46.680 --> 00:26:50.220 align:middle line:84% My uncle told me all this that time. 00:26:50.220 --> 00:26:55.080 align:middle line:84% coyote told me too, but you know how he is always 00:26:55.080 --> 00:26:59.610 align:middle line:84% talking to the gods, the mountains, the stone 00:26:59.610 --> 00:27:05.820 align:middle line:84% all around, and I you know, you know believe him. 00:27:05.820 --> 00:27:06.945 align:middle line:90% I believe him. 00:27:06.945 --> 00:27:43.970 align:middle line:90% 00:27:43.970 --> 00:27:46.835 align:middle line:84% I've been across this country many times. 00:27:46.835 --> 00:27:51.560 align:middle line:90% 00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:59.780 align:middle line:84% One of my first extensive trips was to look for Indians. 00:27:59.780 --> 00:28:03.307 align:middle line:84% Can you believe that an Indian looking for Indians, 00:28:03.307 --> 00:28:03.890 align:middle line:90% for an Indian? 00:28:03.890 --> 00:28:06.570 align:middle line:90% 00:28:06.570 --> 00:28:12.420 align:middle line:84% It was really a journey, bunk, a myth, the myth of the vanishing 00:28:12.420 --> 00:28:18.550 align:middle line:90% red man, the vanishing Indian. 00:28:18.550 --> 00:28:27.140 align:middle line:84% Growing up in America as a boy you 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:30.620 align:middle line:84% get-- you got the impression that there were no more 00:28:30.620 --> 00:28:36.960 align:middle line:90% Indians, no more real Indians. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:43.070 align:middle line:84% And it was a way in which American society too often 00:28:43.070 --> 00:28:50.410 align:middle line:84% made you feel in order not to believe in yourself anymore. 00:28:50.410 --> 00:28:55.860 align:middle line:84% So in 1969 when I first began to be published, 00:28:55.860 --> 00:28:59.520 align:middle line:84% I had been writing before that for quite a few years, 00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:06.030 align:middle line:84% 30,000 years or so, hearing stories and telling stories 00:29:06.030 --> 00:29:07.890 align:middle line:90% 30,000 years. 00:29:07.890 --> 00:29:13.830 align:middle line:84% Well, in 1969 I got a grant from the National Endowment 00:29:13.830 --> 00:29:17.250 align:middle line:84% for the Arts, and what I wanted to do with that money 00:29:17.250 --> 00:29:23.920 align:middle line:84% was to look for Indians, in a sense look for myself. 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:26.290 align:middle line:84% I went straight to the South and East 00:29:26.290 --> 00:29:31.990 align:middle line:84% where all the Indians according to this public American myth 00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:35.320 align:middle line:84% had been wiped out, where they had disappeared. 00:29:35.320 --> 00:29:38.830 align:middle line:84% Oh, there were people who claimed 00:29:38.830 --> 00:29:41.560 align:middle line:84% to be Indian according to this myth 00:29:41.560 --> 00:29:48.340 align:middle line:84% but who didn't speak any Indian, who did not dress like Indians; 00:29:48.340 --> 00:29:51.430 align:middle line:84% therefore, there are no more Indians. 00:29:51.430 --> 00:29:53.840 align:middle line:90% That could not be the truth. 00:29:53.840 --> 00:29:59.390 align:middle line:84% And of course, when I went and found Indians 00:29:59.390 --> 00:30:01.360 align:middle line:90% it was not the truth. 00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:06.700 align:middle line:84% There were Indian people there, some of them looked white, 00:30:06.700 --> 00:30:12.880 align:middle line:84% some of them look black, and some of them looked like me. 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:18.760 align:middle line:84% But in one way other they identify themselves 00:30:18.760 --> 00:30:24.265 align:middle line:84% in terms of the land, culture, and community as Indian people. 00:30:24.265 --> 00:30:27.620 align:middle line:90% 00:30:27.620 --> 00:30:35.560 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that comes from looking for Indians. 00:30:35.560 --> 00:30:37.420 align:middle line:84% In this case, this is not in the South. 00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:41.440 align:middle line:84% This is towards west of here crossing the Colorado 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:45.090 align:middle line:90% River into Yuma. 00:30:45.090 --> 00:30:47.850 align:middle line:90% It is almost dusk. 00:30:47.850 --> 00:30:51.540 align:middle line:84% For a long time, we've been traveling. 00:30:51.540 --> 00:30:55.620 align:middle line:84% I saw a hawk flying low against the sky. 00:30:55.620 --> 00:30:58.440 align:middle line:90% The horizon was stone. 00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:01.440 align:middle line:90% That was only a while back. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.510 align:middle line:90% No one owns this river. 00:31:03.510 --> 00:31:08.850 align:middle line:84% Wash with it, drink it, water your plants with it, pray 00:31:08.850 --> 00:31:10.560 align:middle line:90% with it. 00:31:10.560 --> 00:31:14.340 align:middle line:84% The evening sun glimmers across the desert. 00:31:14.340 --> 00:31:17.700 align:middle line:84% Colors signal memories of past journey. 00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:22.950 align:middle line:84% Sounds filled everything and overflowed upon returning. 00:31:22.950 --> 00:31:26.610 align:middle line:90% Now the river is silent. 00:31:26.610 --> 00:31:30.150 align:middle line:84% The Greyhound bus roars smoothly on the bridge. 00:31:30.150 --> 00:31:32.700 align:middle line:90% The riverbed is hot sand. 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:36.270 align:middle line:84% The willows are last week vestiges. 00:31:36.270 --> 00:31:40.770 align:middle line:84% Alongside the riverbed is a concrete canal. 00:31:40.770 --> 00:31:47.120 align:middle line:84% The liquid in it flows swiftly directed and lifeless. 00:31:47.120 --> 00:31:50.180 align:middle line:84% A brown man leans by the Yuma bus depot 00:31:50.180 --> 00:31:53.840 align:middle line:90% wall, a daze in his eyes. 00:31:53.840 --> 00:31:57.410 align:middle line:84% He tries and tries to smell the river. 00:31:57.410 --> 00:32:02.780 align:middle line:84% He leans trying to feel welcomed to his home. 00:32:02.780 --> 00:32:05.870 align:middle line:90% Yuma is a small town. 00:32:05.870 --> 00:32:10.370 align:middle line:84% It abounds with modern Americana, motels, 00:32:10.370 --> 00:32:14.960 align:middle line:84% gas stations, schools, churches, and et cetera. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.940 align:middle line:90% Where did they all come from? 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:22.510 align:middle line:84% Do they really plan for survival this way? 00:32:22.510 --> 00:32:24.310 align:middle line:90% Neon is weak. 00:32:24.310 --> 00:32:27.610 align:middle line:84% Concrete will soon return to desert. 00:32:27.610 --> 00:32:29.410 align:middle line:90% Be patient child. 00:32:29.410 --> 00:32:33.190 align:middle line:90% Be kind and not bitter. 00:32:33.190 --> 00:32:34.990 align:middle line:90% Prepare for the morning. 00:32:34.990 --> 00:32:36.970 align:middle line:90% Go down to the riverbed. 00:32:36.970 --> 00:32:40.300 align:middle line:90% It will let you sing a bit. 00:32:40.300 --> 00:32:42.480 align:middle line:90% Be patient, wait. 00:32:42.480 --> 00:33:01.750 align:middle line:90% 00:33:01.750 --> 00:33:02.800 align:middle line:90% A dying warrior. 00:33:02.800 --> 00:33:06.230 align:middle line:90% 00:33:06.230 --> 00:33:11.150 align:middle line:84% Leonard Bluebird she tells me in Smitty's bar, 00:33:11.150 --> 00:33:16.070 align:middle line:84% sobbing immense sorrow is dying of leukemia. 00:33:16.070 --> 00:33:18.050 align:middle line:90% I can't do nothing for him. 00:33:18.050 --> 00:33:21.650 align:middle line:90% Look, he's limping. 00:33:21.650 --> 00:33:26.270 align:middle line:84% The dying Leonard hobbling across the floor dancing, 00:33:26.270 --> 00:33:27.440 align:middle line:90% drunk. 00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:31.640 align:middle line:84% The music is crude and loud and cowboy. 00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:34.760 align:middle line:90% Many Indians staring. 00:33:34.760 --> 00:33:36.710 align:middle line:90% Oh, I can't look, she says. 00:33:36.710 --> 00:33:40.190 align:middle line:84% He's got a sister, but she can't do anything. 00:33:40.190 --> 00:33:41.750 align:middle line:90% I'm the same way. 00:33:41.750 --> 00:33:45.740 align:middle line:84% He doesn't want to die in the Indian hospital. 00:33:45.740 --> 00:33:49.070 align:middle line:84% I step out into the night concrete 00:33:49.070 --> 00:33:55.340 align:middle line:84% cliffed Phoenix, sad and walking, cussing at the streets 00:33:55.340 --> 00:33:56.870 align:middle line:90% and the dying bird. 00:33:56.870 --> 00:34:01.760 align:middle line:90% 00:34:01.760 --> 00:34:05.320 align:middle line:90% I told you I like Indians. 00:34:05.320 --> 00:34:07.750 align:middle line:90% You meet Indians everywhere. 00:34:07.750 --> 00:34:12.940 align:middle line:84% Once I walked into this place, Flagler Beach, Florida. 00:34:12.940 --> 00:34:19.000 align:middle line:84% You'd never expect it: a bar, some old people in it, ran it. 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:24.340 align:middle line:84% The usual question, of course, you're an Indian, aren't you? 00:34:24.340 --> 00:34:26.290 align:middle line:84% Yes, ma'am, I'm Indian [AUDIO OUT] 00:34:26.290 --> 00:34:30.400 align:middle line:90% wild, ignorant, savage. 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:34.389 align:middle line:90% And she wants me to dance. 00:34:34.389 --> 00:34:39.460 align:middle line:84% Well, OK, been drinking beer all the way from Hollywood. 00:34:39.460 --> 00:34:41.770 align:middle line:90% We dance something. 00:34:41.770 --> 00:34:43.570 align:middle line:90% You're Indian, aren't you? 00:34:43.570 --> 00:34:48.969 align:middle line:84% Yeah, Jesus Christ Almighty, I'm one of them. 00:34:48.969 --> 00:34:51.699 align:middle line:90% I like Indians. 00:34:51.699 --> 00:34:53.590 align:middle line:90% There's an Indian around here. 00:34:53.590 --> 00:34:54.429 align:middle line:90% What? 00:34:54.429 --> 00:34:57.880 align:middle line:90% And in walks a big Sioux. 00:34:57.880 --> 00:35:01.105 align:middle line:84% Christ's sake man, house relocation, brother. 00:35:01.105 --> 00:35:04.810 align:middle line:90% 00:35:04.810 --> 00:35:07.000 align:middle line:90% He shakes my hand. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:08.420 align:middle line:90% Glad to see you. 00:35:08.420 --> 00:35:11.020 align:middle line:90% I thought I was somewhere else. 00:35:11.020 --> 00:35:14.770 align:middle line:84% We play the ping pong machine, drink beer, 00:35:14.770 --> 00:35:20.770 align:middle line:84% once in a while dance with the old lady who likes Indians. 00:35:20.770 --> 00:35:22.420 align:middle line:90% I like Indians. 00:35:22.420 --> 00:35:26.260 align:middle line:84% I told you meet Indians everywhere. 00:35:26.260 --> 00:35:30.610 align:middle line:90% 00:35:30.610 --> 00:35:38.740 align:middle line:84% The title poem from this volume Woven Stone 00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:42.040 align:middle line:84% is this, a story of how a wall stands. 00:35:42.040 --> 00:35:46.380 align:middle line:90% 00:35:46.380 --> 00:35:50.440 align:middle line:90% My father died in 1978. 00:35:50.440 --> 00:35:53.190 align:middle line:90% He was a stone builder. 00:35:53.190 --> 00:35:56.460 align:middle line:84% He also worked as a laborer and eventually 00:35:56.460 --> 00:35:59.910 align:middle line:84% as a welder for the Santa Fe Railroad, 00:35:59.910 --> 00:36:06.300 align:middle line:84% but he built like other traditional builders 00:36:06.300 --> 00:36:09.870 align:middle line:84% around home at Ako many of the houses 00:36:09.870 --> 00:36:16.720 align:middle line:84% at Ako, Acoma out of stone Adobe. 00:36:16.720 --> 00:36:20.020 align:middle line:84% My father who works with stone says, 00:36:20.020 --> 00:36:23.380 align:middle line:84% that's just the part you see, the stones 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:28.630 align:middle line:84% which seem to be just packed in on the outside. 00:36:28.630 --> 00:36:35.360 align:middle line:84% And with his hands he puts the stone and mud in place. 00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:38.990 align:middle line:84% Underneath what looks like loose stone 00:36:38.990 --> 00:36:43.010 align:middle line:90% there is stone woven together. 00:36:43.010 --> 00:36:48.980 align:middle line:84% He ties one hand over the other, fitting like the bones 00:36:48.980 --> 00:36:52.720 align:middle line:90% of his hands and fingers. 00:36:52.720 --> 00:36:56.170 align:middle line:84% That's what is holding it together. 00:36:56.170 --> 00:37:00.910 align:middle line:84% It is built that carefully, he says, the mud mixed 00:37:00.910 --> 00:37:04.600 align:middle line:90% to a certain texture patiently. 00:37:04.600 --> 00:37:10.180 align:middle line:84% With the fingers worked in the palm of his hand 00:37:10.180 --> 00:37:13.330 align:middle line:84% so that placed between the stones 00:37:13.330 --> 00:37:18.890 align:middle line:84% they hold together for a long, long time. 00:37:18.890 --> 00:37:23.450 align:middle line:84% He tells me those things, the story of them 00:37:23.450 --> 00:37:28.760 align:middle line:84% worked with his fingers in the palm of his hands 00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:35.450 align:middle line:84% working the stone and the mud until they become the wall that 00:37:35.450 --> 00:37:38.825 align:middle line:90% stands a long, long time. 00:37:38.825 --> 00:37:52.880 align:middle line:90% 00:37:52.880 --> 00:38:00.250 align:middle line:84% The second book in Woven Stone is a Good Journey. 00:38:00.250 --> 00:38:09.390 align:middle line:84% I use the image of the road in much of my poems and stories 00:38:09.390 --> 00:38:15.540 align:middle line:84% because it's the hiyaani, the road that we journey upon. 00:38:15.540 --> 00:38:18.420 align:middle line:90% It's the way of life. 00:38:18.420 --> 00:38:24.155 align:middle line:84% It's the way of being on that road. 00:38:24.155 --> 00:38:29.300 align:middle line:90% 00:38:29.300 --> 00:38:34.250 align:middle line:84% A good journey has stories in it which 00:38:34.250 --> 00:38:40.040 align:middle line:84% are out of the older traditional retelling at Ako. 00:38:40.040 --> 00:38:48.140 align:middle line:84% And I want to tell at least one story from out 00:38:48.140 --> 00:38:58.910 align:middle line:84% of that journey and the way that people see themselves 00:38:58.910 --> 00:39:03.670 align:middle line:84% within the tradition of storytelling at Ako. 00:39:03.670 --> 00:39:05.200 align:middle line:84% When you're hearing a story you're 00:39:05.200 --> 00:39:10.410 align:middle line:84% supposed to say ehe once in a while 00:39:10.410 --> 00:39:16.850 align:middle line:84% to make sure you're awake, especially 00:39:16.850 --> 00:39:19.520 align:middle line:84% for long stories which can go for hours. 00:39:19.520 --> 00:39:20.870 align:middle line:90% This one isn't. 00:39:20.870 --> 00:39:24.930 align:middle line:90% We don't have that many hours. 00:39:24.930 --> 00:39:26.110 align:middle line:90% I have three children. 00:39:26.110 --> 00:39:30.300 align:middle line:84% One of them is in law school here second year 00:39:30.300 --> 00:39:35.310 align:middle line:90% and a daughter who's 18. 00:39:35.310 --> 00:39:38.850 align:middle line:84% She's in her last year of high school hoping 00:39:38.850 --> 00:39:42.240 align:middle line:84% to go to college next year and then another daughter 00:39:42.240 --> 00:39:43.950 align:middle line:90% who's nine, Sara. 00:39:43.950 --> 00:39:46.500 align:middle line:90% 00:39:46.500 --> 00:39:52.140 align:middle line:84% But one time I guess I would tell stories 00:39:52.140 --> 00:39:55.950 align:middle line:84% to Rainy especially when she was a little girl. 00:39:55.950 --> 00:39:58.590 align:middle line:90% 00:39:58.590 --> 00:40:03.930 align:middle line:84% She said, well, one time, [SPEAKING ACOMA],, 00:40:03.930 --> 00:40:06.870 align:middle line:84% one time or like Rainy said, you're 00:40:06.870 --> 00:40:09.810 align:middle line:84% supposed to say once upon a time, daddy. 00:40:09.810 --> 00:40:15.300 align:middle line:84% OK, well, once upon a time, there were some Quail Women 00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:20.180 align:middle line:84% grinding corn and Tsushki, Tsushki, 00:40:20.180 --> 00:40:24.200 align:middle line:84% [? k'uu ?],, Coyote Woman was with them. 00:40:24.200 --> 00:40:28.280 align:middle line:84% She was grinding u-uuhshtyah, juniper berries. 00:40:28.280 --> 00:40:31.760 align:middle line:84% I don't know why she wasn't grinding corn. 00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:34.310 align:middle line:90% That's just in the story. 00:40:34.310 --> 00:40:40.760 align:middle line:84% It was a hot, hot very hot day, and the Quail Women got thirsty 00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:43.250 align:middle line:84% and they decided to go get some water to drink. 00:40:43.250 --> 00:40:47.360 align:middle line:90% She said, [SPEAKING ACOMA]. 00:40:47.360 --> 00:40:50.000 align:middle line:84% Let's go drink some water and let's 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:53.570 align:middle line:90% take along our beloved comadre. 00:40:53.570 --> 00:40:58.010 align:middle line:84% So they said to their comadre Coyote Woman, 00:40:58.010 --> 00:41:01.160 align:middle line:84% let's all go get some water to drink. 00:41:01.160 --> 00:41:05.060 align:middle line:90% Shrow-uh, Coyote Woman said. 00:41:05.060 --> 00:41:06.950 align:middle line:84% The water was in a little cistern 00:41:06.950 --> 00:41:11.120 align:middle line:84% at the top of a tall rock pinnacle which stands southeast 00:41:11.120 --> 00:41:14.390 align:middle line:84% of Ako and they walked over there, 00:41:14.390 --> 00:41:19.280 align:middle line:84% but they had to fly to get to the top of that pinnacle. 00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:22.400 align:middle line:84% The coyote women looked at Tsushki 00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:26.900 align:middle line:84% who couldn't fly to the top because she had no feathers 00:41:26.900 --> 00:41:31.200 align:middle line:84% and they felt very sorry and sad for Tsushki. 00:41:31.200 --> 00:41:36.260 align:middle line:84% And so they decided, let's give shacomadre 00:41:36.260 --> 00:41:38.390 align:middle line:90% some of our feathers. 00:41:38.390 --> 00:41:41.690 align:middle line:84% So the Quail Women said that, and they took some feathers out 00:41:41.690 --> 00:41:45.860 align:middle line:84% of themselves and stuck them on Coyote, 00:41:45.860 --> 00:41:47.270 align:middle line:90% on the [SPEAKING ACOMA]. 00:41:47.270 --> 00:41:50.570 align:middle line:84% And then they all flew to the top of the pinnacle 00:41:50.570 --> 00:41:52.160 align:middle line:90% where the water was. 00:41:52.160 --> 00:41:56.480 align:middle line:84% They all drink their fill and coyote was the last one 00:41:56.480 --> 00:41:58.970 align:middle line:90% to drink. 00:41:58.970 --> 00:42:03.740 align:middle line:84% While she was drinking from the cistern on her hands and knees, 00:42:03.740 --> 00:42:09.440 align:middle line:84% the koyo women decided to play a trick, a joke on Coyote Lady. 00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:13.220 align:middle line:84% They said, let's take the feathers from our comadre 00:42:13.220 --> 00:42:15.020 align:middle line:90% and leave her here. 00:42:15.020 --> 00:42:18.830 align:middle line:84% All right, they all agreed and they did that, 00:42:18.830 --> 00:42:22.470 align:middle line:90% and they all left. 00:42:22.470 --> 00:42:25.920 align:middle line:84% When Tsushki had drank her fill of water 00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:28.530 align:middle line:84% and was ready to descend the pinnacle, 00:42:28.530 --> 00:42:33.210 align:middle line:84% she found that she could not because she had no feathers 00:42:33.210 --> 00:42:36.180 align:middle line:90% to fly with anymore. 00:42:36.180 --> 00:42:41.860 align:middle line:84% She felt very bad and she sat down wondering what to do. 00:42:41.860 --> 00:42:48.250 align:middle line:84% The rock pinnacle was too high up to jump down from. 00:42:48.250 --> 00:42:55.540 align:middle line:84% But pretty soon Kahmaasquu Dya-ow, Spider Grandmother, 00:42:55.540 --> 00:42:58.540 align:middle line:84% came climbing over the edge of the pinnacle 00:42:58.540 --> 00:43:01.120 align:middle line:90% to drink some water also. 00:43:01.120 --> 00:43:06.310 align:middle line:84% And Coyote or Tsushki thought to herself, aha, 00:43:06.310 --> 00:43:11.590 align:middle line:84% I will ask my grandmother spider to help me off this pinnacle. 00:43:11.590 --> 00:43:15.670 align:middle line:84% She is always a wonderful helpful person. 00:43:15.670 --> 00:43:21.730 align:middle line:84% So Coyote asked, Dya-ow Kahmaasquu, 00:43:21.730 --> 00:43:25.480 align:middle line:84% Do you think you could help me descend this pinnacle? 00:43:25.480 --> 00:43:30.580 align:middle line:84% You are always such a wonderful helpful person. 00:43:30.580 --> 00:43:35.890 align:middle line:84% And spider grandmother said, yes, beloved one, I 00:43:35.890 --> 00:43:37.150 align:middle line:90% will help you. 00:43:37.150 --> 00:43:41.710 align:middle line:84% Climb into my basket, and she pointed 00:43:41.710 --> 00:43:48.400 align:middle line:84% at her basket which was tied at the end of her long rope. 00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:52.530 align:middle line:84% And then she said to the Coyote, but I 00:43:52.530 --> 00:43:54.960 align:middle line:90% ask you one thing, Dya-ow. 00:43:54.960 --> 00:44:01.860 align:middle line:84% While I am letting you down, you must not look up, not once, not 00:44:01.860 --> 00:44:07.200 align:middle line:84% even just a little bit, for if you do, I will drop you 00:44:07.200 --> 00:44:11.640 align:middle line:84% and that is quite a long ways down. 00:44:11.640 --> 00:44:16.140 align:middle line:84% Oh, don't worry about that, Dya-ow, I won't look up at you. 00:44:16.140 --> 00:44:21.370 align:middle line:84% I'm not that kind of a person, Coyote promised. 00:44:21.370 --> 00:44:24.150 align:middle line:84% All right then, Spider Grandmother said. 00:44:24.150 --> 00:44:28.020 align:middle line:84% Climb in and I will let you down. 00:44:28.020 --> 00:44:35.230 align:middle line:84% And the basket began to descend down and down and down. 00:44:35.230 --> 00:44:39.970 align:middle line:84% But on the way down, Coyote looked up 00:44:39.970 --> 00:44:45.460 align:middle line:84% and Spider Grandmother dropped the basket and Coyote 00:44:45.460 --> 00:44:46.795 align:middle line:90% went crashing down. 00:44:46.795 --> 00:44:49.970 align:middle line:90% 00:44:49.970 --> 00:44:57.140 align:middle line:84% Well, at this point the story ends, but as you may know, 00:44:57.140 --> 00:45:00.290 align:middle line:90% stories always go on. 00:45:00.290 --> 00:45:02.903 align:middle line:84% Well, sometime later the Shuuwimuu Guiguikuutchah. 00:45:02.903 --> 00:45:03.945 align:middle line:90% Shuuwimuu Guiguikuutchah. 00:45:03.945 --> 00:45:09.800 align:middle line:90% 00:45:09.800 --> 00:45:11.810 align:middle line:90% Bet you can't say that. 00:45:11.810 --> 00:45:17.900 align:middle line:84% Shuuwimuu Guiguikuutchah, Skeleton Fixer, came along 00:45:17.900 --> 00:45:21.980 align:middle line:84% and he saw a scatter of bones at the foot of the pinnacle. 00:45:21.980 --> 00:45:26.450 align:middle line:84% Shuuwimuu Guiguikuutchah, Skeleton Fixer, said, oh, look, 00:45:26.450 --> 00:45:29.570 align:middle line:84% some poor beloved one must have died. 00:45:29.570 --> 00:45:32.450 align:middle line:90% I wonder who it may be. 00:45:32.450 --> 00:45:35.240 align:middle line:84% The bones were dry and white in the sun, 00:45:35.240 --> 00:45:37.460 align:middle line:90% lying around scattered. 00:45:37.460 --> 00:45:40.790 align:middle line:84% And Skeleton Fixer said, I think I 00:45:40.790 --> 00:45:44.270 align:middle line:84% will put the bones together and find out 00:45:44.270 --> 00:45:46.500 align:middle line:90% and he will live again. 00:45:46.500 --> 00:45:51.690 align:middle line:84% And so he joined the bones together very carefully. 00:45:51.690 --> 00:45:57.260 align:middle line:84% And when he had finished doing that, he danced around. 00:45:57.260 --> 00:46:00.575 align:middle line:84% While he danced the bones while he sang this song, 00:46:00.575 --> 00:46:03.200 align:middle line:84% Shuuwimuu shuuwimuu chuichukuu, shuuwimuu shuuwimuu chuichukuu, 00:46:03.200 --> 00:46:03.360 align:middle line:90% bah, bah. 00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:03.840 align:middle line:84% Shuuwimuu shuuwimuu chuichukuu, shuuwimuu shuuwimuu chuichukuu, 00:46:03.840 --> 00:46:03.920 align:middle line:90% bah. 00:46:03.920 --> 00:46:04.560 align:middle line:90% [AUDIO OUT] 00:46:04.560 --> 00:46:38.370 align:middle line:90% 00:46:38.370 --> 00:46:41.580 align:middle line:84% Bones did and the skeleton jumped up. 00:46:41.580 --> 00:46:45.980 align:middle line:90% And it was Coyote Tsushki. 00:46:45.980 --> 00:46:50.100 align:middle line:84% Ah, kumeh, Tsuushkitruda, Skeleton Fixer said. 00:46:50.100 --> 00:46:54.660 align:middle line:90% Oh, it's just you Coyote. 00:46:54.660 --> 00:46:57.195 align:middle line:90% I thought it was someone else. 00:46:57.195 --> 00:47:00.580 align:middle line:90% 00:47:00.580 --> 00:47:04.110 align:middle line:84% And as Coyote ran away, Skeleton Fixer 00:47:04.110 --> 00:47:06.810 align:middle line:84% called after her, Nahkeh eh, bah aihatih eyownih trudrai nah! 00:47:06.810 --> 00:47:10.350 align:middle line:90% 00:47:10.350 --> 00:47:12.060 align:middle line:90% Go ahead and go. 00:47:12.060 --> 00:47:16.260 align:middle line:84% May you get crushed by a falling rock somewhere. 00:47:16.260 --> 00:47:31.650 align:middle line:90% 00:47:31.650 --> 00:47:36.060 align:middle line:84% Coyote stories are important not only 00:47:36.060 --> 00:47:41.260 align:middle line:84% because of their sense of humor and vitality, 00:47:41.260 --> 00:47:48.700 align:middle line:84% but because it's part of that consciousness of tradition 00:47:48.700 --> 00:47:56.030 align:middle line:84% that Native American people hold very preciously. 00:47:56.030 --> 00:48:01.780 align:middle line:84% It's part of the identity that we have, 00:48:01.780 --> 00:48:06.660 align:middle line:84% identity in which there's responsibility 00:48:06.660 --> 00:48:14.310 align:middle line:84% for ourselves and for all that is around us, 00:48:14.310 --> 00:48:20.540 align:middle line:84% the cultural, social context in which we thrive. 00:48:20.540 --> 00:48:24.040 align:middle line:90% 00:48:24.040 --> 00:48:26.530 align:middle line:84% The last book in Woven Stone is called 00:48:26.530 --> 00:48:30.310 align:middle line:84% Fight Back for the sake of the people 00:48:30.310 --> 00:48:34.212 align:middle line:84% for the sake of the land, Hanoh Kuutseniah, Hahtse Kuutseniah. 00:48:34.212 --> 00:48:38.210 align:middle line:90% 00:48:38.210 --> 00:48:41.300 align:middle line:84% For the sake of the people for the sake of the land. 00:48:41.300 --> 00:48:43.980 align:middle line:90% 00:48:43.980 --> 00:48:45.810 align:middle line:84% When I graduated from high school 00:48:45.810 --> 00:48:50.520 align:middle line:84% I worked up in the uranium mining area North-- 00:48:50.520 --> 00:48:54.540 align:middle line:90% Northwest of Acoma. 00:48:54.540 --> 00:48:59.190 align:middle line:84% I grew up in McCartys and looking straight due 00:48:59.190 --> 00:49:02.670 align:middle line:84% North of McCarty's Mount Taylor or Kaweeshtima, 00:49:02.670 --> 00:49:06.840 align:middle line:84% which is the name for my granddaughter 00:49:06.840 --> 00:49:07.905 align:middle line:90% Chris, Rainy's daughter. 00:49:07.905 --> 00:49:10.710 align:middle line:90% 00:49:10.710 --> 00:49:16.590 align:middle line:84% Kaweeshtima means in the Acoma language Snow Covered Woman 00:49:16.590 --> 00:49:18.240 align:middle line:90% Mountain. 00:49:18.240 --> 00:49:20.400 align:middle line:84% It's the sacred mountain to the North 00:49:20.400 --> 00:49:26.450 align:middle line:84% for the Aak'um'e han'u, the people of the Acoma. 00:49:26.450 --> 00:49:30.620 align:middle line:84% Just below it to the west and to the North of it 00:49:30.620 --> 00:49:36.280 align:middle line:84% was where most of the uranium mining took place. 00:49:36.280 --> 00:49:39.010 align:middle line:84% I worked up there for just over a year 00:49:39.010 --> 00:49:42.510 align:middle line:84% before I went to college, working 00:49:42.510 --> 00:49:47.220 align:middle line:84% with miners who came from the coal mines of West 00:49:47.220 --> 00:49:55.840 align:middle line:84% Virginia and mines in Canada, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, 00:49:55.840 --> 00:50:01.440 align:middle line:84% Utah, white miners for the most part. 00:50:01.440 --> 00:50:05.870 align:middle line:84% I was amazed at how similar or familiar 00:50:05.870 --> 00:50:14.220 align:middle line:84% their stories of struggle were, how much the stories were 00:50:14.220 --> 00:50:18.690 align:middle line:84% the same as the stories that I grew up with in the Acoma 00:50:18.690 --> 00:50:22.950 align:middle line:84% community, stories that had to do 00:50:22.950 --> 00:50:30.580 align:middle line:84% with trying to make a living, trying to survive, 00:50:30.580 --> 00:50:33.540 align:middle line:84% trying to live a meaningful life. 00:50:33.540 --> 00:50:36.810 align:middle line:84% Even though they were white people and even 00:50:36.810 --> 00:50:39.990 align:middle line:84% though we were Indian people all of us 00:50:39.990 --> 00:50:45.090 align:middle line:90% had some common denominator. 00:50:45.090 --> 00:50:48.120 align:middle line:84% It was that sense of struggle and having 00:50:48.120 --> 00:50:53.820 align:middle line:84% to often be in the position of working for somebody, 00:50:53.820 --> 00:51:02.190 align:middle line:84% those corporations that were taking the uranium out 00:51:02.190 --> 00:51:06.420 align:middle line:90% of the Earth, out of the land. 00:51:06.420 --> 00:51:08.940 align:middle line:90% The Acoma homeland. 00:51:08.940 --> 00:51:12.300 align:middle line:84% So I wrote this book called Fight 00:51:12.300 --> 00:51:17.440 align:middle line:84% Back for the sake of the people for the sake of the land. 00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:23.710 align:middle line:84% Set in 1980 20 years or so after I had worked as a kid 00:51:23.710 --> 00:51:27.850 align:middle line:84% really in that region in the industry. 00:51:27.850 --> 00:51:33.160 align:middle line:84% It was also 300 years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 00:51:33.160 --> 00:51:37.090 align:middle line:84% when the native people of New Mexico, the Pueblos, 00:51:37.090 --> 00:51:42.820 align:middle line:84% revolted against the Spanish colonial power 00:51:42.820 --> 00:51:51.750 align:middle line:84% of the military civil and Christian church the Catholics 00:51:51.750 --> 00:51:57.890 align:middle line:84% and drove the Spanish in 1680 back to the South 00:51:57.890 --> 00:52:01.310 align:middle line:90% at least as far back as Paso. 00:52:01.310 --> 00:52:08.660 align:middle line:84% Of course, 12 years later in a so-called bloodless reconquest, 00:52:08.660 --> 00:52:15.950 align:middle line:84% the Spanish Europeans came back to the land 00:52:15.950 --> 00:52:19.390 align:middle line:90% that is now New Mexico. 00:52:19.390 --> 00:52:27.930 align:middle line:84% But I found that I wanted to say something about 1980 very 00:52:27.930 --> 00:52:32.220 align:middle line:84% much in the same vein of the struggle 00:52:32.220 --> 00:52:36.810 align:middle line:84% that the people in 1680 put up in order 00:52:36.810 --> 00:52:42.730 align:middle line:84% to save their land, their community, their culture. 00:52:42.730 --> 00:52:48.520 align:middle line:84% And these are a few poems out of that book Fight Back. 00:52:48.520 --> 00:52:52.000 align:middle line:84% It starts with a prayer, Mid-America Prayer. 00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:56.200 align:middle line:90% 00:52:56.200 --> 00:53:01.260 align:middle line:84% Standing again within and among all things, 00:53:01.260 --> 00:53:05.040 align:middle line:84% standing with each other as sisters and brothers, mothers 00:53:05.040 --> 00:53:10.440 align:middle line:84% and fathers, daughters and sons, grandmothers and grandfathers, 00:53:10.440 --> 00:53:13.920 align:middle line:84% the past and present generations of our people. 00:53:13.920 --> 00:53:18.850 align:middle line:84% Standing again with and among all items of life, the land, 00:53:18.850 --> 00:53:23.070 align:middle line:84% rivers, the mountains, plants, animals, all life 00:53:23.070 --> 00:53:26.820 align:middle line:84% that is around us that we are included with. 00:53:26.820 --> 00:53:30.030 align:middle line:84% Standing within the circle of the horizon, the day 00:53:30.030 --> 00:53:35.610 align:middle line:84% sky and the night sky, the sun, moon, the cycle of seasons 00:53:35.610 --> 00:53:38.340 align:middle line:84% and the Earth mother which sustains us. 00:53:38.340 --> 00:53:40.890 align:middle line:84% Standing again with all things that 00:53:40.890 --> 00:53:43.800 align:middle line:84% have been in the past, that are in the present, 00:53:43.800 --> 00:53:46.020 align:middle line:90% and that will be in the future. 00:53:46.020 --> 00:53:49.620 align:middle line:84% We acknowledge ourselves to be in a relationship that 00:53:49.620 --> 00:53:54.150 align:middle line:84% is responsible and proper, that is loving and compassionate. 00:53:54.150 --> 00:53:57.120 align:middle line:84% For the sake of the land and all people 00:53:57.120 --> 00:54:00.870 align:middle line:84% we ask humbly of the creative forces of life 00:54:00.870 --> 00:54:05.080 align:middle line:84% that we be given a portion with which to help ourselves 00:54:05.080 --> 00:54:07.560 align:middle line:84% so that our struggle and work will also 00:54:07.560 --> 00:54:11.010 align:middle line:84% be creative for the continuance of life. 00:54:11.010 --> 00:54:14.760 align:middle line:84% Standing again within among all things, 00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:20.430 align:middle line:84% we ask in all sincerity for hope, courage, peace, strength, 00:54:20.430 --> 00:54:22.980 align:middle line:90% vision, unity, and continuance. 00:54:22.980 --> 00:54:39.640 align:middle line:90% 00:54:39.640 --> 00:54:41.830 align:middle line:84% This is some poems from the beginning. 00:54:41.830 --> 00:54:47.410 align:middle line:84% It was that Indian Martinez from over by Bluewater 00:54:47.410 --> 00:54:51.310 align:middle line:84% was the one who discovered uranium West of Grants. 00:54:51.310 --> 00:54:53.170 align:middle line:90% That's what they said. 00:54:53.170 --> 00:54:58.570 align:middle line:84% He brought that green stone into town one afternoon in 1953. 00:54:58.570 --> 00:55:04.210 align:middle line:84% Said he found it by the railroad tracks over by Haystack Butte. 00:55:04.210 --> 00:55:07.690 align:middle line:84% Tourist magazines did a couple of spreads on him, 00:55:07.690 --> 00:55:11.770 align:middle line:84% photographed him in Kodak color and the Chamber of Commerce 00:55:11.770 --> 00:55:16.420 align:middle line:84% celebrated that Navajo man, forgot for the time being 00:55:16.420 --> 00:55:19.630 align:middle line:84% that the brothers from Acoma East of Grants 00:55:19.630 --> 00:55:22.450 align:middle line:84% had killed that state patrolman and never 00:55:22.450 --> 00:55:26.980 align:middle line:84% mind also that the city jail full of Indians. 00:55:26.980 --> 00:55:30.370 align:middle line:84% The city fathers named a city park after him 00:55:30.370 --> 00:55:34.270 align:middle line:84% and some even wanted to put up a statue of Martinez, 00:55:34.270 --> 00:55:39.610 align:middle line:84% but others said that was going too far for just an Indian 00:55:39.610 --> 00:55:45.550 align:middle line:84% even if he was the one who started that area into a boom. 00:55:45.550 --> 00:55:48.940 align:middle line:84% Well, later on when some folks began 00:55:48.940 --> 00:55:52.120 align:middle line:84% to complain about chemical poisons flowing 00:55:52.120 --> 00:55:55.570 align:middle line:84% into the streams from the processing mills 00:55:55.570 --> 00:56:00.580 align:middle line:84% car, wrecks on Highway 53, lack of housing in Grants, 00:56:00.580 --> 00:56:05.890 align:middle line:84% cave ins at section 33, non-union support, high cost 00:56:05.890 --> 00:56:09.580 align:middle line:84% of living, uranium radiation causing cancer, 00:56:09.580 --> 00:56:12.700 align:middle line:84% they the Grants chamber of commerce 00:56:12.700 --> 00:56:18.790 align:middle line:84% always pointed out that it was Martinez, that Navajo Indians 00:56:18.790 --> 00:56:22.240 align:middle line:84% from over by Bluewater who discovered uranium, 00:56:22.240 --> 00:56:25.780 align:middle line:84% it says so in this here brochure, 00:56:25.780 --> 00:56:28.480 align:middle line:84% he found that green stone over by Haystack 00:56:28.480 --> 00:56:31.960 align:middle line:84% out behind his hogan, it was that Indian 00:56:31.960 --> 00:56:33.415 align:middle line:90% who started that boom. 00:56:33.415 --> 00:56:43.930 align:middle line:90% 00:56:43.930 --> 00:56:45.070 align:middle line:90% Starting at the bottom. 00:56:45.070 --> 00:56:48.390 align:middle line:90% 00:56:48.390 --> 00:56:52.950 align:middle line:84% The truth is most of us didn't know much about the unions 00:56:52.950 --> 00:56:54.420 align:middle line:90% at any rate. 00:56:54.420 --> 00:56:56.340 align:middle line:90% A job was a job. 00:56:56.340 --> 00:56:59.700 align:middle line:84% You were lucky to have one if you got one. 00:56:59.700 --> 00:57:03.120 align:middle line:84% The truth is the companies didn't much care 00:57:03.120 --> 00:57:08.040 align:middle line:84% nor did the unions even if both of them were working our land. 00:57:08.040 --> 00:57:11.520 align:middle line:84% When the mines came to Laguna and Acoma land, 00:57:11.520 --> 00:57:14.100 align:middle line:84% the men and their families were glad in a way 00:57:14.100 --> 00:57:17.190 align:middle line:84% because the men wouldn't have to go so far 00:57:17.190 --> 00:57:21.930 align:middle line:84% away to work for the railroad in Barstow, Richmond, Flagstaff, 00:57:21.930 --> 00:57:26.850 align:middle line:84% Needles or to pick beets and onions in Idaho, Utah, 00:57:26.850 --> 00:57:31.260 align:middle line:84% and Colorado in Arizona or work for them in Bluewater 00:57:31.260 --> 00:57:35.940 align:middle line:84% Valley who paid you in carrots and potatoes. 00:57:35.940 --> 00:57:39.900 align:middle line:84% When Jackpile opened up on Laguna land 00:57:39.900 --> 00:57:43.710 align:middle line:84% some Laguna men got on all right at the bottom. 00:57:43.710 --> 00:57:47.040 align:middle line:84% You have to start at the bottom, personnel said, 00:57:47.040 --> 00:57:51.000 align:middle line:84% for a training period and work your way up. 00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:54.630 align:middle line:84% The Acoma men went to the Ambrosia Lake mines 00:57:54.630 --> 00:57:57.780 align:middle line:84% and always got stuck by the space on the application 00:57:57.780 --> 00:58:00.720 align:middle line:84% forms for previous mining experience, 00:58:00.720 --> 00:58:05.220 align:middle line:84% but the mine steward explained, you have to start at the bottom 00:58:05.220 --> 00:58:07.710 align:middle line:90% and work your way up. 00:58:07.710 --> 00:58:12.800 align:middle line:84% So almost 30 years later the Acoma men 00:58:12.800 --> 00:58:16.730 align:middle line:84% were at the bottom of the underground mines at Ambrosia 00:58:16.730 --> 00:58:21.170 align:middle line:84% Lake and the Laguna men were at the bottom of the open pit 00:58:21.170 --> 00:58:22.760 align:middle line:90% at Jackpile. 00:58:22.760 --> 00:58:27.020 align:middle line:84% They were still training gaining experience and working 00:58:27.020 --> 00:58:29.030 align:middle line:90% their way up. 00:58:29.030 --> 00:58:33.365 align:middle line:84% And weekends that city jail was still full. 00:58:33.365 --> 00:58:43.580 align:middle line:90% 00:58:43.580 --> 00:58:51.030 align:middle line:84% When I worked there it was in '60 '61, then 00:58:51.030 --> 00:58:52.750 align:middle line:90% I went to college. 00:58:52.750 --> 00:58:58.860 align:middle line:84% But the mines still went on to 1980 00:58:58.860 --> 00:59:02.700 align:middle line:84% and then the uranium market fell out, the bottom fell out 00:59:02.700 --> 00:59:06.780 align:middle line:84% and there's no more uranium mining there. 00:59:06.780 --> 00:59:11.660 align:middle line:84% But the mines are still there and the processing plants, 00:59:11.660 --> 00:59:14.940 align:middle line:84% the ore processing plants are still there. 00:59:14.940 --> 00:59:17.610 align:middle line:90% They're still assembled. 00:59:17.610 --> 00:59:22.610 align:middle line:84% The energy companies are still waiting for that time 00:59:22.610 --> 00:59:25.535 align:middle line:84% when the market will go back up and they'll start again. 00:59:25.535 --> 00:59:30.140 align:middle line:90% 00:59:30.140 --> 00:59:32.780 align:middle line:90% Crazy Gook Indians. 00:59:32.780 --> 00:59:36.450 align:middle line:84% Danny and Emmett got back from Vietnam, 00:59:36.450 --> 00:59:39.200 align:middle line:90% and went to work in the mines. 00:59:39.200 --> 00:59:44.420 align:middle line:84% Danny said, in section 30, one afternoon we blasted 00:59:44.420 --> 00:59:48.920 align:middle line:84% and my partner Emmett thought we were back in Vietnam, back 00:59:48.920 --> 00:59:52.400 align:middle line:90% in the tunnels after the enemy. 00:59:52.400 --> 00:59:56.300 align:middle line:84% He picked up that drill like it was an M-60 00:59:56.300 --> 01:00:00.380 align:middle line:84% and tried to defend us against the shift boss who 01:00:00.380 --> 01:00:03.470 align:middle line:90% had been in the marines too. 01:00:03.470 --> 01:00:07.430 align:middle line:84% I got Emmett quieted down and held him in my arms 01:00:07.430 --> 01:00:08.870 align:middle line:90% for a while. 01:00:08.870 --> 01:00:11.930 align:middle line:84% The boss just laughed and later I 01:00:11.930 --> 01:00:14.630 align:middle line:84% heard him laughing with the superintendent 01:00:14.630 --> 01:00:19.160 align:middle line:84% about those crazy gook Indians on his shift. 01:00:19.160 --> 01:00:23.270 align:middle line:84% I guess I should have let my partner defend us 01:00:23.270 --> 01:00:24.500 align:middle line:90% against that marine. 01:00:24.500 --> 01:00:48.780 align:middle line:90% 01:00:48.780 --> 01:00:54.630 align:middle line:84% I was 19 when I was working up there 01:00:54.630 --> 01:01:00.850 align:middle line:84% and that was really my first real experience of ever working 01:01:00.850 --> 01:01:07.420 align:middle line:84% with non-Indian people and to any great extent listening 01:01:07.420 --> 01:01:09.190 align:middle line:90% to what they said. 01:01:09.190 --> 01:01:14.620 align:middle line:84% As I said earlier, that was so much similar in some ways 01:01:14.620 --> 01:01:19.510 align:middle line:84% the stories that were shared by the working men 01:01:19.510 --> 01:01:22.800 align:middle line:90% white miners for the most part. 01:01:22.800 --> 01:01:27.480 align:middle line:84% They reminded me of the stories from railroad work. 01:01:27.480 --> 01:01:32.810 align:middle line:84% Hardworking people have hardworking stories. 01:01:32.810 --> 01:01:37.170 align:middle line:84% I was saved from more years in the mines 01:01:37.170 --> 01:01:42.590 align:middle line:84% and the processing mills for the uranium mining 01:01:42.590 --> 01:01:45.650 align:middle line:84% and processing company Kerr McGee 01:01:45.650 --> 01:01:49.400 align:middle line:84% from Oklahoma because of a strike. 01:01:49.400 --> 01:01:55.850 align:middle line:84% One of the strike leaders was a young man from home. 01:01:55.850 --> 01:02:01.490 align:middle line:84% And I realized that, well, this is 01:02:01.490 --> 01:02:06.540 align:middle line:90% a story about that young man. 01:02:06.540 --> 01:02:08.900 align:middle line:84% And what I mean about the similarity 01:02:08.900 --> 01:02:13.580 align:middle line:84% is that the common denominator of stories 01:02:13.580 --> 01:02:18.350 align:middle line:84% is the common denominator of trying 01:02:18.350 --> 01:02:25.010 align:middle line:84% to fight for what you are about and who you are as an Indian 01:02:25.010 --> 01:02:28.880 align:middle line:90% or as a hardworking non-Indian. 01:02:28.880 --> 01:02:31.010 align:middle line:90% This is what I mean. 01:02:31.010 --> 01:02:32.980 align:middle line:90% Agee. 01:02:32.980 --> 01:02:36.280 align:middle line:84% I don't mean that Agee, I mean Agee from home. 01:02:36.280 --> 01:02:39.550 align:middle line:84% He was just one of us, but a hero, 01:02:39.550 --> 01:02:44.900 align:middle line:84% I mean not in a big way but real because he was one of us. 01:02:44.900 --> 01:02:48.640 align:middle line:84% He was a young who never got beyond 19. 01:02:48.640 --> 01:02:52.540 align:middle line:84% We were the same age though in school he was always behind 01:02:52.540 --> 01:02:56.440 align:middle line:84% and the teachers were always on him for not doing well. 01:02:56.440 --> 01:02:59.440 align:middle line:84% Agee was always laughing and fooling around 01:02:59.440 --> 01:03:02.380 align:middle line:84% and talking Indian, you couldn't do that, 01:03:02.380 --> 01:03:05.230 align:middle line:84% and making English sound like Indian. 01:03:05.230 --> 01:03:07.660 align:middle line:90% You couldn't do that either. 01:03:07.660 --> 01:03:09.940 align:middle line:90% English had to be English. 01:03:09.940 --> 01:03:14.260 align:middle line:84% That was the real American way, and Indian was just Indian. 01:03:14.260 --> 01:03:18.010 align:middle line:84% The teachers so much as said that to us. 01:03:18.010 --> 01:03:22.600 align:middle line:84% Agee quit school in junior high and went to work in the mines. 01:03:22.600 --> 01:03:25.450 align:middle line:84% He went to work because his family was poor 01:03:25.450 --> 01:03:27.700 align:middle line:90% like all our families were poor. 01:03:27.700 --> 01:03:30.130 align:middle line:84% He was one of the first guys from home 01:03:30.130 --> 01:03:33.640 align:middle line:84% in the mines and probably the youngest. 01:03:33.640 --> 01:03:37.090 align:middle line:84% After high school when I started working for Kermac mill 01:03:37.090 --> 01:03:43.000 align:middle line:84% at Ambrosia lake, he was at Haystack working underground. 01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:44.050 align:middle line:90% It's funny. 01:03:44.050 --> 01:03:45.400 align:middle line:90% I mean this. 01:03:45.400 --> 01:03:48.760 align:middle line:84% Teachers in school were always on him because he [AUDIO OUT] 01:03:48.760 --> 01:03:53.810 align:middle line:84% read or wouldn't or couldn't talk English or wouldn't. 01:03:53.810 --> 01:03:58.570 align:middle line:84% But once when I was in grandma's cafe in Milan 01:03:58.570 --> 01:04:00.730 align:middle line:84% where the guys I rode with sometimes 01:04:00.730 --> 01:04:04.750 align:middle line:84% stopped to pick up bag lunches, I was surprised. 01:04:04.750 --> 01:04:08.230 align:middle line:84% Grandma's cafe was usually crowded with miners and mill 01:04:08.230 --> 01:04:12.520 align:middle line:84% workers, but not many of us Indians ever went in there 01:04:12.520 --> 01:04:16.390 align:middle line:84% and Agee was there and he was talking. 01:04:16.390 --> 01:04:19.000 align:middle line:90% I mean talking. 01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:23.710 align:middle line:84% That may not sound like a big deal, but this is what I mean. 01:04:23.710 --> 01:04:25.300 align:middle line:90% We didn't talk much. 01:04:25.300 --> 01:04:27.760 align:middle line:84% Some Indians say Indians are just 01:04:27.760 --> 01:04:35.350 align:middle line:84% like that, shy and reserved and polite, but that's mostly crap. 01:04:35.350 --> 01:04:40.090 align:middle line:84% Lots of times we were just plain scared and we kept our mouths 01:04:40.090 --> 01:04:40.990 align:middle line:90% shut. 01:04:40.990 --> 01:04:44.770 align:middle line:84% I mean Grants and Milan and the mines between Haystack 01:04:44.770 --> 01:04:49.090 align:middle line:84% and Ambrosia Lake all that area used to be Indian land, 01:04:49.090 --> 01:04:51.940 align:middle line:84% Acoma land, but it was surveyed, [AUDIO OUT] 01:04:51.940 --> 01:04:54.340 align:middle line:84% and stolen at the turn of the century, 01:04:54.340 --> 01:04:58.010 align:middle line:84% and there was plenty to say but we didn't say it. 01:04:58.010 --> 01:05:02.830 align:middle line:84% I mean, being Indian wasn't the safest thing to be in town. 01:05:02.830 --> 01:05:08.950 align:middle line:84% So we didn't say much, much less being in Grandma's cafe arguing 01:05:08.950 --> 01:05:12.520 align:middle line:84% with white miners who made jokes about squaws 01:05:12.520 --> 01:05:14.890 align:middle line:90% and called you chief. 01:05:14.890 --> 01:05:18.730 align:middle line:90% I mean Agee was talking. 01:05:18.730 --> 01:05:22.210 align:middle line:84% And he was reading too from the union contract which 01:05:22.210 --> 01:05:24.250 align:middle line:90% was the issue of the argument. 01:05:24.250 --> 01:05:28.090 align:middle line:84% That was right before the strike in 1961. 01:05:28.090 --> 01:05:31.090 align:middle line:84% Most of us few Indian workers didn't know much 01:05:31.090 --> 01:05:33.520 align:middle line:84% about the mine unions, and Agee was 01:05:33.520 --> 01:05:35.770 align:middle line:84% one of the first members from home 01:05:35.770 --> 01:05:38.650 align:middle line:84% and he was arguing for the strike. 01:05:38.650 --> 01:05:42.830 align:middle line:84% As I said before, most of us didn't say much of anything. 01:05:42.830 --> 01:05:47.680 align:middle line:84% We were just glad for the jobs we had, union or no union. 01:05:47.680 --> 01:05:50.890 align:middle line:84% But Agee when the workers went on strike 01:05:50.890 --> 01:05:56.050 align:middle line:84% later spoke for us saying that India, just like other workers 01:05:56.050 --> 01:05:59.560 align:middle line:84% and he wasn't shy or reserved saying 01:05:59.560 --> 01:06:05.950 align:middle line:84% that in English that sounded OK and Mexican and Indian. 01:06:05.950 --> 01:06:10.510 align:middle line:84% Later on Agee went down to Silver City 01:06:10.510 --> 01:06:13.210 align:middle line:84% when the workers went on strike there. 01:06:13.210 --> 01:06:16.270 align:middle line:84% He was always doing that, helping folks 01:06:16.270 --> 01:06:21.130 align:middle line:84% especially old folks and it didn't matter who. 01:06:21.130 --> 01:06:26.410 align:middle line:84% Well, down there one night he was changing a tire 01:06:26.410 --> 01:06:29.470 align:middle line:84% or pushing a stalled car or something. 01:06:29.470 --> 01:06:32.530 align:middle line:90% He was struck accidentally. 01:06:32.530 --> 01:06:37.270 align:middle line:84% That's what they told folks at home and maybe it was. 01:06:37.270 --> 01:06:43.030 align:middle line:84% And maybe too it was because Agee was just another worker, 01:06:43.030 --> 01:06:44.740 align:middle line:90% just another Indian. 01:06:44.740 --> 01:06:50.750 align:middle line:84% There was nothing else necessary for them to tell us. 01:06:50.750 --> 01:06:58.540 align:middle line:84% But what I mean is although Agee never made it beyond young, 01:06:58.540 --> 01:07:03.550 align:middle line:84% the mines were still there and the workers were still fighting 01:07:03.550 --> 01:07:07.720 align:middle line:84% and old people still needed help and the language 01:07:07.720 --> 01:07:11.380 align:middle line:84% of our struggle just sounds and reads 01:07:11.380 --> 01:07:17.860 align:middle line:84% like an Indian, Okie, Cajun, Black, Mexican hero story. 01:07:17.860 --> 01:07:20.290 align:middle line:90% That's what we mean. 01:07:20.290 --> 01:07:22.570 align:middle line:90% That's what we mean. 01:07:22.570 --> 01:07:43.980 align:middle line:90% 01:07:43.980 --> 01:07:55.750 align:middle line:84% In order to give my voice a little rest, I'll sing. 01:07:55.750 --> 01:07:56.790 align:middle line:90% It's just relaxing. 01:07:56.790 --> 01:08:00.180 align:middle line:90% It also gives me more breath. 01:08:00.180 --> 01:08:03.640 align:middle line:84% [AUDIO OUT] is not only something 01:08:03.640 --> 01:08:07.760 align:middle line:84% that we do in our minds abstractly 01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:09.200 align:middle line:90% but it's a physical thing. 01:08:09.200 --> 01:08:12.980 align:middle line:90% It's a physical thing. 01:08:12.980 --> 01:08:21.140 align:middle line:84% My father died as I said in 1978, 01:08:21.140 --> 01:08:24.810 align:middle line:84% and he loved to sing when he was alive. 01:08:24.810 --> 01:08:26.240 align:middle line:90% He was a good singer. 01:08:26.240 --> 01:08:31.580 align:middle line:90% He made songs at Acoma. 01:08:31.580 --> 01:08:37.189 align:middle line:84% And so when he was sick I was teaching in California 01:08:37.189 --> 01:08:39.149 align:middle line:90% at that time and I came home. 01:08:39.149 --> 01:08:44.350 align:middle line:84% He was in a coma, so I was never able to talk 01:08:44.350 --> 01:08:45.490 align:middle line:90% so he would respond. 01:08:45.490 --> 01:08:50.170 align:middle line:84% But I talked with him as he lay in the hospital bed. 01:08:50.170 --> 01:08:53.540 align:middle line:84% And towards the end of his I think 01:08:53.540 --> 01:08:56.880 align:middle line:84% it was about 10 days that he was in the coma, 01:08:56.880 --> 01:09:03.680 align:middle line:84% I sat with him one early, early morning and this song 01:09:03.680 --> 01:09:04.985 align:middle line:90% beating the heart beat. 01:09:04.985 --> 01:09:08.200 align:middle line:90% 01:09:08.200 --> 01:09:10.390 align:middle line:90% It's a song about that. 01:09:10.390 --> 01:09:13.479 align:middle line:84% Before my father returned to the continuing Earth life, 01:09:13.479 --> 01:09:18.670 align:middle line:84% before he traveled back North, we sat with him for long hours. 01:09:18.670 --> 01:09:22.540 align:middle line:84% And once early, early in the morning in the hospital just 01:09:22.540 --> 01:09:26.140 align:middle line:84% he and I and the oscilloscope above his bed 01:09:26.140 --> 01:09:28.630 align:middle line:84% beating the heartbeat of his life, 01:09:28.630 --> 01:09:31.240 align:middle line:84% beating the heartbeat of our life. 01:09:31.240 --> 01:09:35.319 align:middle line:90% This song remembers him. 01:09:35.319 --> 01:09:42.470 align:middle line:84% Heart beating, heart beating, heart beating, 01:09:42.470 --> 01:09:48.622 align:middle line:84% beating, beating, beating, beating, beating, beating. 01:09:48.622 --> 01:09:52.390 align:middle line:90% 01:09:52.390 --> 01:09:59.530 align:middle line:84% Heart beating, heart beating, heart beating, 01:09:59.530 --> 01:10:05.736 align:middle line:84% beating, beating, beating, beating, beating, beating. 01:10:05.736 --> 01:10:08.420 align:middle line:90% 01:10:08.420 --> 01:10:17.860 align:middle line:84% Life beating, Earth beating, all beating, beating, beating, 01:10:17.860 --> 01:10:21.920 align:middle line:84% beating, beating, beating, beating. 01:10:21.920 --> 01:10:25.500 align:middle line:90% 01:10:25.500 --> 01:10:36.380 align:middle line:84% Life beating, Earth beating, all beating, beating, beating, 01:10:36.380 --> 01:10:39.066 align:middle line:90% beating, beating, beating. 01:10:39.066 --> 01:10:42.340 align:middle line:90% 01:10:42.340 --> 01:10:51.920 align:middle line:84% Heart beating, life beating, we shall know living living, 01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:56.180 align:middle line:90% living, living, living, living. 01:10:56.180 --> 01:10:59.090 align:middle line:90% 01:10:59.090 --> 01:11:09.410 align:middle line:84% Heart beating, life beating, we shall know living living, 01:11:09.410 --> 01:11:12.190 align:middle line:90% living, living, living. 01:11:12.190 --> 01:11:15.320 align:middle line:90% 01:11:15.320 --> 01:11:18.785 align:middle line:90% We shall know living. 01:11:18.785 --> 01:11:22.170 align:middle line:90% 01:11:22.170 --> 01:11:26.205 align:middle line:90% We shall know living. 01:11:26.205 --> 01:11:33.730 align:middle line:90% 01:11:33.730 --> 01:11:42.540 align:middle line:84% To close off this reading, I'll finish with a couple of poems 01:11:42.540 --> 01:11:54.570 align:middle line:84% from After and Before the Lightning, 01:11:54.570 --> 01:12:01.080 align:middle line:84% which is being considered with a publisher in the East presently 01:12:01.080 --> 01:12:06.390 align:middle line:84% and I hope that they will eventually 01:12:06.390 --> 01:12:08.670 align:middle line:90% decide to publish it. 01:12:08.670 --> 01:12:11.280 align:middle line:90% I wrote it about '85-- 01:12:11.280 --> 01:12:17.880 align:middle line:84% 1986 when I was teaching at Sinte Gleska in South Dakota. 01:12:17.880 --> 01:12:21.540 align:middle line:84% After and Before the Lightning refers to the season of winter 01:12:21.540 --> 01:12:27.840 align:middle line:84% after the last lightning in October or so 01:12:27.840 --> 01:12:33.360 align:middle line:84% and before the first lightning which is in March or April. 01:12:33.360 --> 01:12:36.180 align:middle line:90% It's a long season of winter. 01:12:36.180 --> 01:12:42.060 align:middle line:84% And in the Midwest for those of you as you know it's quite-- 01:12:42.060 --> 01:12:44.550 align:middle line:90% winters are quite severe. 01:12:44.550 --> 01:12:48.810 align:middle line:84% It makes a person really aware of his life 01:12:48.810 --> 01:12:54.720 align:middle line:84% and what his life has to do with the natural force, the power 01:12:54.720 --> 01:12:59.760 align:middle line:84% of the natural elements, the coal, the wind, and its beauty, 01:12:59.760 --> 01:13:01.125 align:middle line:90% its fierce beauty. 01:13:01.125 --> 01:13:04.020 align:middle line:90% 01:13:04.020 --> 01:13:09.150 align:middle line:84% So tonight's reading is part of the series of poetry. 01:13:09.150 --> 01:13:11.340 align:middle line:84% Poetics and politics will conclude 01:13:11.340 --> 01:13:15.090 align:middle line:90% with a couple of poems. 01:13:15.090 --> 01:13:27.880 align:middle line:84% This one is called Nothing to do with Halley or Haly. 01:13:27.880 --> 01:13:31.510 align:middle line:90% 01:13:31.510 --> 01:13:41.680 align:middle line:84% We are ice and stone, fire and air, comets in the galaxy. 01:13:41.680 --> 01:13:47.080 align:middle line:84% The tail that glistens in our wake is our own origin. 01:13:47.080 --> 01:13:51.580 align:middle line:84% The moment of creation is each day. 01:13:51.580 --> 01:13:55.390 align:middle line:84% There is no wonder about our curiosity 01:13:55.390 --> 01:13:58.250 align:middle line:90% of what is in the heavens. 01:13:58.250 --> 01:14:01.930 align:middle line:90% It is ourselves we try to see. 01:14:01.930 --> 01:14:07.900 align:middle line:84% The stars, planets, comets are our being. 01:14:07.900 --> 01:14:16.090 align:middle line:84% We are the reflection and they are ours, no more no less. 01:14:16.090 --> 01:14:19.180 align:middle line:90% Haley has nothing to do with it. 01:14:19.180 --> 01:14:27.710 align:middle line:84% The comet can only be known by all of us coming into being. 01:14:27.710 --> 01:14:36.430 align:middle line:84% At that time I think it was that the Halley's comet was 01:14:36.430 --> 01:14:39.715 align:middle line:84% coming close to the Earth in '85, '86 the winter. 01:14:39.715 --> 01:14:45.750 align:middle line:90% 01:14:45.750 --> 01:14:51.030 align:middle line:90% Star memory travel December. 01:14:51.030 --> 01:14:54.540 align:middle line:84% Night travel toward the unseen horizon 01:14:54.540 --> 01:14:59.130 align:middle line:84% even knowledge is not sure of yet rough estimate 01:14:59.130 --> 01:15:01.920 align:middle line:90% serves as likely guide. 01:15:01.920 --> 01:15:07.620 align:middle line:84% Enough is seen has been from millennia of urgent blood. 01:15:07.620 --> 01:15:10.890 align:middle line:84% What we can live by is not enough, 01:15:10.890 --> 01:15:14.280 align:middle line:84% perhaps just abstractions which linger 01:15:14.280 --> 01:15:20.292 align:middle line:84% at the edge of memory in the past yet we live nonetheless. 01:15:20.292 --> 01:15:22.620 align:middle line:84% [AUDIO OUT] Thrive on constructions 01:15:22.620 --> 01:15:26.940 align:middle line:84% that are not faults but the verifiable truth. 01:15:26.940 --> 01:15:31.500 align:middle line:84% Destination is already secure, has been. 01:15:31.500 --> 01:15:34.590 align:middle line:90% The blood knows that certainty. 01:15:34.590 --> 01:15:40.710 align:middle line:84% This night travel guided only by last June's fierce star 01:15:40.710 --> 01:15:45.120 align:middle line:84% as our final hope survives as the horizon 01:15:45.120 --> 01:15:48.510 align:middle line:90% of our amazing knowledge. 01:15:48.510 --> 01:15:53.280 align:middle line:84% Coming from Valentine Nebraska crossing the state line 01:15:53.280 --> 01:15:56.940 align:middle line:84% into South Dakota, the long distance dark 01:15:56.940 --> 01:16:00.780 align:middle line:84% of the great prairie is unfathomable. 01:16:00.780 --> 01:16:05.490 align:middle line:84% Nothing is known beyond the limited scope of the car lights 01:16:05.490 --> 01:16:07.200 align:middle line:90% beyond the curve. 01:16:07.200 --> 01:16:12.390 align:middle line:84% I think we don't survive by instinct much at times. 01:16:12.390 --> 01:16:18.690 align:middle line:84% We survive and go beyond by the constructions made by our hope. 01:16:18.690 --> 01:16:23.070 align:middle line:90% And history experience identity. 01:16:23.070 --> 01:16:26.580 align:middle line:84% Memory is our experience at the same time 01:16:26.580 --> 01:16:29.250 align:middle line:90% that memory is our hope. 01:16:29.250 --> 01:16:34.260 align:middle line:84% We can't see the horizon yet know it's there. 01:16:34.260 --> 01:16:39.090 align:middle line:84% It has to do, it has to be there since we do 01:16:39.090 --> 01:16:42.450 align:middle line:90% have some rough estimate of it. 01:16:42.450 --> 01:16:46.080 align:middle line:84% We know enough of history and experience 01:16:46.080 --> 01:16:48.960 align:middle line:90% to know it has been there. 01:16:48.960 --> 01:16:52.230 align:middle line:90% Our identity is based on it. 01:16:52.230 --> 01:16:56.070 align:middle line:84% It could not possibly not be there 01:16:56.070 --> 01:16:58.590 align:middle line:90% if we want to be something. 01:16:58.590 --> 01:17:03.180 align:middle line:84% The future is not secured without the construction 01:17:03.180 --> 01:17:04.710 align:middle line:90% of certainty. 01:17:04.710 --> 01:17:08.100 align:middle line:84% The only way we know that mission 01:17:08.100 --> 01:17:13.530 align:middle line:84% is that the horizon we yearn for and finally Okreek 01:17:13.530 --> 01:17:16.740 align:middle line:90% is because we want to get there. 01:17:16.740 --> 01:17:22.500 align:middle line:84% We would be false to ourselves if we did not believe that. 01:17:22.500 --> 01:17:26.130 align:middle line:84% There would only be the gloomy, dark, 01:17:26.130 --> 01:17:30.160 align:middle line:84% a wind that has entered the spirit. 01:17:30.160 --> 01:17:37.195 align:middle line:84% Do not go gently, Dylan Thomas whispered loudly into the dark. 01:17:37.195 --> 01:17:40.540 align:middle line:90% 01:17:40.540 --> 01:17:42.070 align:middle line:90% Enormous knowledge. 01:17:42.070 --> 01:17:45.370 align:middle line:90% 01:17:45.370 --> 01:17:50.350 align:middle line:84% It is amazing how much knowledge we have of hope. 01:17:50.350 --> 01:17:55.780 align:middle line:84% Whisper bravely into the dark heart. 01:17:55.780 --> 01:17:59.920 align:middle line:90% Whisper loudly, whisper loudly. 01:17:59.920 --> 01:18:07.500 align:middle line:90% 01:18:07.500 --> 01:18:13.920 align:middle line:84% And the last poem, Our Eagerness Blooms. 01:18:13.920 --> 01:18:21.270 align:middle line:90% 01:18:21.270 --> 01:18:27.630 align:middle line:84% In the shadows beyond the creek, now only patches of snow 01:18:27.630 --> 01:18:32.580 align:middle line:84% remain, greening its soft urgency. 01:18:32.580 --> 01:18:35.610 align:middle line:84% Eagerly we dug the soil yesterday. 01:18:35.610 --> 01:18:38.970 align:middle line:84% We kept looking at the browning hills. 01:18:38.970 --> 01:18:42.120 align:middle line:84% It doesn't matter if it snows again. 01:18:42.120 --> 01:18:45.240 align:middle line:84% We're fearless as the coming spring. 01:18:45.240 --> 01:18:48.660 align:middle line:84% It could never be the same as last month. 01:18:48.660 --> 01:18:51.750 align:middle line:90% The moving Earth tells us that. 01:18:51.750 --> 01:18:55.980 align:middle line:84% The shadows are luminescent eager to receive 01:18:55.980 --> 01:18:58.470 align:middle line:90% the early spring light. 01:18:58.470 --> 01:19:02.700 align:middle line:84% Trees we can tell are growing supple. 01:19:02.700 --> 01:19:10.920 align:middle line:84% Last night a sensual odor flew in the window we didn't close. 01:19:10.920 --> 01:19:15.000 align:middle line:84% What's your sign there comes gradually. 01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.260 align:middle line:84% We trust that our eagerness is not foolish. 01:19:19.260 --> 01:19:21.120 align:middle line:90% It's not. 01:19:21.120 --> 01:19:25.140 align:middle line:84% Though spring may disappoint, always it 01:19:25.140 --> 01:19:28.620 align:middle line:90% is ready to receive us again. 01:19:28.620 --> 01:19:32.550 align:middle line:90% The snow hides into shadow. 01:19:32.550 --> 01:19:37.730 align:middle line:90% We bloom, we bloom. 01:19:37.730 --> 01:19:39.170 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 01:19:39.170 --> 01:19:41.020 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:19:41.020 --> 01:19:53.470 align:middle line:90%