WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.830 --> 00:00:04.710 align:middle line:90% Maybe I'll read, instead. 00:00:04.710 --> 00:00:12.426 align:middle line:84% So then I'll read, I was thinking Elise Paschen's poem. 00:00:12.426 --> 00:00:14.590 align:middle line:84% And I might need help finding it because I 00:00:14.590 --> 00:00:19.860 align:middle line:84% didn't decide to read this until just a while ago. 00:00:19.860 --> 00:00:22.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.530 --> 00:00:25.200 align:middle line:90% I think I know where it is here. 00:00:25.200 --> 00:00:29.850 align:middle line:84% This poem-- yeah, and I don't have the pronunciation right. 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:31.830 align:middle line:90% Elise Paschen is Osage. 00:00:31.830 --> 00:00:34.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:38.550 align:middle line:84% I met her when she was executive director 00:00:38.550 --> 00:00:41.530 align:middle line:90% of Poetry Society of America. 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:45.510 align:middle line:84% And she is the person, and I don't think most people really 00:00:45.510 --> 00:00:47.940 align:middle line:84% know this, but she is the one that, there 00:00:47.940 --> 00:00:50.880 align:middle line:84% were no Natives ever as part of those organizations-- 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:53.820 align:middle line:84% Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society. 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:57.330 align:middle line:84% When I was coming up as a young poet you never saw Natives. 00:00:57.330 --> 00:01:00.750 align:middle line:84% We were never included in any of the programming. 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:04.030 align:middle line:90% We just were not present. 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:06.230 align:middle line:84% And when she became executive director 00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:11.540 align:middle line:84% of Poetry Society of America, suddenly there were Natives. 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:14.840 align:middle line:84% And it was because of her that Natives 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:20.990 align:middle line:84% began to really get to be part of the American poetry 00:01:20.990 --> 00:01:24.990 align:middle line:84% scene in those kinds of organizations. 00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:27.270 align:middle line:90% So I want to thank her for that. 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:31.940 align:middle line:84% And like I said I don't think most people know that. 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:36.500 align:middle line:84% And I remember she brought Luci Tapahonso and I 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:38.480 align:middle line:90% to go to England to read. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.350 align:middle line:90% 00:01:41.350 --> 00:01:43.990 align:middle line:84% So she teaches right now at the MFA program 00:01:43.990 --> 00:01:49.020 align:middle line:84% at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 00:01:49.020 --> 00:01:51.360 align:middle line:84% And I'm excited about her book manuscript. 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:54.690 align:middle line:84% She's been reading some of the poems of a new manuscript 00:01:54.690 --> 00:01:57.300 align:middle line:90% and of poetry. 00:01:57.300 --> 00:02:01.830 align:middle line:84% A lot of it about the oil murders at Osage. 00:02:01.830 --> 00:02:05.070 align:middle line:84% She had wanted to do a book, I think she even went to Chicago, 00:02:05.070 --> 00:02:06.840 align:middle line:84% she had a fellowship at the, what 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:11.930 align:middle line:84% is the name of that, the D'Arcy McNickle Center at the, what's 00:02:11.930 --> 00:02:15.100 align:middle line:90% the name of that organization? 00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:15.730 align:middle line:90% The Library. 00:02:15.730 --> 00:02:18.840 align:middle line:90% 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:21.890 align:middle line:90% LeAnne, I can't hear you. 00:02:21.890 --> 00:02:23.710 align:middle line:90% At Newberry Library. 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:26.450 align:middle line:84% At the Newberry Library, thank you. 00:02:26.450 --> 00:02:28.810 align:middle line:84% But this was the title of the book 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.390 align:middle line:90% that someone did write about. 00:02:31.390 --> 00:02:34.000 align:middle line:84% The Osage oil murders that's being made into a movie 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:35.560 align:middle line:84% called Killers of the Flower Moon. 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:36.865 align:middle line:90% The title came from this poem. 00:02:36.865 --> 00:02:40.030 align:middle line:90% 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:42.100 align:middle line:90% "Wi'-Gi-E." 00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:46.550 align:middle line:84% This is Anna Kyle Brown Osage [INAUDIBLE] 00:02:46.550 --> 00:02:52.370 align:middle line:90% 1896 to 1921, Fairfax, Oklahoma. 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:56.540 align:middle line:84% "Because she died where the ravine falls into water. 00:02:56.540 --> 00:02:59.960 align:middle line:84% Because they dragged her down to the creek. 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:04.160 align:middle line:84% In death, she wore her blue broadcloth skirt. 00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:05.960 align:middle line:84% Though frost blanketed the grass, 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:08.840 align:middle line:84% she cooled her feet in the spring. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.410 align:middle line:84% Because I turned the log with my foot. 00:03:12.410 --> 00:03:16.400 align:middle line:84% Her slippers floated downstream into the dam. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:21.050 align:middle line:84% Because, after the thaw, the hunters discovered her body. 00:03:21.050 --> 00:03:23.930 align:middle line:84% Because she lived without her mother. 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:26.780 align:middle line:84% Because she had inherited the head rights for oil 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:28.550 align:middle line:90% beneath the land. 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:31.560 align:middle line:90% She was carrying his offspring. 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.920 align:middle line:84% The sheriff disguised her death as whiskey poisoning. 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:37.170 align:middle line:84% Because, when he carved her body up, 00:03:37.170 --> 00:03:40.050 align:middle line:84% he saw the bullet hole in her skull. 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:44.610 align:middle line:84% Because, when she was murdered, the leg clutchers bloomed. 00:03:44.610 --> 00:03:47.970 align:middle line:84% But then froze under the weight of frost 00:03:47.970 --> 00:03:51.120 align:middle line:84% during the Killer of the Flowers Moon. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.700 align:middle line:84% I will wade across the river of the blackfish, 00:03:53.700 --> 00:03:55.320 align:middle line:90% the otter, the beaver. 00:03:55.320 --> 00:04:00.680 align:middle line:84% I will climb the bank where the willow never dies". 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:04.670 align:middle line:84% There's a comparative layering in this poem 00:04:04.670 --> 00:04:10.470 align:middle line:84% too, just as there is in Moses Jumper Jr.'s poem, Simplicity. 00:04:10.470 --> 00:04:14.710 align:middle line:84% A kind of layering of natural detail 00:04:14.710 --> 00:04:19.600 align:middle line:84% towards this very unnatural death by those thieves-- 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:21.389 align:middle line:90% by thieves.