Itch like crazy / Wendy Rose.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rose, Wendy.

Series:

Sun tracks ; v. 51.

Sun tracks ; v. 51

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Families--Poetry.

Families.

Multiracial people.

Multiracial people--Poetry.

Indians of North America--Poetry.

Indians of North America.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

viii, 88 pages, 36 unnumbered pages : portraits ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, [2002]

Summary:

Among Native American writers of mixed-blood heritage, few have expressed their concerns with personal identity with as much passion as Wendy Rose. In Itch Like Crazy, this gifted writer uses poetry as a tool to delve into the buried secrets of family history -- and all of American history as well. Confronting questions of personal history that itch like crazy -- the irritations that drive human existence -- Rose pays tribute to her Indian and European ancestors without hiding her anger with American society. Here are Europeans who first set foot on America's shores while Taino Indians greeted them as if they were visiting neighbors; Hopi and Miwok "Clan Mothers, grand-daughters, all those the missionaries erased"; and European forebears who as settlers pushed their way relentlessly west. Through her vivid imagery, Rose speaks to and for these ancestors with a sense of loss and an itching caused by the biases provoked by ethnic chauvinism. Itch Like Crazy is a finely crafted literary work that is also a manifesto addressing contacts and conflicts in the history of Indian-white relations. By presenting another view of U.S. history and its impact on the Native Americans who are Rose's ancestors, it offers a new appreciation of the issue of "tribal identity" that too often faces Native peoples of the Americas -- and is too often misunderstood by Euro-American society.

Contents:

Part 1 These Bones

Imagine it like this 3

It happened that we were gathering shellfish 5

The Itch: First Notice 7

The Itch: Second Notice 9

Genealogical Research 12

Aborigine and Queen 14

Turning 17

Dear Grandfather Webb from England 21

Margaret Castor 23

Joseph Bigler 27

Margaret Mourns the Death of Joseph Bigler 30

Margaret Opens the Bon Ton Saloon 32

Castle Blake, Tipperary 34

Hugh Massey Barrett 39

Thinking of Andrew in Orono, Maine 41

Andrew MacInnes, You Look West Just at the Moment I Look East 43

Captain Andrew MacInnes of the Norfolk Militia 45

Henrietta's Song for Joseph 49

Joseph 51

Defending Earth against the Gold Rush 55

My Ghost Comes to Joseph Evans and Isabel Graham 57

One-Way Conversations: Grandmothers 59

1830 as I Remember It 61

Part 2 This Heart

One of those days when I see Columbus 67

International Hour of Prayer for the Yellowstone Buffalo Herd 69

I make this woman 71

Foremothers, I am that child 72

Listen. This is the Lie They Believed 74

Grandmother Rattler 75

Pahana Names the Mountain Flowers 78

Women Like Me 81

Signs of Survival: My Sister Weeds 83

Buckeye as You Are: September 11, 2001 85

Scientists said they expect to discover space warps 86

Epilogue: Leonid Shower, Late Fall, 2001 87

Part 3 Listen Here for the Voices.

ISBN:

0816521778

OCLC:

49698992