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Follow the blackbirds / Gwen Nell Westerman.

LIBRA PS3623.E84767 F65 2013
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Westerman, Gwen.
Series:
American Indian studies series (East Lansing, Mich.)
American Indian Studies Series
Standardized Title:
Poems. Selections
Language:
Dakota
English
Subjects (All):
Families--Poetry.
Families.
Dakota women.
Home.
Home--Poetry.
Dakota women--Poetry.
Dakota Indians--Poetry.
Dakota Indians.
Genre:
Poetry.
Physical Description:
72 pages ; 23 cm.
Place of Publication:
East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [2013]
Summary:
Poet Gwen Nell Westerman builds a world in words that reflects the past, present, and future of the Dakota people. An intricate balance between the singularity of personal experience and the unity of collective longing, Follow the Blackbirds speaks to the affection and appreciation a contemporary poet feels for her family, community, and environment. With touches of humor and the occasional sharp cultural criticism, the voice that emerges from these poems is that of a Dakota woman rooted in her world and her words. Westerman reflects on history and family from a perspective that connects the painful past and the hard-fought future of her Dakota homeland. Grounded in vivid story and memory, Westerman draws on both English and the Dakota language to celebrate the long journey along sunflower-lined highways of the tallgrass prairies of the Great Plains that returns her to a place filled with "more than history." An homage to the power of place, this book tells a story of cultural survival and the power of language.
Contents:
Follow the blackbirds
A trade
School days
Innocent captives
Mourning song
Dying of thirst
Linear process
Saving scraps
Dead end
Early freeze
Henana epe kte
Quantum theory
Genetic code
Feed them
This is my explaining ceremony
Red earth gathering
Journey
Flint Hills release
First flight
Where the buffalo roam
No contest
Linear perspective
Monet on the Northern Plains
Road song
Delisted
Root words
At Spirit Lake
Ḣe Keya Woabdakedan̦
Venetian
Skin essentials
Why he teaches the language
Daḳota Odowan̦
Morning song
Winuna
Wican̦hpi heciya tan̦han̦ un̦hipi (We come from the stars)
The lesson
Owotan̦na Sececa
Going back
Migration
Wowicak'u
Below the surface.
ISBN:
9781611860924
161186092X
OCLC:
826016001
Publisher Number:
40022775448

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