The Secret Powers of Naming (Volume 58) (Sun Tracks) - Softcover

Littlecrow-Russell, Sara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816525358 ISBN 13: 9780816525355

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2006

Synopsis

Sara Littlecrow-Russell’s style emerges from the ancient and sacred tradition of storytelling, where legends were told not just to entertain, but to teach and, if necessary, to discipline. The power of the storyteller is the power of naming, to establish a relationship, a connection, and a sense of meaning. A name is both a bequest and a burden. Each of the poems in this collection is, in essence, a naming ritual. Sharply, energetically, and always provocatively, these poems name uncomfortable moments, complex emotions, and sudden, often wryly humorous realizations.

As Littlecrow-Russell explores how names imposed by outsiders both collide and merge with the identities that Natives create for themselves, these poems decisively counter the images of Indians as colorful dancers, stoic saints, and defeated warriors. These verses are not constructed of beautiful images, nor are they stories of redemption. Instead, Littlecrow-Russell offers stark and honest witness to urban and reservation life at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In short snaps of honed lyric and voice, she tackles topics ranging from family, love, and spirituality, to welfare, addiction, and the thorny politics of tribal identity. Her work displays tremendous bitterness and anger, but there is also dignity, humor, and plenty of irony.

Candid and compelling, this collection brings fluent verse and human face to the commonly misrepresented experiences of Native Americans.

About this title

About the Author

Sara Littlecrow-Russell works with Community Partnerships for Social Change at Hampshire College and runs a small law and mediation practice in western Massachusetts.

From the Back Cover

Sara Littlecrow-Russellas style emerges from the ancient and sacred tradition of storytelling, where legends were told not just to entertain, but to teach and, if necessary, to discipline. The power of the storyteller is the power of naming, to establish a relationship, a connection, and a sense of meaning. A name is both a bequest and a burden. Each of the poems in this collection is, in essence, a naming ritual. Sharply, energetically, and always provocatively, these poems name uncomfortable moments, complex emotions, and sudden, often wryly humorous realizations. As she explores how names imposed by outsiders both collide and merge with the identities that Natives create for themselves, these poems decisively counter the images of Indians as colorful dancers, stoic saints, and defeated warriors. These verses are not constructed of beautiful images, nor are they stories of redemption. Instead, Littlecrow-Russell offers stark and honest witness to urban and reservation life at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In short snaps of honed lyric and voice, she tackles topics ranging from family, love, and spirituality, to welfare, addiction, and the thorny politics of tribal identity. Her work displays tremendous bitterness and anger, but there is also dignity, humor, and plenty of irony. Candid and compelling, this collection brings fluent verse and human face to the commonly misrepresented experiences of Native Americans.

Reviews

In Littlecrow-Russell's debut collection, she confronts the issues affecting contemporary Indians head-on, eschewing the more mellow territory of powwows and traditional dancers. A friend wanted to see Indian ruins, "So I drove him past HUD houses and boarded trailers, / Beer bottles and blood drops, / And a three year old girl huffing glue / From a brown paper bag." A grandfather shares "ancient words, delicate as antique deerskin" with his granddaughter; when she stamps her feet and demands he speak English, "his sudden silence wraps around them like a diseased trade blanket." Littlecrow--Russell writes of the shame of welfare and years of low-wage jobs with nothing to show for it, and describes an AIM member "found crumpled in the Dakota snow like the body of a reservation dog." In "Russian Roulette, Indian Style," the bullets are named alcohol, disease, poverty, violence, and assimilation, and "survival is finding the name of the empty chamber." Intense and evocative, Littlecrow-Russell's poems offer much food for thought. Deborah Donovan
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Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816525358
• ISBN 13: 9780816525355
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96