"I wrote this poem in 1990, as we were starting The 1992 Alliance, a national coalition that promoted Native Peoples and histories during the build-up to the Columbus Quincentenary. As ships were being launched, again, and discovery celebrations were being planned for 1992 500-years anniversary, we were making sure that there would be commemorations of the more than 500 Native Nations that did not survive, as well as a celebration of those that did, and that we rocked some boats and declared some places as Columbus-free zones.

The U.S. Census was revealing a tragically high Native American suicide rate, again, and I wanted to write something for our kids that would give some way of summing up things that had been done to us that were not our fault, were not their fault. It was my primal scream to tell our kids to put the blame where it belonged and not take it out on themselves, and I dedicated it to Sheridan, who spawned, “The only good Indian’s a dead one,” and to some of his buddies and progeny who symbolized that message."

Get the Story:
Poems by Suzan Shown Harjo: jumping through the hoops of history and Macacalypto (Indian Country Today 10/9)