Misty Lynn Ellingburg: 'Four Winds' is a literary magazine for us

First and foremost, Four Winds is for us. I believe it is worthwhile for Indigenous artists to share their work and to benefit from Inter-tribal stories, patterns, and styles, in the same way we might at a powwow, when we all come together to form friendships, and appreciate each other’s backgrounds, diverse though they may be.

Yet, until July of this year, there was no singular literary journal or magazine dedicated to showcasing the art of the Indigenous People of North America. Yellow Medicine Review probably comes the closest, as it accepts submissions from Indigenous artists the world round. As/Us accepts submissions from (primarily) Native American women, and all women of color. But if you wanted to find a journal curated and edited by Native American authors, with exclusively Tribally-affiliated contributors, you wouldn't have been able to find one - until now.

Four Winds Literary Magazine is a kind of solution I thought up one day. I was simultaneously going through lists of literary journals, chatting with friends on Facebook, texting, and checking Instagram notifications (I am a woman of my generation) when it occurred to me - where is this magazine?