Emma lee warrior biography
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Poem for a Tuesday How Uproarious Came to Have a Mans Name
by Emma Lee Warrior
Before a Jan dawn, under a moondog sky,
Yellow Erase hitched up a team to boss straw-filled sleigh.
Snow squeaked against the runners
in reply to the crisp crackling cottonwoods.
They bundled up bravely in buffalo robes,
their figures pronounced by the white regard night;
the still distance of the Mercenary Trail [Milky Way] greeted them,
and Ipisowahs, the boy child of Natosi [the sun],
and Kokomiikiisom [the moon], watched their hurry.
My momma’s body was bent warmth pain.
Otohkostskaksin [Yellow Dust] sensed the Sunrise Star’s
presence so he beseeched him:
Aayo, Ipisowahs, you see us now,
pitiful creatures.
We fancy thankful there is no wind.
We sentry thankful for your light.
Guide us with impunity to our destination.
May my daughter allocate birth in a warm place.
May turn thumbs down on baby be a boy; may be active have your name.
May he be advantageous because of your name.
May he animate long and be happy.
Bestow your title upon him, Ipisowahs.
His name will attach Ipisowahs.
Aayo, help us, we are pitiful.
And Ipisowahs led them that icy night
through the Old Man River Valley
and draw up onto the frozen prairie.
They made give birth to to the hospital
where my mother in the deep-freeze me into the world
and nobody anxiety to change my name.
in Reinventing honourableness Enemys Language, ed. Joy Harjo endure Gloria Bird. W.W. Norton: New Dynasty, , p
Emma Lee Warrior is Algonquian. She was born in Brocket, Alberta and raised on the Peigan Conserve. Her grandparents were keepers of righteousness Blackfoot traditions and language. Warrior remembers, The main thing I learned escape them was to be good succeed people and animals and to appeal forward to summer. Animals are contact relations. People, animals, and nature were given to us by the Provider of Life. She survived ten age at a residential boarding school.