Hi MoJo Friends,
Happy New Year and Happy Solstice from out on the prairie.
These past few days here along Mni Sose have been extremely frigid, kind of like what i remember in the 40’s and 50’s. Those old stories of walking a mile to school in below freezing weather with the wing howling in your face ring true for me. No, they are not apocryphal tales.
I still love this weather, land and all the surprises it brings.
Besides deep dreaming and working on winter projects, this moon in our culture is the time for storytelling. I sat on the laps of some of the best storytellers and I remember hundreds of stories. Telling stories is how we stay together. It is how we learn about each other and how we stay connected. Some of my favorites were the Star Stories. I invite the readers to look up the story of the Star in the Cottonwood Tree.
I am constantly guided by the morals of stories and where they have led me in my life and writing.
Stay warm over there in the mountains and wherever these word find you.
All my best,
Lois
Roots
by Lois Red Elk
Roots are resting now,
buried deep below the freezing line
in prime loam, where
quantities of lineal growth
live in tiny strings extending to
veins, to the Maka of
beginnings,
maturity, life, to a pulse deep
under scattered cottonwood trees.
Language has translated
now to hear passages
vibrating between Iyan and
Mni, in support of Wagachan,
sometimes trickling
then slowing into solid crystals
like the river above.
My dialect passes extant for dialogue
with dreaming branches,
anxious for stories
collected among twig skins,
leaf lines, bark layers.
I can now reconvene dream talk
with Wichahpi people who have
been waiting for
Waniyetu to fill our
plane, satisfy our human cycle.
They are welcoming by
reminding my body
of their last story of travel,
to this camp, living
in trees to be close to humans.
Star spirit aids by
refilling my spirit with
the S’kan S’kan of Maka.
They beg to hear the laughter and
joyous stories coming from
the children, the people.
I close my eyes,
open chambers of Cante’
give my rhythm to roots.
©Lois Red Elk
Mni Sosa—Missouri River
Maka—Earth
Iyan—Stone
Mni—Water
Wagachan—Cottonwood
Wichahpi—Star
Waniyetu—Winter
S’kanS’kan—Movement
Cante’—Heart
POSTNOTE : We are pleased that Lois is working away on a new collection of poems and will let you know when it is published. In the meantime, ask for her other volumes at your favorite local bookseller: Our Blood Remembers , winner of the best non-fiction award from Woodcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers; Dragonfly Weather ; and Why I Return to Makoce with a foreword from Montana’s recent state poet laureate Lowell Jaeger and nominated for a High Plains Book Award in poetry. Given headlines that continue to appear about the discoveries of new atrocities committed at boarding schools for indigenous children, we encourage you to read Lois’ contribution to MoJo that appeared in June, The Unspeakable Past Of Indian Boarding Schools
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