The Massachusetts State Flag is Insulting Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory OversightThe General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts24 Beacon Street511-8Boston MassNovember 11, 2019 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Flag is insulting, demoralizing and of the utmost disrespect to Indigenous people. Too many of our ancestors have died and left Mother Earth with…Read More
Issues/Articles
Alice M. Azure
Relativity I sit at the southern position of a large circle, a council of grandmothers. They are chuckling at another love poem I have composed. I know they expect some explanation about why, at my advanced age, I still manage to get tangled up with Eros and continue to prattle about all those ancient Greek…Read More
Mary Bassett
Ancestors My feet feel so cold so I keep wiggling my toes until the warmth returns. Bareheaded in the rain, wearing a plaid skirt over my jeans, I stare at the pieces of dried grass that float and flit in the brown puddles. A snake-like stream winds its way around the muddy hole in which…Read More
Carol Dana
My Grandfather My grandfather, Sylvester Francis, used to hunt and trap in the Sunkhaze area. He also took all kinds of jobs to put food on the table. I’m sure his hunting and trapping put food on the table. Back in the day we lived in direct relation with the earth. Well he was known…Read More
Adrian Downey
Book Review of Kiskajeyi – I Am Ready: A Hermeneutic Exploration of Mi’kmaq Komqwejwi’kasikl Poetry by Michelle Sylliboy (Rebel Mountain Press, 2019). 76 pp. I think a lot about what Leanne Betasamosake Simpson calls Nishnabaabeg (hereafter broadened to Indigenous) brilliance—the myriad of ways in which Indigenous people are and have always been creative, resilient, intelligent,…Read More
Rich Holschuh
T8ni Kizos Wazwasa – Winter Solstice Terraced lines shine silver,Layers upon the cross-hatched riverbanksThreads of smoke rise still and silent from domed sheltersNo dog barks at the half moon.Long night gone in the morning chill,Slow light gleams at eastward doorSun comes returning, scarce recognizedBut met with quiet welcome.A long time we will goA long time…Read More
Natalie Dana Lolar
In this time In this time of posted landWhere do we go…?How do we live…?No food gathered…No medicine picked…No game honorably killed and eaten… In this time of posted landWhere can we go without being shot at…?Can we live sustainably and maintain our culture …?No sweetgrass picked…No ash fallen.No game hunted. In this time of…Read More
Dawna Meader
Wocawson Cipenuk From the East she blows a gentle rainAnd washes away our worry and pain.Her breezes reach out and bath the nightThen peace is found in the morning light.Yet still we weep from sorrow and strife,From sickness and diseases that plague our life.Perhaps, she thinks, I can blow stronger,And I know I can blow…Read More
Charlie True
Phillip at Wachusett The grating of the dried oaks of Wachusettleaf upon layered leafwould shatter the wind’s soft lilting whisperin the sea-pines at Pokanoket.I listen for it nightly in my sleep,and hear the wandering dead of the Wampanoagswailing amongst the duneslooking for their people.My father went among the Nipmucsto die; and I among the Pennacookand…Read More
Carol Bachofner
Water is as essential to our collective lives as the blood pumping through our human hearts. You might correlate our bodies and the body of our Mother. We are connected to Her as children at the breast. Water Psalm Bless the water, the flow, the ebb, the seep. Bubble it, keep it clear. Rinse your…Read More
Wendy Newell Dyer
Mother Earth Water Walk When I began walking in the Eastern portion of the Mother Earth Water Walk that began on May 7, 2011, in Machiasport, Maine, I had little knowledge of the story behind the walk or of the remarkable Anishinaabe elder, teacher, water protector, and human being Josephine Mandamin. I understood the intent,…Read More
Phoebe “Songbundle” Legere
Phoebe “Songbundle” Legere (Abenaki) lives in Maine and New York City. She is an internationally recognized composer and multi-disciplinary artist.
Robert Peters
Walruses On The Rings Of Saturn – I purchased a wood panel about ten years ago and asked my son to draw a picture of some walruses taken from a photograph I found in National Geographic. He drew the images in white chalk and the unfinished work sat until December 26, 2018. Inspired and full…Read More
Donna Smith
“…He is said to have been the last Red Man in Acton …”
(Robert Frost)
Indigenous Editing and the Gathering Place
We have been thinking and talking a lot about Indigenous editing here at Dawnland Voices 2.0. Since 11 tribal community editors came together to assemble the book Dawnland Voices, we have tried to think of editing itself as a kind of gathering place–where community members come together, exchange ideas, are fed and sustained, and in…Read More
Alice M. Azure–Featured Writer
CAHOKIA COLLECTS and RESPONSES Ancients of Cahokia,I offer these prayersas a person busy with everydaywork—aware that you alsobusied yourselves aroundour beautiful bottom lands. I. Nakun otowanhe kin (And glows the city fair)* May we always rememberthat great city first built here. Stars still glitter famouslyover St. Louis’ Delmar Loop,lighting the way…Read More
Carol Dana
Grampy’s Tent We used to camp near the ocean, in Grampy’s tent. We lived in that old canvas tent. We needed forked poles to put it together; the two longer poles were the ridge poles. Skahakan is our name for it. We needed four smaller poles for the sides. Once the poles were in the ground, we threw the canvas…Read More
Wendy Newell Dyer
Return to Dawnland I Am Passamaquoddy “Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come, along with patience and equanimity.” ~Carl Jung To say that my life didn’t turn out the…Read More