Circle the Powwow Drum
The grass dancers circle the powwow drum
The fancydancers circle the powwow drum
The jingle dress dancers circle the powwow drum
The traditional dancers circle the powwow drum
The braves circle the powwow drum
The veterans circle the powwow drum
The chief circles the powwow drum
The medicine man circles the powwow drum
The spirits of the earth circle the powwow drum
The ghosts of former bodies circle the powwow drum
And if the eagle is pleased by our ceremony
It too will circle the powwow drum
Sam Quinney is of Irish and American Indian descent. He is an enrolled member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Nation, which is located in Northwoods, Wisconsin. He’s lived on his reservation and has worked for his tribe as a managing editor for their literary journal, a journalist for their newspaper, an assistant for their after school program, and a landscaper at their golf course. Quinney is an award-winning journalist with the Native American Journalist Association and has read his fiction at the Native American Literature Symposium; the Westside Arts Festival in Galway, Ireland; and in his current home, St. Louis, MO. He is a graduate from the University of Missouri-St. Louis’ Master of Fine Arts program in fiction writing. His previous publications include La Persona, Thorn, Natural Bridge, and Reflections on the Waters That Are Never Still.
