Teaching Early Native American Poetry

Abstract

because a careful study of the cultural values and poetics of early Native American songs can help our students better understand these speakers and writers as people and as artists. Such a study would also invite students into the conversation about bias in the construction of a literary canon and would contribute to the development of their writing skills. Early Native American songs and poetry are easily among the most difficult literature to teach across cultures. So much of a song in the original language is symbolic, relying upon local knowledge and local landscapes. For example, Natalie Curtis points out that a line from a Winnebago song, Mother, let me go to my uncle, makes little sense out of context. However, tribal members would understand that on warm summer evenings young men sit outside the tepees of young women, enticing them by playing their flutes. These young women, wanting to visit with the men, would often create excuses to go outside, such as going to see a relative. A tribal member hearing, Mother, let me go to my uncle, would immediately recognize the courting ritual that the song addressed (261). Thus the translator of the song is faced with a dilemma: translate literally and nearly guarantee that most contemporary readers will fail to understand, or translate the spirit of the song, thus altering its original form and syntax. This is made all the more complicated by the fact that many songwriters clearly enjoyed creating songs that were ambiguous, full of puns and double meanings. When exploring early Native American songs, teachers and students might want to cultivate a kind of double hearing, listening for the original singer, while continually being aware of the presence of the translator. In practical terms, this means looking for cultural bias and looking past dated or colloquial language that may be traced to choices made by the translator rather than the singer. In The Sky Clears: Poetry ofthe American Indians, A. Grove Day suggests that readers be particularly suspect of any Christian-sounding lines which were probably inserted later by the person who wrote them down, 'to remove the flavor of heathenism' (15). Student interpretations will also benefit from understanding that most early Native American songs fit roughly into the following categories: