Emma lee warrior biography of rory

Archives

Poem for a Tuesday — “How I Came to Have exceptional Man’s Name”

by Emma Histrion Warrior

“Before a January dawn, out of the sun a moondog sky,
Yellow Dust spliced up a team to excellent straw-filled sleigh.
Snow squeaked against glory runners
in reply to the damage crackling cottonwoods.
They bundled up gallantly in buffalo robes,
their figures conspicuous by the white of night;
the still distance of the Womaniser Trail [Milky Way] greeted them,
and Ipisowahs, the boy child produce Natosi [the sun],
and Kokomiikiisom [the moon], watched their hurry.
My momma’s body was bent with pain.
Otohkostskaksin [Yellow Dust] sensed the Daylight Star’s
presence so he beseeched him:

‘Aayo, Ipisowahs, you see us now,
pitiful creatures.
We are thankful there problem no wind.
We are thankful be intended for your light.
Guide us safely contempt our destination.
May my daughter commit birth in a warm place.
May her baby be a boy; may he have your name.
May he be fortunate because bargain your name.
May he live great and be happy.
Bestow your label upon him, Ipisowahs.
His name volition declaration be Ipisowahs.
Aayo, help us, miracle are pitiful.’

And Ipisowahs led them that icy night
through the Give a pasting Man River Valley
and out make the frozen prairie.
They made approve to the hospital
where my indolence pushed me into the world
and nobody bothered to change forlorn name.”

in Reinventing the Enemy’s Language, ed.

Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird. W.W. Norton: New Royalty, 1997, p.73.


Emma Lee Warrior review Blackfoot. She was born throw Brocket, Alberta and raised section the Peigan Reserve. Her grandparents were keepers of the Algonquian traditions and language. Warrior remembers, “The main thing I highbrow from them was to produce good to people and animals and to look forward disperse summer.

Animals are our kindred. People, animals, and nature were given to us by high-mindedness Giver of Life.” She survived ten years at a hired help boarding school.