Native Poetry

Margaretta Matilda Odell's 1834 Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley is the only substantive early source on Wheatley's life. Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753-1784) is considered the first African American poet to write for a transatlantic audience, and her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) kindled debates about race.

Longfellow's great narrative poem has been unjustly neglected in recent years though it gives a sympathetic portrait especially of Hiawatha, reared by Nokomis, daughter of the Moon, and his bride Minehaha.

The text relates the powerful and dramatic history of the Smoky Mountain Cherokees, who for 40,000 years thrived in the difficult terrain of the Great Smoky Mountains and its surrounding regions areas of what is now Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

Dreams of the Golden Eagle, a novel in rhyming narrative verse, is a must-listen for lovers of high Native American adventure who will enjoy its action-packed storylines and clarity of image. Set immediately prior to the onset of the Indian Wars, this stirring Native American adventure involves a web of murder, mystery, intrigue, betrayal, love, hatred, and revenge as a far-sighted and fearless chief, in collaboration with the tribal totem, the Golden Eagle, strives to create an alliance between the warring tribes in a concerted effort to thwart the White invasion.

mother is a work rooted in an intimate fracture: an Indigenous child is adopted out of her tribe and raised by a non-Indian family. As an adult finding her way back to her origins, our unnamed narrator begins to put the pieces of her birth family's history together through the stories told to her by her mother, father, sister, and brother, all of whom remained on the reservation where she was born. Through oral histories, family lore, and imagined pasts and futures, a collage of their community emerges, raising profound questions about adoption, inheritance, and Indigenous identity in America.

The poems in this collection are a testament to Csaba's resilience, humor, and a deep sense of empathy. The author's reflections on life's joys and challenges are both personal and universal, touching on themes such as love, loss, hope, and the beauty of the natural world. The poems are written in a variety of styles, from free verse to haiku, and are infused with Csaba's unique perspective on the world.

From the creators of Odyssey Honor award-winning We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga comes this companion book of truths about the history, contemporary laws, policies and struggles, and victories of Native Americans, presented in lyrical verse by 12 children, and each with the powerful refrain: We Are Still Here.