Linda Hogan, "Heritage," 284-286.

Reader: Shaista Pollard

Recorder: Neely Kim

Biography: Linda Hogan was in 1947 in Colorado. She grew up in Oklahoma. She graduated with a masters degree from the University of Colorado. She taught at University of Minnesota for a while. She is currently an Associate Professor at University of Colorado. She is a small, elegant, dark, Chicksaw Indian woman. She is an essayist, novelist and short story writer. She is also well known for development of Contemporary Native American Poetry. Environmental and feminist issues are close to her heart. She is currently dating a Chicksaw man. They would like to learn to their native language. She also does creative writing workshops for people of her tribe. She does not believe in talent, she says only with hard work she has been able to reach where she is now.

According to Linda, "In my work I've noticed with fiction I can take political issues and weave a story and character around them. In fiction I find a story that needs to be told. In her novels, she does a great job of this. In her book, MEAN SPIRIT, she interweaves fact and fiction beautifully.In the novel white men married Osage women and murdered them to get control of their oil lease. She got a Oklahoma Book Award for the above novel. According to Linda, " When natural gas was discovered and people came to the grasslands of Oklahoma you could not see horizon for the oil derricks." Solar Systems another novel shows how James Bay area in Canada was degraded to provide electricity for New York city. In her documentary Dwellings she says " Everything has a spirit." She is dedicated to her people and their religious freedom. She has received the following awards Lifetime Achievement Award, American Book Award and many more. Her hard work has paid off. One can see Linda Hogan is a true environmentalist.

Course Objectives Addressed in poem.

Objective 3 INVOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION

America came to individual or ancestral culture. Reconnect to past like a

wound that needs healing.

From my uncle the whittled wood

that rattles like bones

and is white

and smells like our old houses

that are no longer there.

From my family I have learned the secrets

of never having a home.

Objective 5a- To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help "others" hear the minority voice vicariously share the minortiy experience.

From my father I take his brown eyes,

the plague of locusts that leveled our crops

It was the brown stain

that covered my white shirt,

my whiteness a shame.

Objective 5e To emphasize how all speakers and writers may use common devices of human language to make poetry, including narrative poetic devices and figures of speech.

It was the brown earth of Oklahoma

stained with oil

It has more medicine than stones and knives

against your enemies.

Objective 6a Minority groups place more emphasis on traditional or community aspects of human society such as extended families or alternative families.

From my mother, the antique mirror

From my father, I take his brown eyes

From my uncle, the whittled wood

From my grandfather, who never spoke

From grandmother, blue-eyed woman.

STYLE

Free Verse

Metaphorical references

THEMES

Loss and Survival

Environmentalism Abuse by Majority

Confusion on issue of Resistance and Assimilation

Cry for return of family tradition

Does the writer sound like she is ashamed of being biracial?

Do you see parts in the poem that relate to the author as being a very active environmentalist?

Liz started the discussion of by saying that Linda Hogan's whiteness seemed to be her shame because of the way she used it saying,

"It was the brown stain

that covered my white shirt,

my whiteness a shame.

Liz could see reasoning of the Indians, not wanting to be a part of the majority. Karen added and said that they were stripped of their home and land. They were people of the land and the land was forcefully taken from them. How sad? Karen also added saying that the stick pointing west probably referred to the trail of tears. The idea of the minority being voiceless and choiceless in issues is seen clearly. In the third paragraph of the poem she talks about her grandfather who never spoke, she learned the fear of silence. She did overcome this fear and certainly has a voice through her poems and novels.

The issue of Indians using coffee and tobacco as medicine was also brought about by Liz. Tobacco purged poisons and coffee was known as the "Black Medicine." Dr. White agreed with Liz by saying "The Indians did use tobacco as medicine and in rituals, but only later did Europeans start mass production of tobacco."

One can see clearly that the author brings to light one of her true loves, environmentalism. She talks about brown cloud of grass hoppers leveling the fields. She is saying in her own way stop this destruction of our mother earth. The brown earth of Oklahoma stained with oil. She hates when people start messing with the land. She hopes this destruction will be stopped sometime soon.

Dr. White added to the discussion by saying that the idea of loss and survival is seen continually. in third paragraph she talks about their old houses being gone yet she can hold on to the chants. In the next paragraph she talks about the idea of their voice being taken from them yet she learns to kill a snake. She has learned how everything can be taken yet one survives. OPTIMISM DAILY: that's what this poem taught me.