LITR 5731:
Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Poetry Presentation Index
"CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT"
by Peter Blue Cloud
Poetry reader: Rachel Boyle
Discussion recorder: Jill Peterson
Introduction: Peter Blue Cloud was born in
1935 to the Turtle clan of the Mohawk tribe on a reservation in Kahnawake Quebec
Canada. Blue Cloud's work addresses modern day dilemmas faced by Native American
people: losing of the natural way of life (language, culture, and the harmonious
way of living with nature) to the pressures of modernity. His work is dedicated
to the indigenous people of all nations.
Gary Snyder, a long time friend who has
worked with Blue Cloud on his publications, writes, "Is it all lost? Was it
ever real? A life where men, women trees, grasses, animals, the wind were at
ease with each other? Virtually spoke to each other? Now we must be realistic
some say as they lean forward and switch on the television sets."
The poems of Blue Cloud echo the
contradictions, political madness and public disasters that mark the Twentieth
Century, but they leave hope for a renaissance of that intimate life of
subsistence with neighbors, gardens, and wildlands that Blue Cloud evokes so
splendidly." (page 11-12) Clans of Many Nations: Selected Poems 1969-94 by
Peter Blue Cloud
The title of the poem is "Crazy Horse
Monument."
READ POEM
Who is Crazy Horse?
"Crazy Horse earned his reputation among
the Lakota not only by his skill and daring in battle but also by his fierce
determination to preserve his people's traditional way of life. He refused, for
example, to allow any photographs to be taken of him." (Author unknown)
(http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_crazyhorse.htm)
About the Crazy Horse monument:
(many good links available at this website)
About Peter Blue Cloud:
http://www.ipl.org/cgi/ref/native/browse.pl/A18
(Native American Authors Project)
Discussion and questions:
1st Question: What do you think of this
poem's tone?
Responses to 'tone'
1a. There are changes in natural images and
tone. In the beginning it is like a lamenting/distressing tone, yet hopeful then
at the end the tone is sad and defeated.
1b. There is definitely hope--but what kind?
1c. It feels apocalyptic in feel and sound.
1d. It sounds as though nature itself is
angry.
2nd Question: How is nature used in this
poem? What do you think the spotted snake of a village is?
Responses: "snake" imagery
2a.meaning to camouflage, fit it, hide?
2b. In Native American beliefs the snake
symbolizes change.
2c. Snakes are not bad/evil in Native
American beliefs.
Rachel: Perhaps the snake represents the
trail of tears? A line of people way off in the distance moving along might look
like a spotted snake.
Question 3: Given what I have said about
Peter Blue Cloud and Crazy Horse, how does Blue Cloud feel the monument?
Responses: use of nature imagery and feelings
about the monument
3a. The line "capture in stone"
---the belief that photographs and pictures capture a man's soul.
3b. Native Americans are at best indifferent
about the statue and at worst antagonistic.
3c. Traditional views says the monument is
capturing spirit
3d. Crazy Horse is Black Elk's cousin and in
this part of the world where the monument is located no one knows where he is
buried exactly.
3e. The line "hunting arrows-kept
sharp" means keep fighting, let nature do constructing on the monument not
man. Nature will grow back what man makes crumble.
3f. The circle represents a lot. Leslie
Marmon Silko uses the circle image in her work.
3g. The circle means cyclical time.
Question 4: What of the reference to Wounded
Knee and specific historical events? What does the refrain do for this poem?
4a. Black Hills refers to white man's desire
for gold
4b. The line: "dark breast
feathers" are thunderbird feathers that represent the coming of a storm.
4c. But the people are sleeping during the
storm
4d. Apocalypse not in a hurry to occur. It
may take eons but eventually the Old World ways will be restored.
4f. Student question: Whom do the pronouns
refer to? Crazy Horse? Sky Horse or are they the same?
4g. Written identities are distinct but oral
identities overlap and blur since everyone and everything is a part of the whole
earth.
Wrap up:
I think we have covered most of my questions.
So, I just wanted to leave you with some additional information that might add
to the reading and interpretation of the poem's imagery and historical
references. Perhaps "blood frozen" refers to the eye witness accounts
to the massacre at Wounded Knee? Also, did you know that Crazy horse helped
defeat Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn? Did you know that the Black
Hills are sacred to the Sioux and that ownership of the Black Hills region is
still being contested among the U.S. Government and the Sioux?