Full Description
Dragonfly Dance is a collection of poems remarkable for their candor and sense of catharsis. Writing from the vantage point of an American Indian women, Denise Lajimodiere opens a door into the lives of Native girls and women. Her poems often reflect the deep tensions between Native culture and white culture.
Reflected in Lajimodiere's poems, life is sometimes beautiful but rarely easy. "The Necklace," the narrator details how her mother repaired a favorite beaded necklace, "her arthritic fingers patiently / threading beads / on the long thin needle, weaving / night after night." When the necklace is finally repaired, she wears it to school where
At recess a White boy
ran by, yanked
it off my neck and threw it.
I watched as it ascended
high above the blacktop,
the beads glittered, scattering their light,
a rainbow against gray skies.
Unadorned, direct, and often raw, these riveting poems sear their way into our imaginations, inviting us into a world we might never have known. We are richer for the knowledge.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Out Steppin'
Out Steppin'
The Necklace
Bag Balm
The Quilt
Indian Angel in 1st Grade
Sweat Lodge
St. Ignatius
The Bundles of St. Ann's
The Reservation Dump
Warm Morning at Ft. Totten
My Grandfather Was a New Initiate
The Moccasin Trail
Ogichida Ikwewag
Obodashkwanishi
Dragonfly Dance
Midnight in North Dakota
To My Sister
Automatic Starter
The Warrior
Boise Forte Man
B.J.
Northern Lights
Night Owls
Sonnet
Oven Bread
The Bush Dance
The Bush Dance
Prairie Chicks
Portland, 1070s
1969
Shape Shifting Rugaroo
Tracks
Father
Home from Happy Rock
Happy Pills
Hopeless Was the Ticker Tape
Foster Father
Mother Superior
St. Peter, 1957
Oz
Patent Leather Shoes
Denver March
The Eagles Dance
The Eagles Dance
Tonight the Train
Grand Forks
Sweet Water Well
Holy Hamm's Beer
Drunkard's Mass
May 11, 1980
Uncle Gus and Aunt Veronica
North Dakota
North Dakota on a Sunny Thirty below Zero Day
La Quette
Kicking Thunder
Answers
Crazy Horse
Round Danceby Red Lake
Round Dance by Red Lake
Starvation Winter, 1888
Sisters of War, Lacrosse
Circles
Kookum
Sun Dogs
Winter's Night
The Rain Was Warm and Mild
Tribal Council Candidate
Waabishi-ma'iingan
Anishinaabe before Columbus
Turtle Mountain Orchid
Glossary
Previously Published
