Birdfoot’s Grampa

“Steel” by Joseph Bruchac (2011)

“Steel” is a tribute to the Native steelworker who helped build the Quebec Bridge. While “Birdfoot’s Grampa” has a playful tone, “Steel” provides a commentary on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the white men who build on traditionally tribal land.

“Good Hair” by Sherman Alexie (2011)

The Indigenous American writer Sherman Alexie and Bruchac are friends and contemporaries. While Bruchac’s mixed heritage and late-coming to his Native roots often temper the emotional elements of Bruchac’s work, Alexie writes openly about his childhood experiences of poverty growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. “Good Hair” conveys the personal weight of being a Native American in a white world.

“America, I Sing Back” by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (2014)

Coke is another poet of mixed heritage with a similar career trajectory to Bruchac. In “America, I Sing Back,” she addresses the deep cultural heritage that existed in the United States before it was called America.