MIDDLE GROUND CENTERING POEMS By Justice Greg Hobbs INDIAN PEAKS But how am I to tell you you who . . . walk up my side your lug sole boots sinking into berry seeps do you see how a heavier mark you leave than she who walked in deerskin not so long before you— in your years 12,000 or so— over the notch of my shoulder into Middle Park to summer with her people along Willow Creek in beauty all around she walked you follow the same path i in beauty you walk . . . your voice of white fire not yet lit. (In celebration of the Navajo Teachers workshop at Window Rock, Nov. 17, 2007) LONG WALK BACK Civil War is tearing ourselves apart for belonging together
In the year of 1868 by the Treaty of Fort Sumner by adopting the 14th Amendment Peoples of the United States promise to become two nations returned to their homeland
This week friends will journey back to their place of exile
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Founded as we were on a slave constitution only white property-owning males may vote Where Pecos snakes into the plains a cutworm place of saline water No Indian or Chinaman may bear witness against a white man no woman may vote Where earth told Navajo return to that sacred place you come from
The many-way blessings of a great and good land.
(for Katie Gilbert and her fellow Navajo teachers on their journey to Hweeldi, July 2007) Enduring Sense of American Selves A window particular carved of water and the wind from an ocean of sandstone People emerging from the earth four levels into the Glittering World four sacred mountains Opening to the east homeland opening women to the north men to the south center-west ancestors Changing Woman at the source mother and child corn-pollen blessings Grandmothers Grandfathers saying middle-mountain horse wagons sheep bells clanging in the distance
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Teachers testing Red Lake waters journaling Little Colorado poems walk the long walk back Fifty arrowheads for the States for the Navajo Nation blue yellow red Three bands of the rainbow at the circle’s opening dwell the Diné people of the sacred mountains Hesperus and Blanca San Francisco Peaks and Taylor red rock heart of the Colorado Plateau Conquered removed returned abiding spiritual practical patriotic optimistic creative citizens of clans chapters states Nation within a nation celebrating sovereignty in all its forms enduring sense of American selves Free and responsible communities acknowledging and protecting each other’s existence. BEFORE US THE RIVER IS Before us the River is When Hopi Boatman sets off to explore where it is the water goes when his people need it to grow families, flocks and fruit trees When Navajo honor male San Juan and female Colorado and their offspring Rainbow Children arc deep within the sandstone slick rock
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When Mountain Ute warn Mountain Men of impassable passages between disparate worlds and John Wesley Powell goes there All return their stories full of how Storm Gods play upon the rocks and fade away in soft and low murmurs beneath heaven’s infinite blue We find in joining them here there is only one law of the River: within the limits of living together Is the common ground of all possibility. Water Inter-Faces Human to humans human to the land and all other creatures we call this community. We are a federal community Nation to Nation (those “dependent nations” the Tribes) dependent nations within the territory of States A constitutional people supremacy clause property clause commerce clause treaties among us U.S. Tribal Treaties Compacts between States Women to men all other disciplines Necessity of life water the universal public resource user to user Clean Water Act Endangered Species Act Federal Land Policy and Management Act
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Prior appropriation water use rights Federal reserved water rights Native American water rights Function of federalism people of peoples this opportunity for community. Missouri River Convocation God gave us the earth, and the fullness thereof . . . I do not believe in donating to these indolent savages the best portion of my territory, and I do not believe in placing Indians on an equality between the white man as landholder. Edward Moody McCook, 1870, Fifth Territorial Governor of Colorado Certain moments in history are like a man waking at night and counting the strokes wrong when he hears a clock strike. Bernard DeVoto, Across the Wide Missouri If scripture of the gift outright is written in stone for all to see and honor in the law of nations you may start with Lewis and Clark at the mouth of the Missouri Or at the source with Arapaho Arikara Assiniboine Blackfoot Cheyenne Crow Gros Ventre Iowa Mandan Omaha Otoe Pawnee Sioux Shoshone Up in Yellowstone country or the Medicine Bow where snowmelt pools spill their jewels into the heart of the continent and every creature’s
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Heartbeat depends upon the rise and fall of the river and all its tributaries plover tern and sturgeon we among them To whom a greater sovereignty the art of healing is given. TIMELY OFFERINGS Before they leave ancestral Puebloans two baskets neatly stack beneath a large inverted bowl shaped like a helmet. In the bottom basket a cache of coarse ground corn, in the upper a smaller pile of finely ground corn as fine as pastry flour, surrounded by ceramic ladles, nest within each other. Then torch the kiva. Each of many groups spread across the arc from Chimney Rock to Sleeping Ute Mountain do this and move on, many offerings time this Colorado ground we walk on. (inspired by Craig Childs’ House of Rain) MUG HOUSE A distant rumble of thunder, we look to our water jars, we are ready For the rain to jet from the pour-off through the notch at the top of the rimrock south of our dwelling alcove Into the cistern our men have built at the base of the cliff, now dry and waiting
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Twenty families to drink from mugs we have fashioned out of the earth To cook what we have grown on the mesa above and terraces below the corn, beans and squash Water the turkeys we keep for meat and feather blankets, adobe water for building our Sacred kivas, storage and living places. Springs and seeps to our north and south such a long hard walk with the heavy water jars We would gladly make, but no trickle issues from the lake at the center of the earth We hear only the rumble of thunder. MIGHTY BLUE WATERS From Tahoe to Pyramid Lake the Truckee River wants to run its full course Blessing all the creatures water touches mighty small Cui-ui rising from the brilliant blue Pyramid blue lake mighty swimming Lahontan cutthroat trout Rising from the brilliant blue Pyramid blue lake Native American Paiutes
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Settling around depending upon the land and the waters all other immigrants Settling along depending upon the land and the running waters of the falling blue Truckee Who can read better through the trees? so no one loses forever their right to participate in community Look to the rivers look to the lakes look seven generations ahead Make the best decisions you can for all the great and small fish who depend on the mighty blue waters. NATURAL RESOURCES The land the air the waters All the people all the creatures All the dwelling places Energy sweet music Power of community Witness the river Exotic tongues Attentive listeners Honest translations Men and women interplay From smaller streams Those who listen well Call to others Nature lays the course
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Celebrate the callers All creative spaces Each and every breath May inspire. MAGNIFICENT CONSTITUTIONALITY Politicians dither while people wither, where are the men and women humble enough to lead with the will to follow, where is community? The state of being free is founded on the land itself, air to breathe, water conserved conscientiously, a place for all citizens and fellow denizens. If an ancient tree cannot be, Nor salmon in the falls, Nor tortoise to the desert, Nor sage upon the open range, Nor can we. These rights we hold to be alienable if not exercised frequently and expressly: To refrain from the pursuit of power, building others up instead of tearing down; To enjoy the blessings of the earth, without waste or desecration; To have sufficient space for cultivating plants, animals, healthy families; To dispense munificence, as a matter of the spirit not as an article of commerce; To generate energy, art, intellect, working and playing with and for each; To love and be loved, without abuse, joyously, unconditionally; To do our best
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to share with feeling our magnificent constitutionality; We demand nothing, we command less, praying for guidance we contribute and receive. COMPACT WITH THE GRAND Upstream from Lee Ferry, Lake Powell, Downstream, the Grand Canyon, Each and both, chambers of the heart Of the great Southwest. Save the Grand Canyon, save Lake Powell, Tree rings teach flood and drought endure, Frequent the experience of every western community In all the western Americas. Ancient Andeans, Mayans, Hohokam, Puebloans, Hispanos, Praise, store, and carry the treasured life-giving waters In their time and place of need to live, harsh and beautiful,
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This opportunity for community. So the waters of the great Lake Powell with flood and drought fluctuate, As weather and the mountains will, warning and nurturing We the peoples, all the creatures, in common compact with the Grand: Preserve, conserve, sustain, and inspire. EVER-CREATING INTELLIGENCE Wetter wets, drier dries, more variability, the spinal cord carries the brain's message to the body. Hello?! The primary message, provide blood to the heart, water, nutrients, and oxygen. Always the question of civilization remains the same Survive, grow, adapt, make the best decisions you can based on the best available information, study nature's inter-working. How all is individual, how all is interconnected, as water moves through the earth, the air, in a continuous cycle of renewal Going home, going forth, to and from the center of an ever-creating intelligence. THE GREAT RETURN May you have the joy of rising waters May the awe of ages surround you May your feet sound soft upon the land
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May the sweep of Nankoweep embrace you May the Great Blue Heron stand upon her bar for you And the Father of all mountain sheep stand vigilant on his loft May you run the River true and hoot upon the waves May you, your family, your friends pass through And always return home, home, and home again.
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