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SANANDO LOS EMBRUJOS: UN ANÁLISIS DEL DISCURSO DEL

DOLOR EN LA POESÍA DE DOS ESPÍRITUS

Healing the Hauntings: A Discourse Analysis of Grief in Two-Spirit Poetry

Monica Bradley*

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a discourse analysis of two poems selected from the book Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-

Spirit Literature (Driskill et al., 2011b) to explore the concept of grief in Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous

poetry. It analyzes the diction, voice, formality, themes, metaphors, similes, personification, and the use of repetition

the authors utilize to represent grief and discover the social, cultural, and political realities and discursive practices

behind the poems. It concludes that through their expression of grief, the poets highlight the emergence and endurance

of a community and people who will continue to fight for survival and the right to live in peace and harmony outside

of colonial gender and sexual binaries. Both poems engage with a continuing sense of Two-Spirit identity that call forth

new generations of Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit people while remembering their history and the Elders who came

before to heal personal and historical trauma often through connection with nature, their ancestors, and spirituality.

Key words: Indigenous literatures, two-spirit, queer indigenous, poetry, grief.

RESUMEN

Este artículo proporciona un análisis del discurso de dos poemas seleccionados del libro Sovereign Erotics: A Collection

of Two-Spirit Literature (Driskill et al., 2011b) para explorar el concepto de duelo en la poesía indígena Two-

Spirit/Queer. Analiza la dicción, la voz, la formalidad, los temas, las metáforas, los símiles, la personificación y el uso

de la repetición que utilizan los autores para representar el duelo y descubrir las realidades sociales, culturales y políticas

y las prácticas discursivas detrás de los poemas. Se concluye que, a través de su expresión de dolor, los poetas destacan

el surgimiento y la perdurabilidad de una comunidad y un pueblo que seguirán luchando por la supervivencia y el

derecho a vivir en paz y armonía fuera de los binomios sexuales y de género coloniales. Ambos poemas se relacionan

con un sentido continuo de identidad de dos espíritus que llama a nuevas generaciones de indígenas queer/personas de

dos espíritus mientras recuerdan su historia y a los ancianos que vinieron antes para sanar traumas personales e

históricos, a menudo a través de la conexión con la naturaleza, sus antepasados y la espiritualidad.

Palabras clave: literaturas indígenas, biespíritu, indígena queer, poesía, duelo.

1. Introduction

In 2021, in Saskatchewan, Canada, the government uncovered 751 unmarked graves of

Indigenous children stolen from their families and forced into Canada’s residential school system.

This followed the unearthing of the remains of 215 children in British Columbia earlier the same

year (BBC, 2021), which Indigenous peoples in North America have fought for recognition for

decades. Due to these devastating uncoverings, the first U.S. Indigenous Interior Secretary, Deb

* Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica. M.Ed Educación Inglesa, ULACIT, M.A. Estudios de

la Mujer, UCR. Correo electrónico: Monica.bradley@ucr.ac.cr ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-

0755-6389

DOI: https://doi.org//10.15517/rk.v47i3.57323

Recepción: 20/3/2023 Aceptación: 4/7/2023

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Haaland, launched a similar investigation in the United States which unearthed at least 53 separate

burial sites for Native American children with numbers growing in both countries (U.S.

Department of Interior, 2021). Death, mourning, and cultural genocide are not new for Indigenous

populations in North America. This state-legislated genocide illustrates one of the atrocities

enacted upon Native peoples in Canada and the United States. In these schools, the settler-

colonialists taught Indigenous children that practicing their religions meant eternal damnation,

forbade their languages, and treated any expression of gender or sexuality outside of Christianity’s

binary conceptualization as an abomination. The settler-state attempted to eradicate all traditional

understandings of gender and sexual diversity unique to the different Indigenous cultures and

populations while institutionalizing Eurocentric homophobia, transphobia and patriarchal ideals

that still haunt Queer Indigenous peoples today (Driskill et al., 2011a).

Hauntings from the past are not new for Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous peoples: from hate

crimes, discrimination, pathologization, the indifference to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and

alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health problems and suicide that plague both Indigenous and

Queer communities, the patriarchal colonial settler-state has supported the continual erasure of

both Queer and Indigenous existence. Nevertheless, as Laguna poet Paula Gunn Allen affirmed

in her poem “Some like indians endure,” one of the poems explored in this paper,: “like indians

dykes / are supposed to die out / or forget / or drink all the time / or shatter / go away / to nowhere”

yet “they don’t anyway—even / though the worst happens / they remember and they / stay”

(Driskill, 2011b, p. 24). While she is specifically referencing “dykes” and “indians,” survival and

resistance are not new for Native nor Queer communities and less so for Two-Spirit/Queer

Indigenous people.

This paper utilizes discourse analysis to explore how Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous

authors use poetry to grieve a profound loss due to settler-colonialism while simultaneously

reclaiming their sacred and honored place on this Earth. Through their poetry, the Two-

Spirit/Native Queer authors recover stolen agency and construct new social identities interwoven

with their spiritual understandings and the experiences of their ancestors. The grief expressed in

the Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous poetry functions as a reaffirmation of Queer and Indigenous

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lives despite efforts to remove their existence by the settler-state. The authors mourn this deep

loss and represent Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous lives outside of colonial gender and sexual

binaries to heal this pain often through connection with nature, their ancestors, and spirituality.

2. Methodology

This paper provides a discourse analysis of two poems selected from the first section

“Dreams/Ancestors” of the book Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature

(Driskill et al., 2011b) to explore the concept of grief in Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous poetry. The

two self-identified Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous authors represent different genders/sexualities,

heritages, and years of publication to offer a range of Two-Spirit poetry which carries a strong

connection through grief: “Some like Indians endure” (written in 1981) by Laguna poet Paula

Gunn Allen, first published in a compilation of her life’s work, Life is a Fatal Disease (1997),

and “Chantway for F.C.” by Cherokee Asegi author Qwo-Li Driskill in their first published book

of poetry, Walking with Ghosts (2005). Paula Gunn Allen transcended this world in 2008 and

was one of the foundational Indigenous lesbian/bisexual authors (who later also identified as Two-

Spirit) in the 1980s, and Qwo-Li Driskill is currently one of the leading voices in Two-Spirit

poetry, literature, and Indigenous Queer theory today. This paper analyses poetry from this book

since it was the first collection of specifically Two-Spirit literature since the coining of the term

in 1990 in Winnipeg at the Third Annual Inter-Tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and

Lesbian American conference (Driskill et al, 2011b, p. 5). The poems originate from the section

“Dreams/Ancestors,” the first of four sections, as this section offers a vision of the difficult and

transformative knowledges of Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous peoples who came before (Driskill

et al., 2011b, p. 8). The first poem begins the section “Dreams/Ancestors” to serve as a tribute to

Two-Spirit Elders, and the second poem ends the section to honor a young Two-Spirit life lost

too soon but through community activism and art his life could “[finish] in beauty” (Driskill et

al., 2011b, p.73). As such, this section conjures the past, present, and future in its examination of

grief within Two-Spirit identity.

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This paper analyzes the diction, voice, formality, themes, metaphors, similes, personification, and

the use of repetition the authors utilize to represent grief and discover the social realities and

discursive practices behind the poems. It strives to honor the methodological turn towards

Indigenous knowledge (Smith, 1999) in all its multiplicity and complexity to intervene against

the authority of colonial knowledge by centering the words of the Two-Spirit authors themselves,

yet I, myself, am a Costa Rican American lesbian/non-binary person and do not write from an

Indigenous or Two-Spirit positionality but rather as an ally (Driskill et al., 2011a.). The paper

examines how two different Two-Spirit poets have written about their place in the world and the

need for change to provide a more viable future through their own self-expression and

representation. Through discourse analysis, the paper endeavors to understand how these poets

speak about Two-Spirit identity and to examine the contextual field their poetry arises from

including the resistance to colonial power manifestations and ideologies. Hence, this analysis

explores the relationship between expressions of Two-Spirit grief and the social, cultural, and

political power structures that surround grief and the significance this may have on identity

construction.

3. Literature Review

Artists have voiced grief through literature in most geopolitical realities and traditions

around the world. Utilizing art to express the grief, sorrow, and mourning along with their

counterparts of joy, pleasure, and celebration reflects the depth of human emotion and remains as

constant as birth and death themselves. The poetry analyzed in this paper represents both

extremities; nevertheless, grief assumes a particular meaning within the context of Two-Spirit

poetry. Thus, this literature review provides a brief overview of grief in North America

Indigenous communities, a history of Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit literature including the work

of both poets considered in this analysis, the significance of the book Sovereign Erotics: A

Collection of Two-Spirit Literature, and Queer Indigenous literature currently (Driskill et al.,

2011b). It does not attempt to offer a comprehensive representation of Two-Spirit literature but

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provides context to situate this paper and demonstrate how this paper can contribute to research

on Two Spirit/Queer Indigenous works.

Indigenous peoples have traditionally used storytelling as well as other oral traditions

and ceremonies to process grief communally within a circular understanding of life and death

which binds all relationships on this Earth (Dennis, 2021). For instance, White Hat (2012)

discusses how the Lakota people participate in specific ceremonies involving the entire

community to grieve a life and teach members how to continue living in a positive way and

celebrate the lost life so the deceased may move on to the Spirit World without reservation.

Similarly, a beautiful Papago legend tells how the Creator added the silent yet colorful butterfly

to this Earth to balance the grief humanity must experience (Caduto & Bruchac, 1991, p. 83). The

Creator in the story knew that grief must remain in balance yet considering the history of grief for

Indigenous peoples in North America, there is a long way to arrive at the collective healing needed

to restore balance: communal grief and open acknowledgement, like the poetry in this paper, offer

a start. As the foundational Sioux theorist Deloria Jr. explains in his book God is Red (1973), the

historical trauma of the settler-state which violently forced Indigenous peoples off their ancestral

lands and the continual enactment of laws that promoted institutionalized and cultural genocide,

marginalization, death, and the destruction of the Earth still overwhelm and haunt North American

Indigenous realities. This grief is yet compounded for Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit peoples often

making it difficult to even mourn their stolen identity or name the victimization and shame they

have experienced. Poetry carries disenfranchised grief that sounds like a prayer/song in the wind,

sometimes subtle like the butterfly’s silent flight that ripples color and joy through the Earth with

the hope that, like in the Papago legend, balance will be restored once again. The strength of these

poems and the public grief expressed by Two-Spirit peoples enables collective healing and

agency. Their writing is a both an individual and collective curative ritual, an act of creation and

celebration of Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous lives.

While poets within almost all traditions carefully chose the words and language to

construct layers of meaning, within many Indigenous oral traditions, stories and poetry often

include multiple stories/poems within each word. As Laguna author Leslie Silko (1981) explains,

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a particular word within a story, or in this case within a poem, can carry another entire story often

known within Indigenous communities. Thus, Native American poetry often weaves language

like a spider web creating poems within another poem. The telling of stories or the writing of

poetry will include the audience and the listeners (or readers) and constructs identity invoking

participation from the community itself through their telling (p. 55). Likewise, Silko (1981) writes

that her community often tells painful stories to give perspective. She writes: “If others have done

it before, it cannot be so terrible. If others have endured, so can we” (Silko, 1981, p.56). Like the

butterfly story of Papago people, Silko recalls a story from her Aunt Susie that Laguna people

often tell during challenging times about a distraught child who drowns herself in a lake and a

grieving mother who then spreads the girl’s clothes in the same lake. Her clothes miraculously

change into beautiful red, white, blue, and yellow butterflies which remind her people of hope

and beauty to hold them through sadness (pp. 57-59). She also explains that the repetition of ideas

in these stories act like a map: they tell people where they have been, where they are now, and

where they are going. Through the boundlessness of language, words can invoke the distance

between time and space calling forth the memory of those yet to be born and those who have

already passed over. Likewise, Yellow Horse Brave Heart et al. (2011) discuss the “devastating

collective, intergenerational massive group trauma” as well as the “compounding discrimination,

racism, and oppression” that can affect “emotional responses to collective trauma and losses

among Indigenous Peoples” (pp. 284-285). They explain different tribes, cultures and regions

experience and address the wounds differently, but to heal the unresolved grief of historical

trauma and loss, society and the communities themselves must address it and not view it

negatively or as a disease. However, if suppressed or left ungrieved, it can further compound into

destructive patterns and behaviors that may devour the self and communities bringing forth more

grief. Thus, active grieving reaffirms life. When groups have experienced historical trauma,

grieving helps heal the collective loss. Poetry can help Two-Spirit people build resiliency, reclaim

their identity, and embrace the mystery of existence.

Much anthropological research done previously on Queer Indigenous people, before the

self-identification of Two-Spirt and the methodological turn towards “Indigenous

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Methodologies” (Smith, 1999), still used the term berdache: a derogatory label used by settler-

colonialists to document the practices of Indigenous “sexual and gender deviants” (Driskill et al.,

2011a, p. 11). Later in the 1980s, authors such a Walter Williams in The Spirit and the Flesh:

Sexual Diversity in America in Indian Culture (1986) wrote about gender diversity in Indigenous

tribes admiringly and critiqued the Western culture’s rejection of these practices. Yet until the

coining of the term Two-Spirit in the nineties, the representation of diverse understandings of

gender and sexuality in Indigenous communities were relegated to the language of the colonial

settler-state except for the few written records based on Indigenous languages and cultures.

LGBTQ+ Indigenous activists wanted to displace this anthropological discourse and the

pejorative term berdache with a word that better represented their realities and Queer Indigenous

identities interwoven with spiritual and ancestral connections: hence, Two-Spirit was born from

this intention. The book Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and

Spirituality (Jacobs et al., 1997) was the first collective work that utilized the new term, yet

Driskill et al. (2011a) claim that this book still marginalized Indigenous knowledges, activism,

and methodologies by centering non-Native anthropological investigations: in a sense, Two-Spirit

simply served as a replacement of the term berdache without the necessary ideological shift and

application of Indigenous methodologies the new terminology required..

Nevertheless, beyond anthropological studies, Native Queer and Two-Spirit people have

been actively expressing themselves through creative works such as short stories, novels, and

poetry profusely since the 1980s. Native women, both Queer and straight, began publishing

literary works that represented their intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality that

mainstream feminism often excluded. They continue in the traditions of many women of color,

notably Chicana and African American writers, as well as lesbian authors who had historically

been excluded in conceptualizations of “woman” as middle-class, white, and heterosexual. For

instance, A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection by North American Indian Women (1983), edited by

Beth Grant from the Mohawk Nation, was the first collection of Indigenous women’s writing and

included writing from both Native straight and lesbian authors. Sovereign Erotics (2011b) cites

this book as an example of “creative resistance” from Two-Spirit Elders and part of the continued

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legacy and nurturance for emerging Two-Spirit writers (p. 3). While Brant could not be located 
to be included in Sovereign Erotics (2011b), the collection pointedly begins with the poem “Some 
like Indians Endure” by Laguna author Paula Allen Gunn, who was included in Brant’s anthology 
A Gathering of Spirit (1983): thus, she represents another lesbian/bisexual/Two-Spirit Elder who 
paved the way for Two-Spirit writing today (p. 8). Allen’s novel The Woman Who Owned the 
Shadows (1983) included the first LGBTQ2+ Indigenous female protagonist, and scholars still 
consider  her  book  The  Sacred  Hoop:  Recovering  the  Feminine  in  American  Indian 
Traditions (1986) a foundational piece of Indigenous Feminist writing. In 1997, Allen published 
a collection of over 30 years of her own poetry, Life Is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962-
1995 (1997), which includes the poem analyzed here. By beginning with her poetry, Sovereign 
Erotics (2011b) emphasizes the continuation of Two-Spirit writing and honors Two-Spirit Elders 
within the tradition. 
While  A  Gathering  of  Spirit  (1983)  represented  a  foundational  feminist  perspective 
within Indigenous women’s writings and included lesbian/Two-Spirit authors, in 1988, the Gay 
American Indians (GAI) released the first anthology of specifically LGBTQ Indigenous literature, 
Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology (1988). Until Sovereign Erotics (2011b), 
Living  the Spirit (1988) was the only  collection  focused  entirely  on  LGBTQ2S+  Indigenous 
literature. Driskill et al. published Sovereign Erotics (2011b) to serve as a guide and provide role 
models for Two-Spirit/Queer people so they would be less alone in their journey while paying 
homage to earlier generations of Queer Native artists and activists (p. 1). Driskill (2004) coined 
the  term  “sovereign  erotic”  in  their  article  “Stolen  from  Our  Bodies  First  Nations  Two-
Spirits/Queers and the Journey to a Sovereign Erotic”, which they later exemplified through this 
literary collection. They define “sovereign exotic” as “an erotic wholeness healed and/or healing 
from  the  historical  trauma  that  First  Nations  people  continue  to  survive,  rooted  within  the 
histories, traditions, and resistance struggles of our nations” (p. 51). Using the word “erotic,” 
Driskill  invokes  Audre  Lorde’s  inspirational  article  “The  Uses  of  the  Erotic”  (1984)  which 
reclaims the erotic as a creative and generative life force against patriarchal and colonial violence 
for  women,  particularly  women  of  color.  In  addition,  Qwo-Li  Driskill  published  Sovereign 

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Erotics (2011b) the same year as the book Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in

Theory, Politics, and Literature (2011a), which provides essays examining Two-Spirit/Queer

Indigenous lives, identities, and communities through Indigenous and Queer centered approaches

and methodologies. Driskill has also published two collections of their own poetry: Walking with

Ghosts: Poems (2005), from which the poem analyzed in this paper originates, and Asegi Stories:

Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory (2016), a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist.

Driskill’s writing passes on Two-Spirit legacies to the next generations while also representing a

generation that came into being due to the work and activism of the Two-Spirit Elders who cleared

the path for them.

Since the publication of Sovereign Erotics (2011b), Two-Spirit authors have continued

writing and expressing their realties via literature and poetry including the creation of new

identities and new literary styles. For instance, Joshua Whitehead writes cyber-punk influenced

poetry in the book Full Metal Indigiqueer (2017). Many Indigenous youth today claim both Two-

Spirit and Indigiqueer identities. As Whitehead explains:

I go by both two-spirit and Indigiqueer. One to pay homage to where I come from, from

Winnipeg, being kind of the birthplace of two-spirit in 1990. But I also think of

Indigiqueer as the forward moving momentum for two-spiritness” (CBC/Radio Canada,

2017, par. 5).

This forward moving thinking, an important part of the Two-Spirit poetry analyzed in

this paper, is a critical part of Indigenous futurism and Indigenous speculative fiction, a relatively

new field of Native American literature. This can be seen in the third collection of Two-Spirit,

and now Indigiqueer, literature, Love Beyond Body Space and Time: A Two-Spirit Journey

(Nicholson, 2016) followed by the latest Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer anthology, Love after the End;

An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (Whitehead, 2020). Hence, the

world of Two-Spirit, Native Queer, and Indigiqueer literature continues expanding and changing

as do the identities themselves.

Younger generations may express the concept of grief differently with new

conceptualizations of space and time within Indigenous futurism/speculative fiction based on

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their lived realities. While exploring the concept of grief in all the literary works included (and

not included) in this review would undoubtedly uncover a much broader analysis of its role in the

construction of Two-Spirit identities, this paper provides an initial analysis of two poems that can

exemplify different moments in the history of Two-Spirit literature: one poem written by a Two-

Spirit Elder woman, Paula Allen Gunn, and a poem written earlier in the career of a current gender

non-binary Two-Spirit author and poet, Qwo-Li Driskill. This paper posits that within Two-Spirit

literature, grief plays a prominent role as it allows people to honor those who cleared the way for

Two-Spirit identity and activism despite the harrowing realities they faced. Likewise, grief serves

as a form of healing and resistance offering hope for a better world for Two-Spirit people in the

future.

4. Theoretical Foundations

4.1 Discourse Analysis

As discourse analyst Jäger (2001) claims, knowledge construction can mold social reality

(p. 33); Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous poetry, as a discursive practice, likewise, acts as an exercise

of power affecting social realities by challenging and resisting dominant discourses (Jäger, 2001).

While the dominant discourses, ideologies, and knowledge/power constructions of the settler-

state have caused much of the grief expressed in the poems, the collective mourning by Two-

Spirit authors creates space for the transmutation of this grief within a new identity with ancestral

roots. The discourse of settler Christianity purported to teach universal and immutable truths, yet

Two-Spirit poetry refutes these claims and proves their temporality in space and time by critiquing

the discourses that historically tried to silence and invisibilize them (Jäger, 2001)Through their

poetry, the authors claim agency as subjects to represent their collective and individual identity

through their choice of themes, diction, repetition, similes, metaphors, imagery, and other poetic

conventions and techniques (or their breakage from them). As such, this paper analyzes the

“collective symbolism” or the “repertoire of images” in the emergence of a new “social reality”

and “political landscape” (Jäger, 2001, p. 35). This written power/knowledge production

“conveyed by active people” or Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous people, shapes political reality,

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including non-discursive realities of Two-Spirit people (Jäger, 2001, p. 37). The two poets weave

their discourse into existing discourses (i.e., the institutionalized imposition of the English

language, the conventions of poetry and Western academia, etc.…) to create meaning through

their lives and realities and offer a more viable future for themselves and future generations while

honoring and asking for guidance from those who came before. Likewise, Keith Moxey (1994)

claims that language is endowed with ideological significance and demonstrates the intricacy of

the reality that surrounds it. Furthermore, he claims signs reveal the movement between

representation and reality which can be seen in these poems' publication (Moxey, 1994, p. 43).

Thus, this paper argues that the poetry by Two-Spirit authors create their own signification to

underline and develop ideological frameworks in defiance of the status quo inscribed by the

settler-state which can be better understood by examining the language employed by the authors

and how they relate to the societal realities around their production.

4.2 Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit

This paper uses both the terms Two-Spirit and Queer Indigenous (and acknowledges

Indigiqueer but does not employ it as this term came into popularity after these poems were

published) to respect diverse identifications. All three terms carry vastly different histories and

significations; an Indigenous person from the LGBTQ2S+ community may identify with all, one

or two, or none of terms. Nevertheless, each highlights an oppositional identity, invokes subject

agency, and honors the duality of being both Indigenous and part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Nevertheless, Two-Spirit, while diverse in its usage and not claimed by all LGBTQ+ Native

people, signifies a “queer” Native identity through differentiation from the non-Native

terminology of LGBTQ+ community. Indigenous LGBTQ+ scholars and activists coined the term

to celebrate the intersection of dual identities, Native and Queer, and to define this identity in their

own terms and based on their own experiences. While some Indigenous people dismiss or critique

the term as a pan-Indian/tribal/national erasure of the diversity of the distinct genders, sexualities,

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and identities expressed in many Indigenous languages and cultures

(Driskill et al., 2011a, p. 5),

others view it as a reclamation of traditional Native concepts from diverse Native languages that

carry shared historical experiences, realities, and political identities. As an identity, it opposes the

historically oppressive institutionalized power/discourse of the settler-state: residential schools,

laws outlawing same-sex love and gender diversity, pre-settler colonization and the discourses of

those political moments. Likewise, through the usage of Two-Spirit, Indigenous Queer people

claim agency as constructors of knowledge and reverse the subject/agent dichotomy of the

anthropological and pejorative term berdache. Like queer, Two-Spirit acknowledges the limits of

identity while allowing for shifting identification that carries the past, present, and future

simultaneously. It allows for the reclamation of the sacred role of Two-Spirit people within

Indigenous communities which contradicts the historically homophobic discourse of the settler-

state (i.e., unnatural, sinful, an abomination, heathen, among others) that enables the future

imaginings of a community. As mentioned, language both creates and reflects the constantly

changing realities of identity including the emergence of the new identity of Indigiqueer which

reflects the identity constructions of younger generations and their artistic expressions often more

geared towards future imaginings.

Judith Butler, in her book Bodies that Matter (1993), revealed how “queer” moved from

a performative insult against “homosexuals” to its reclamation as an oppositional identity infused

with political ideology. It has also been employed to refer to something that is “odd” and as an

umbrella term for several identities within the LGBTQ2S+ community. Likewise, homosexual

men and women claimed “gay” which meant “happy” to celebrate how people could be both

joyful and proud of their same-sex attraction, which North America settler societies often viewed

as undesirable, sad, and diseased. Two-Spirit, unlike these terms, falls outside the language of the

settler-state in that this term did not have a previous signification in English. Thus, it does

something with language: it creates the conditions for its own naming that allowed for collective

activism and the production of literature produced under its sign. Furthermore, it includes an

The were over 150 different ways in various indigenous languages in North America to describe gender diverse and

LGBTQ2S+ peoples prior to settler contact (Robinson, 2019).

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Indigenous spiritual element within its identity (a reclamation of Indigenous spirituality that many

times acknowledged and/or honored LGBTQ+ people) which is not included in other "queer"

identities such as gay, lesbian, transsexual, and homosexual precisely because of the discourses

of their creation: pathologizing medical and psychological discourses and that of the Christian

settler church/state. As such, Two-Spirit poetry functions as a performative act that propagates an

idea, an identity, and resistance to state-sanctioned violence. Yet unlike the performatives

analyzed by Austin (1962), the performatives created through Two-Spirit poetry are not inscribed

by state power (i.e., the power of state recognition in a marriage ceremony or to “sentence”

someone to a period of incarceration). Those who hold less symbolic power in a society almost

always produce “unhappy” utterances according to Austin’s analysis (p. 14). Nevertheless, even

“unhappy” utterances do things with words through their resistance to discursive power enacted

by the state: in this case, the collective utterances from the positionally of Two-Spirit identity

united a diverse group of people through shared experiences who can now demand the rights and

recognition previously denied to them by the same discourses that

excluded/invisibilized/pathologized them.

In addition, the poetry’s use of grief resists Two-Spirit melancholia, or ungrieved loss,

inscribed by the settler-state, creating space for the public grieving needed for collective survival

and healing (Butler, 1993). The poetry performs grief as an act of resistance: its utterances

contradict their current erasure in discursive and non-discursive realities such as the prohibition

of both speaking of queerness, race/ethnicity, and the naming of state violence in the current

political climate of the United States, for instance. Furthermore, it rebels against the discourses

of the state, academia, and the LGBTQ+ community which have historically excluded Two-Spirit

existence while also challenging perceptions of Two-Spirit people within Native cultures, nations,

and communities who may have been affected by the hate propagated by the discourse of the

settler state. In addition, this public expression of grief has opened space for future imaginings

that we are already seeing through new expressions of identity, for example, Indigiqueer, and the

current production of Indigenous futurism and speculative fiction.

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5. Poem Analysis

5.1 Overview

The poems “Some Like Indians Endure” and “Chantway for F.C.” (Driskill, 2011b)

explore grief resulting from racial sexual/gendered injustices inflicted upon North American

Indigenous peoples by the ideologies of the settler-state. Yet, through their poems, these two

authors (Allen, 2011; Driskill 2011c) reveal how Two-Spirit people have continued to transform

and emerge from this grief by sourcing beauty from unbearable pain. They offer their poems to

resist and clear a path to more viable futures.

“Some like Indians Endure” (Allen, 2011) compares “indians" and “dykes” to reveal how

both have survived despite attempted annihilation by a patriarchal settler-state. Yet no matter how

the homophobic settler-state tries to erase their existence, “indians” and “dykes” keep the idea of

themselves and their communities alive with nature both a witness and symbol of their resilience.

By utilizing the colloquial term “indian,” Allen speaks to Native American peoples as an

Indigenous woman within the community. Native Americans often use the term “Indian”

informally among themselves, yet the term also carries the history of settler-colonialism and the

oppressive laws and institutions which removed them from their lands and imposed genocidal

policies after the settler colonialists arrived on Turtle Island believing they had reached India. The

American Indian Movement (AIM) in the late sixties reclaimed the term “Indian” with ethnic,

political, and sovereign pride. Yet when an outsider uses the term, it can often carry the racial

bias and historical trauma of the settler-state. Likewise, “dyke” (shortened from “bulldyke”)

originated as a homophobic slur against working class masculine lesbians in the 1950s, but in the

seventies, lesbians reclaimed the term as a form of empowerment and rebellion. As a young

lesbian who ventured outside of a small homophobic town for the first time in search of belonging,

I felt my first connection to a sense of home within a dyke community much like Allen describes.

As lesbian spaces and rights become more at risk in the U.S., as does Native American

sovereignty, it is imperative we keep the idea of “dykes” and “indians” alive and fight for their

continued endurance as communities.

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The poem “Chantway for F.C.” pays homage to Fred Martinez, a 16-year-old Navajo

teenager who was brutally killed in Colorado in 2001 for being a Two-Spirit person. His mother

said that Martinez often described himself/themself

with the Navajo word “nadleehi” which

helped him/them find comfort in his/their gender identity despite the bullying he/they faced

(Nibley, 2010). His/their murderer was not charged with a hate crime and has already been

released from prison. Driskill offers the poem as a Chantway, a Navajo curative/blessing ritual

and ceremony, to honor his/their young life and provide healing in his/their community. The poem

is divided into five parts, with each section metaphorically representing one night in a five-night

Chantway ritual. Driskill uses stunning natural imagery as an offering to Martinez’s young

“nadleehi” warrior life and spirit. Its lyrical nature evokes intense emotions which call forth the

depth of this heartbreaking and senseless crime and the symbolic strength to help his/their

community move forward and create meaning through the tragedy. Driskill elevates his/their

memory and life with brilliant and exquisite care in which, through the ceremony of a Chantway,

the community can emerge refortified and empowered to create a world in which Two-Spirit lives

will not be sacrificed to racist and homophobic ideologies but will be honored and upheld as

sacred.

This discourse analysis explores the concept of grief by looking at how the authors

employ grammatical person, verb tenses, capitalization, simile, metaphors and personification,

and the repetition of words and concepts in their poetry. Examining the authors’ choice of

language exposes aspects of Two-Spirit identity construction in its relationship to grief and the

context of the poems’ production.

5.2 Use of Voice, Perspective, and Grammatical Person

Both poems begin using first person confessional voice to insert the author’s own voice

into the poetry. Hence, in both poems, the persona, speaker, and author form an intricate

Since Martinez described himself/themselves as gender non-binary, but the articles and sources I have found use

masculine pronouns, I have decided to include both throughout this text to respect the sources as well as his/their self-

described dualistic masculine/feminine Two-Spirit identity.

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connection. Yet both authors also shift their use of pronouns and, thus, their relationship with the

reader and the pain, grief, and violence described in each poem.

In “Some like Indians Endure,” Allen (2011) begins the poem in the first-person singular

writing: “i

have it in my mind that / dykes are indians” (p. 21). The speaker highlights her own

subjective position: this idea exists in her mind but not all “dykes” or “indians” will necessarily

agree. She implies her membership in both groups but does not explicitly state it. The only other

lines in which she uses first person, she writes: “but i don’t know / about what was so longago /

and it’s now that dykes / make me think / i’m with indians / when i’m with dykes” (p. 21, 24). In

this excerpt, she reiterates her partial perspective and offers her idealistic understanding of both

groups in the past: believers in “caringsharing” who “rode horses / and sang to the moon” (p. 21).

The persona admits her lack of complete understanding about both “dykes” and “indians” from

before but moves to the pain she has witnessed currently uniting “dykes” and “indians” in the

present. Yet in the poem, the speaker distances herself grammatically from both groups using

third person plural: she expresses “i” only four times yet refers to “dykes” and “indians” as “they”

around twenty times. The use of third person separates the persona, a member of both

communities, from the grief described and depicts her as an outsider observing the shared pain.

Yet she employs two other transitory changes in voice: “you” and “we.” In the middle of the

poem, she briefly switches to “you” bringing the reader into the narrative: “but the idea which /

once you have it / you can’t be taken / for somebody else” (p. 22). She continues, “like indians

you can be / stubborn / the idea might move you on / ponydrag behind / taking all your loves and

/ children maybe downstream” (p. 22). Here, the persona implicates the reader with her shift of

the grammatical person: you, the reader, stubbornly and rightly hold onto this “idea” as it forces

you to relocate and lose your loved ones. In these two stanzas, the reader can infer that Allen

creates the poem for Indigenous and lesbian readers while the persona later unites with them using

first-person plural: “the place we live now / is idea” (p. 22). The author includes “we” three times

All emphasis (underline and bold) in the poetry in the analysis is mine to bring attention to the words or phrases

being examined.

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throughout the poem in which she reiterates the theme of the endurance: “we never go away /

even if we’re always / leaving” and an “idea about ourselves is all / we own” (p. 24). She uses

first-person plural sparingly to highlight the staying power ideas for both “indians” and “dykes,”

but when discussing painful lived experiences and grief mentioned in much of the poem, the

persona grammatically separates herself from the poem by using third person plural.

On the contrary to this separation of the persona and grief, in “Chantway for F.C.,”

Driskill (2011c) opens the poem with “from the heavy debris of loss / we emerge” (p. 71)

immediately forging a connection of unity through grief between the persona and the reader.

Likewise, they finish Part I of the poem writing: “We emerge in beauty / You will be our song”

echoing a community lost in the depth of sorrow but together rising to the surface of this

unimaginable pain (p. 71). Unlike Allen’s poem which uses “you” to implicate the reader, each

time Driskill refers to “you”, they refer to the spirit of Fred Martinez for whom they dedicate the

poem. The speaker refers to Martinez by the pronouns “you” and “your” fifteen times throughout

the poem and “we” and “our” nine times referring to the collective speaker: the persona and the

readers. As the readers, “we,” his queer, Native, Two-Spirit and ally community, hold a ceremony,

or Chantway, for our lost companion’s life. We live our grief as we adorn Martinez with all the

precious offerings of this Earth. Nevertheless, the persona extends an exception to the singular

“you” and “your” referring to all Two-Spirit people who have lost their lives. They write, “We

count preciousness daily / hold you as warriors / brothers / sisters / Hold you / with words and

breath” (p. 73). Here the readers hold Two-Spirit people in prayer/ritual as creators and reclaimers

of identity bound with Fred Martinez’s spirit and the fight for existence. The persona, likewise,

only momentarily uses first person singular in the first half of Part II, stating: “Grief pulls me

down” while describing the space of grief and repeating the line “There I wander” four times and

ending with “There I return” (pp. 71-72). In this part, the persona shares their personal journey

with grief to later “return” to the collective persona in first person plural. In the last section V, the

poem shifts from the active voice used throughout the poem to a passive voice construction in the

final two lines. The speaker closes the ceremony: “It is finished in beauty / It is finished in

beauty” (p. 73). This switch from active verbs performed by the persona and readers to a

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distancing passive structure demonstrates the finality of the poem and Martinez’s journey of

transcendence. Martinez’ life now ends in harmony adorned with elegant offerings of love from

the Earth and his community as he/they pass to the Spirit realm.

5.3 Verb Tenses

The verb tenses the speakers use reveal how they see time frames within identity

construction and grief. For instance, in “Some like Indians Endure,” Allen (2011) makes use of

clear and deliberate shifts in verb tenses; nevertheless, she employs the present simple throughout

most of the poem but employs the past tense in particular circumstances where the speaker recalls

or speculates upon the past. For instance, after stating in present that this is her idea of the

connection between “dykes” and “indians”, the persona states her perception of their

commonalties in the past: “they used to live as tribes / they owned tribal land / it was called the

earth / they were massacred /… / they always came back” (p. 21). The use of the past simple

implies that these ideas no longer hold true: the “caringsharing” and singing to the moon have

changed, one can infer, due to the “massacres” she describes (p. 21). She, then, makes a deliberate

shift back to the present and begins to discuss the many connections between the two identities

she currently observes: “they bear / witness bitterly,” “reach / and hold,” and “live every day /

with despair laughin” (p. 21). She provides only one more line in the past tense about stolen

identity and land saying that “whiteman” and “daddy”, “took all the rest” also referring to

previous trauma (p. 22). Yet in she also employs the present perfect tense briefly to connect the

effect of earlier colonization on the present day: “they’ve occupied all / the rest / colonized it”

(p. 24). The rest of the poem characterizes the positive and negative aspects of both communities

in their survival in the present time frame: remembering and uncovering, dying, surviving, and

doing terrible things to each other while maintaining their connection with each other and nature.

The poem interjects one line in the future conditional as a warning: “dykes” and “indians” are

expected “to remember what will happen / if they don’t [die off]” but then shifts quickly back

into the present stating, “they don’t anyway…/ they remember and they / stay” (p. 24). In this

line “dykes” and “indians” maintain their history and identities with each reading. Thus, we can

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see that the predominant use of the present tense represents the fortitude of the groups she

describes which remains as the poem continues to be read and engages readers in the present time

frame advancing the endurance of the communities.

Likewise, in “Chantway for F.C.,” the persona expresses themselves mostly in present

simple because the poem functions as a curative rite that happens in the moment of each reading:

it is always happening within the present time frame to keep Martinez’s memory alive and push

us forward as a community of readers: Two-Spirit, Indigenous peoples, and allies. The speaker

recites illustrative, sensorial, and vivid verbs as performative gestures reaffirming Two-Spirit

existence: “anoint,” “feast,” “hunger,” “listen,” “incant,” “spiral,” “rock,” “sprout,” “hurl,”

“shade,” “count,” “hold,” “rise,” “mimic,” “sew,” “adorn,” “brush,” and “braid” (Driskill, 2011c,

pp. 71-73). The reader performs these actions along with the persona during the Chantway for

Martinez. As I will discuss later, many Indigenous languages, including Navajo, center verbs in

their grammatical structures as movement and animacy better reflect naturalistic worldviews

(Young, 2000; Kimmerer, 2013). In this poem, while written in English, the verbs involve the

readers in the action of the poem and provide the life-force and movement for the nouns and

adjectives. While the poem is predominately in the present time frame, Driskill (2011c) includes

the future tense twice, both instances mirroring the other: “You will be our song” (p. 71) in the

first part of the poem which initiates the ritual and “We will be your breath / We will be your

song” as the ceremony/poem concludes (p. 73). The circular nature of these lines reminds the

readers of their interdependence and promise to each other in the present and future: to keep living

and fighting for light and beauty through all the hate and destruction. The use of the future at the

beginning and ending of the poem, framing the rest of the ritual in the present tense, evokes the

continuity of hope while acknowledging and grieving the past and Martinez lost life and looks

towards a kinder future for Two-Spirit peoples.

5.4 Capitalization, Style, and Formality

While similar in their use of verb tenses, the two poems differ radically in their uses of

the conventions of language, style, and formality. In “Some Like Indians Endure,” Allen (2011)

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rejects traditional conventions of capitalization to signal the beginning of a new idea or reference

a proper noun. In fact, she rejects capitalization throughout the entire poem including the pronoun

“i” or the proper noun “indian”: thus, the lack of capitalization stresses the sameness of every

word without giving more importance to proper nouns nor the persona of the poem. Likewise, the

poem does not separate ideas into discrete phrases through capitalization, but rather employs

enjambment, or the continuation of a phrase onto the next line, where she separates the ideas

stressing the importance of certain phrases or words through an unusual division of phrases: “so

it gets important to know / about ideas and / to remember or uncover / the past / and how the

people / traveled.” (p. 23). These pauses and divisions created through enjambment affect the

rhythm of the free verse poem producing a choppy and sincere tone. Both the lack of punctuation

and enjambment give the poem an intimate feeling like she is whispering a secret to her readers

(“dykes,” “indians,” and allies) while breaking the conventions of white heterosexual patriarchy.

Likewise, her grammar uses standard conventions of English, but the language is simple, informal

and without pretense. Like in spoken English, she uses contractions such as “they’re”, “i’m” and

“don’t” which invoke the intimacy of the oral traditions of Laguna peoples and the parallels

between “dykes” and “indians.” Through her simple language and lack of standard punctuation,

Allen forms familiarity with her readers inviting us into the poem.

In contrast, “Chantway for F.C.” uses standard rules of capitalization, grammar and

carefully considered diction and division of lines to construct a more formal, lyric poem, but the

poem also uses these conventions to invite the readers’ participation. The rhythm flows like a

prayer/ritual with very considered spacing which coincides with each breath, breath that honors

the spirit of F.C. Martinez: “We will sew you a gown of white shells / threaded with yellow zigzag

lightning / adorn you with black clouds / brush blue corn pollen across your lips / braid thunder

through your hair” (Driskill, 2011c, p. 73). This use of convention and formality is vital to the

enactment of a ceremony as it creates order from chaos. The structure, rules, and rituals of a

ceremony hold the attendees and keep them safe both physically and spiritually: they function as

a container for the energy being invoked. The persona’s deployment of precise descriptive

language creates a solemn, serene, and adoring tribute to Martinez. It generates a space for the

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reader to grieve in the safety of the structure of Chantway without outside noise from the breakage

of convention. Instead, it encourages the reader to focus on the words of the poem itself and the

clear rhythmic and spatial division of ideas and to know exactly when to breathe in a palpable and

natural flow.

5.5 Simile, Metaphor, and the Personification of Nature

In both poems, metaphor, simile, and the personification of nature permeate the entire

works. For example, “Some like Indians Endure” compares “dykes” and “indians” which she

sometimes characterizes as a metaphor (“dykes are indians”) and other times as simile (“so dykes

/ are like indians”) (Allen, 2011, pp. 21, 23). In this comparison, Allen bonds “dykes” and

“indians” but distances herself from both groups by using the third person: still, the grief both

groups suffer functions as the foundation of the comparison and acts as a bridge between the two

subjugated and alienated communities. This bridging of identities characterizes the writing of

feminists and lesbians of color during Second Wave feminism which can be exemplified by the

foundation text This Bridge called My Back: Writing by Radical Women of Color (1981)

published the same year as this poem. In their writing, Chicana women and other women of color

refused to select of only one aspect of identity as Allen refuses in the poem. The poem, then,

forges a missing connection between both communities and Allen’s own identity: it creates

identity and highlights how identities intersect.

Furthermore, Allen (2011) uses what settler-colonial literary analysis characterizes as

metaphor and the personification of nature to symbolize the survival of both communities. For

instance, she uses the metaphor of “the persistent stubborn grass” to describe both communities

since no one can eradicate them: they resist and return to “spit in the eye of death” (pp. 22, 24).

Likewise, she personifies Nature and the Earth as collaborators ensuring the endurance of “dykes”

and “indians” as “the earth hides them” from death and oppression (p. 22). Not only does the

Earth hide “dykes” and “indians”, but the Cosmos also witnesses their history and holds their

memories so that they never fade away: she writes “because the moon remembers / because so

does the sun / because the stars / remember” (p. 24). While these lines may read like a metaphor

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and personification in the knowledge taught by the Western settler-state, in many Native

languages, all nature is imbued with life and Spirit. Like the butterfly, nature quite literally heals

the spirit and is not separate from or in a different classification than humanity: thus,

personification cannot exist within this worldview. For instance, Kimmerer (2013) claims that

scientific language and English in general objectify the natural world through a grammatical

omission that excludes an important aspect of spirit/life: she explains that in Western science we

do not name what we cannot see including “unseen energies that animate everything” (p. 46).

Thus, the English language lacks the grammaticality to describe and signify the animacy of such

“objects” such as rocks, water, mountains, the sun, the moon, and the stars, which are considered

lifeless. Yet many Indigenous languages, like the Potawatomi language Kimmerer reflects upon,

are imbued with different forms and structures for the living world and the lifeless. For instance,

discussing of the usage of verbs and the language of animacy, she writes:

A bay is only a noun if water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans,

trapped between its shores and contained by the word. But the verb wiikwegamaa – to be

a bay- releases the water from the bondage and lets it live…. To be a hill, to be a sandy

beach, to be a Saturday, all are possible verbs where everything is alive. (Kimmerer, 2013,

pp. 46-47)

Thus, when the authors employ “personification” and “metaphor” based on the Western

settler states’ understanding of these terms, for the authors, this language may not be figurative

and metaphorical but purely descriptive. Thus, through the animacy of nature, the poems provide

hope and the renewal of Spirit. Likewise, the concept of an “idea” is also personified: the “idea”

literally “[moves] you on” (p. 22). This “idea” and the collective memory of both groups and

Nature will ensure their survival as the settler-state has never been able to quell either

community's sense of self.

Much in the same way, in “Chantway for F.C.” metaphor, or the animacy of nature, plays

a prominent role throughout the poem. In fact, the entire poem acts as a ceremony and is a

metaphor in a sense, but as life itself is also understood as a ceremony for many Native peoples,

the metaphor is quite literal. As we understand this “poetic” language from Indigenous

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worldviews, one can begin to see the separation between metaphor and reality is not so easily

deciphered. As such, one can read this as metaphor or as simple descriptive language of spiritual

dimensions: “Our muscles are rainbows / Spiral galaxies around you / Rock your lost flesh / Bare

you up open-palmed / Sacred” (Driskill, 2011c, p. 72). Here humans, galaxies, and nature unite

in the ritual honoring of the spirit of Martinez. Likewise, one can also read the bloodshed and

fertility of the land figuratively or as a description of the correlations between life, death, and

rebirth, in this case, at the expense of Two-Spirit lives: “Our homelands grow fertile / from our

blood / sprout abundance / feed multitudes / while we daily count our disappeared” (Driskill,

2011c, p. 72). Finally, while the speaker uses words and the animacy of nature to empower the

community, they also lament the impotence of words and metaphors to protect against violence

and death with simile: “What are words / that can’t block blows / shade you from sun’s white

light / like large merciful wings” (p. 72). Nevertheless, notwithstanding the violence and the

frustration expressed at the seeming futility of language, the speaker ultimately claims the power

of language and metaphor to hold those lost through violence “with words and breath” (p. 73).

Finally, Driskill personifies grief itself as they explore their own emotional journey: they write

“grief pulls me down canyon walls”; the emotion physically drags the persona into the depths of

an imaginary material realm where they can explore and feel the grief and honor its presence (p.

71). In sum, as the rules of English, institutionally imposed upon Native peoples, lack forms to

express some concepts in each tribe’s/community’s/Nation’s worldview, the authors creatively

communicate their ideas and remain true to their conceptualizations of Nature often through

figurative language.

5.6 Repetition of words and concepts

Finally, both poems repeat language and concepts related to grief and healing in the

construction of Two-Spirit identity and community. In “Some like Indians Endure,” Allen (2011)

repeats the ways both “indians” and “dykes” have faced death and elimination from the patriarchal

settler-state as “they were massacred” and “massacred again” (p. 21). Likewise, she says both

“know all about dying” and “are supposed to die out” (pp. 23-24). In fact, most of the poem

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references lost spaces and identities and the consequences of living with violence and pain. Yet

despite all the brutality referenced, she offers the repetition of “an idea” to provide hope and

emphasize the perseverance of both communities as an idea “hangs in there” and “endures” (pp.

22-23). Thus, through repetition of words and concepts, she connects nature, ideas, “dykes” and

“indians” in their capacity for survival as a foundational basis of the discourse and creation of

Two-Spirit identity. Similarly, “Chantway for F.C.” also echoes the reality of violence against

Two-Spirit people and reiterates the theme of resilience. Driskill (2011c) mentions the mutually

supporting conceptions of “breath” and “song” on four occasions. They position the readers as

the continuance of breath and song for those no longer able to use these gifts. They, likewise,

repeat “There I wander” four times referring to the physicality of the experience of grief:

nevertheless, they also repeat the concepts of rising up and emergence from this grief, where Two-

Spirit people and Martinez’s communities, family, and friends must use their breath and song to

finish Martinez’ story “in beauty,” which they also repeat in three lines. Thus, the return from the

world of grief, just like the endurance of an idea and nature, signifies the survival of an identity

and a people(s).

6. Conclusion

In sum, through discourse analysis, readers can find significant commonalities as well as

variations between the two poems written over twenty years apart. Allen wrote “Some like Indians

Endure” as gay and lesbian Native identities were first emerging. Her poem represents the work,

literature, activism, and community building of Queer Indigenous Elders that helped lead the way

for the creation of Two-Spirit identity. On the other hand, “Chantway for F.C.” represents Two-

Spirit poetry after a keen sense of community had already been forged, yet the poem also

highlights the vulnerability still felt within the community today. Likewise, they engage

noticeably clear differences in style. For instance, Allen writes informally as whispering a secret

while Driskill employs complex diction and structure like that of a formal ceremony. Similarly,

Allen’s poem distances the poem’s persona from the grief, pain, and suffering experienced by the

two groups, but the same grief also serves as a bridge for the construction of her own as well as

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Two-Spirit identity. On the contrary, Driskill’s poem unites the persona with the reader

throughout and calls for the community to emerge together from the grief of this tragic loss of life

and instill it with meaning and beauty. Nevertheless, the poems also resonate with each other in

many ways. For instance, both poems use a performative use of present tense, bringing active

mourning and grief into each reading. Likewise, both poems employ metaphor and personification

through a unification/animacy of nature and Spirit that reflects many Indigenous languages and

spiritual beliefs. Finally, through their expression of grief, both poets highlight the emergence and

endurance of a community and people who will continue to fight for survival and the right to live

in peace and harmony. Both engage with a continuing sense of Two-Spirit identity that already

calls forth new generations of Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit people who can carry on the creation

of identity and literary traditions while remembering their history and the Elders who came before.

References

Allen, P. G. (1983). The Woman Who Owned the Shadows. Spinsters/Aunt Lute.

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