by Carole Boston Weatherford
We call ourselves Inuna-Ina, Our People.
We worship Be He Tie-ht, the Man Above,
And do the Sun Dance to hail summer.
The ancestors chanted the Ghost Dance
And followed buffalo across the plains,
Roaming present day Nebraska, Kansas,
Wyoming, Minnesota and Colorado.
They allied with the Cheyenne
Warred with the Ute, Pawnee and Shoshone
And made peace with the Sioux, Kiowa and Comanche.
Our people pitched tepees in a circle.
They fished, hunted elk and deer,
And ate jerky and wild berries
After the White Owl brought winter.
The Whirlwind Woman not only gave us breath;
She gave us quillwork, embroidery.
Our every stitch a prayer.
from World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from The Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Abrams, 2018
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