Not Vanishing is the poetry of protest. It is a cry of outrage from a people who have been pushed to the limit, but steadfastly refuse to die.

Native America is alive and still fighting. The overt wars of colonialism have transmuted into wars of paper and today's cavalry wears pinstripe suits and uses the guns of law and legislation. While it is no longer fashionable to slaughter entire nations of people, it is still somehow permissible for the government to attempt to legislate Native people out of existence. Whether it is through termination policies (refusal to recognise a nation as Native) or blood quantum (refusal to recognise individuals as members of their own Nations), to deny any human being their self-chosen identity is a crime against humanity.

Every year laws are passed that further restrict Native autonomy. The relocation of traditional Dineh from Black Mesa to make room for coal mining, the denial of subsistence hunting and fishing rights to Northwestern nations, clearcutting of the Klamath forests, the continued testing of atomic weapons on Shoshone land....these are but a tiny fraction of the Indian Wars in the late 20th century. Native people are not allowed - by law - to choose their own form of government or to actually control what land base they have left. They can, and do, fight as part of America's armed forces, 'making the world safe for democracy', yet they are not protected by the Bill of Rights - especially if they live on reservation lands.

Few non-Indians know whose land they are living on. Few know the human cost of the electricity that powers their homes, or the mixture of despair and beauty that is life in Indian Country. Surrounded by concrete, hurrying from place to place, most people have grown deaf to the true song of the earth. But the people of the land have never stopped listening. They have never stopped trying to tell the world what is happening - to it and to them.

Long ago, I read a book of poetry by a remarkable writer named Chrystos. The words from her introduction - 'the actual, material circumstances of our lives' stayed in my head. They guided me on a journey that has not stopped yet; they goaded me into active resistance. This website is but a small part of that. It is, in a sense, a giveback.

To silence the voice of a people is to disappear them. It is necessary for those of us who consider ourselves 'civilised' to listen, no matter who we are or where we live, for the truth of what has and continues to be done to Indigenous people world-wide in the name of progress is monstrous.

Not Vanishing is dedicated to Native poets who, like Chrystos, are trying to describe this.

Read, listen. And then raise your voice in protest. For the Earth, and for all her children.

Mitakuye Oiyasin

...a brief word about the site
We have limited ourselves to one poem per author (and it's not easy to choose it!). The choice is made strictly to our own aesthetic, but we have attempted not to use 'signature' poems (i.e. the ones that get published over and over again) or poems that have been published elsewhere on the Internet. There are several good poetry anthologies already in existence and where we could not find more obscure work we have used selections from them, but our emphasis is on lesser known poets, and established poets' lesser known works.

Though few bookstores carry a wide selection of Native writing, there is actually quite a lot of small press stuff out there. We have given the address of the publisher, rather than using the standard City: Press, Year academic-type citation. Write to them for catalogues of their stock - they'll generally be thrilled. They will also do direct mail orders (small press prices are usually pretty reasonable for poetry - major publishers are not). For anthologies and political texts we suggest trying Borders, or your local university bookshop if you live near one. If they don't have it in stock they are pretty reliable for orders - large publishing houses won't usually fill an order for one book, but most university presses will. Second hand bookstores sometimes carry chapbooks (small, sometimes self-published collections of poetry) by Native writers - especially if you live in an area that has a university with a Native studies programme, on the borders of a reservation, or just about anywhere in the Southwest.

If you find a great poet that we haven't, let us know about it. (Please include the name of the publication it's from, the address of the publisher, year it was published, and the writer's bio if there is one.) If there's a great poem in a chapbook sitting by your bed and we've used one from an anthology, let us know about that - we'll consider changing it. Our purpose here is not to publish every famous writer's most famous poem, but to bring forward poems and poets that may otherwise be ignored. Some terrific writers will be left out, because they do not write 'political' poetry. Some writers will be included because the content resonates, even if the form is not perfect. We have made no attempt here to compile any kind of comprehensive bibliography of Native authors or of the works of those whose poetry we present. There is already a good one and we heartily recommend that you have a look at it. We apologise for the lack of links from our pages and hope to change this eventually, but for the moment we are concentrating our efforts on just getting the poetry out. If you know of links, however, do send them to us and we will add them. By the same token, if there are no links on a page, don't assume there isn't more stuff out there.

All writers presented here are self-identified as Native. It is not our purpose to check tribal enrollment and we do not support the band card system as a method of identification, especially as many young people are now refusing to enroll as a form of protest. If you have doubts about a writer's 'authenticity', contact them, not us.

Anyone who wishes to help us with this project is welcome to contact us. If you are a poet and want your work presented here please send us no more than five poems, with a brief biography. WE VERY MUCH ENCOURAGE UNPUBLISHED WRITERS TO SUBMIT THEIR WORK! When compiling your submission please remember the intention of this page, which is to create a space for a poetry of protest.

If you've read this far, we thank you for bothering. And now...