Mother

Cheyenne poet RedCherries debuts with a potent and immersive narrative work about a Native American woman raised by non-Native parents and her journey back to her birth family. Addressing the systemic oppression of Indigenous populations, the collection opens with references to a child being sent to a residential school, and her mother dying in a mental institution as a result. Elsewhere, a queer woman returns to the reservation to some consternation from residents, until the community drops its bigoted beliefs, at which point she is revered: “A union of two Cheyenne women was understood to/ be sacred because Cheyenne women are sacred.” One of the standout poems, “engine injun,” tells the story of a Cheyenne woman who travels to San Francisco in 1969 to take part in a large powwow and learns about the part-Native heritage of Neil Armstrong, who lands on the moon that very night. Elsewhere, a speaker addresses her mother with awe, “You would wake up, brush your hair, put on your denim jacket and become the 1970s cowboy everyone wanted to be.” The collection celebrates this mother, who was the speaker’s connection to the Cheyenne world and was taken from her at a young age. The result is a confident and arresting account of loss and the search to rebuild community and identity. (July)