Long Shoshone Poems

Christ!
A warparty of 60 Shoshone warriors has just stampeded into the meadow
faces painted red and white for blood and death, all sorts of strange designs,
bows and arrows ready to fly on us, skull breaking cudgels...

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I don’t have the financial muscle
To wrestle the American State President intellectually
If the truth be told ;
I don’t have half enough in my savings account
To ridicule the financial dry seasons I went through to this...

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The Great Falls of the northern Plains is actually a chain of five seperate waterfalls
varying in height and majesty extending over 12 miles,
they also confirm that the right river was chosen,
we had hoped that the...

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The Nez Perce Indians who lead lean lives on these knolls and river brooks
have a style of soul that sneaks into the songs of the sun
and plays on the prayers in the patience of their...

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We briefly meet the Mandan Chief Big White
in the village center where the animals are sacraficed,
couples wed, and disputes are dealt with,
he is a massive, and portly man
and is wearing a headdress that spreads to...

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12 hours of excruciating labor pangs have Sacagawea breathing
into the face of Death,
as she violently shakes her head back and forth, teeth clenched,
sweat boiling and eyes furious
it seems to me that she is detetmined to...

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We are hours into the mountain riverway, the current unfriendly to us
paddling earlier had simply strained the men to burning exhaustion, 
those who have the shoulder strength are paddling the two larger canoes
while the other...

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Our fortified camp is well out of range of arrow, or gun shot, except the rear flank,
of course the Shoshone are reputed to be deficient in firearms
but are expert in hand weapons and guerilla tactics,
its...

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The Shoshone bargain their horses like apathetic bankers,
what we all have in common is constant starvation
and near death stumbles, several times this month our pack animals
have slipped and fallen on this treacherous route,
in the Bitterroot...

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Let’s go see Shosone Falls, Hells Canyon, Craters of the Moon Museum.
Hold up! I said to my excited husband; where are they?
Smack dab in the middle of Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon.
The little “gem” state,...

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THINGS  I  DON’T   UNDERSTAND *  


First the facetious stuff then the seriously bad * 
Moralizing  punch  line which I usually do add.
Don’t understand  difference between horse and...

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Tribe
~~~~~
The greatest hallmark of my sacred tribe
Is one of profound pride and an irresistible strength
To overcome any obstacle
Descended of Shoshone, Choctaw, and the motherland
From across the Atlantean ocean
Genealogy reveals a touch of Mediterranean and French
One...

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Born the daughter of a Lemhi Shoshone chief
she was captured by the Hidatsa in her teens. 
And sold to the Mandan Missouri River tribe
where she met and married Toussaint Charbonneau.

A French Canadian trapper and a...

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With our Shoshone friends and escorts we are headed to the Nez Perce Trail,
an ancient path that joins the West to East, its late August
the pines smell spiced with emerald soul, wise and healthy,
its getting...

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.

          As I stalked the dust clouds
                  headed westward
...

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Chickasaw warrior…Apache brave
Chimed echo from recent pasts
Rawhide clad of bow and stave
Our iconic figure now cast

Roaming prairies open plains
Selfless equal within nature
A simple life of a people proud
Societies of ancient stature

Cherokee warrior…Arapaho brave
Awakened into midnight...

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A vision legendary among Native Americans...
glimpse her in your mind’s eye
   young Shoshone woman
       with a papoose on her back
   stands on a precipice
 ...

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Happy Hunting Ground
David J Walker

I wonder
            If a campfire is
Burning bright
            In the...

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Aiyana is a tiny bit jealous of her brothers.
They get to be in the sweat lodge with the men tonight.
This means they will soon be discovering their totem animals.
Why is this only for males in...

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Old tumble-down adobe dwellings
That seem to glow… 
In the night…In the light 
Of the desert moon

And the glitter in the eyes
Of the creatures of the night
Shine bright in the light
Of the desert moon

Wind through the...

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