Today and Every Day
It's a good day to be Indigenous
Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. I started this post over a week ago to coincide with the recent holiday but travel (as in back-to-back trips out of town) and struggle to express myself the way I wanted to have conspired against me. “But aren’t you a writer?” you say. “Shouldn’t this be easy?” Sometimes it is, my friends, but, I assure you, those times are rare.
Instead I’ve spent a good percentage of my desk time plowing through the massive backlog of correspondence I have acquired over the last weeks and months, making some progress1, even as I imagine this must be what those people who plow the road up to Logan Pass might feel like. As in, so much plowing, so much more snow in front of me.2 So without further distraction I’m just going to launch into the chaotic brain dump that follows. I’m grateful you are here.
I landed in Minneapolis Thursday the 9th just before noon and drove directly to Pow Wow Grounds on the historic Franklin Avenue East. The day was sunny and warm and I got a little drowsy on my way there, with three hours remaining between arrival and when I could check into my hotel. I was feeling out of sorts; for starters, I’d been chased out of bed way too early from my room in Spokane, WA, to catch the flight in the first place and so far I hadn’t managed so much as a drop of coffee3. I don’t know how I managed it but I was dozing every time the flight attendants passed with coffee on offer and I missed them. So now I was in Minnesota in increasingly dire uncaffeinated straits. When I arrived in the vicinity of Pow Wow Grounds there was a lot of activity in the area so I had to park a couple blocks up from it, deeper into the neighborhood.
This is a vibrant part of town and I love visiting. I first learned of Pow Wow Grounds because it is kind of a minor sub-character in Louise Erdrich’s wonderful 2022 novel, The Sentence. This book is a ghost story and a bookstore story and a story with many other layers that is among my favorite books by Erdrich, and the coffee shop is mentioned and characters go there and then after reading it of course I wanted to go there too. So while it seems longer, I guess I’ve only visited half-a-dozen times, maybe a few more, over three years or so but it seems part of me now too.
On this day there was a farmers market set up in the parking lot, mostly Native and Asian vendors from what I could tell. I wandered through before going inside for the largest cup of coffee they could manage. After I slurped it down I ventured back out and explored the market a little more. There were nonprofit Native-facing organizations tabling and flowers for sale and produce that made my mouth water and reminded me I hadn’t eaten yet either. The entire scene under the cloudless blue sky, the soundscape full of buzzing conversation and laughter and abundant brown, smiling faces, was uplifting.
“The point is that between Columbus Day in October and Thanksgiving is really the only time most Americans think of Native people, but to be honest, I think of you all every day.”
Whenever people learn I’m in Minneapolis I get recommended to eat at one of two places, or both. The first was an option for me: Gatherings Café in the Minneapolis American Indian Center just up the street from Pow Wow Grounds, but I didn’t go there for lunch. I love the center and I also visit it whenever I’m in town but I’m not that interested in the café. I’m not opposed to it and I’m happy it exists I just don’t find the menu to have much of what I’m interested in when I’m only choosing for myself.
The other place constantly suggested to me is Sean Sherman’s Owamni restaurant. There was a time I was mildly interested in going but that time has passed. I’m not a foodie and this place certainly seems aimed at foodies. I don’t know enough about Sherman to have anything to say about how legit he is as a proponent of Indigenous food sovereignty or not, I just know his net worth is in the tens of millions of dollars and the prices on the menu are anything but decolonized so I avoid it. People love the place but I’m not the demographic for it and I just don’t think I would enjoy myself there so whenever it’s suggested to me I smile and make excuses as for why it will have to be “maybe next time.”4
The Frybread Factory food truck parked outside, and run by, the Pow Wow Grounds folks is a different story. Same as the local farmers selling produce to people from the parking lot. The multi-hued community swarming the area is what I want to part of too; something vibrant and alive and unsegregated by wealth and privilege is the future I want to be part of. It has its share of conflicts – a small incident I witnessed, in fact – but what doesn’t?
I took a shady spot on the curb and just sat and observed and absorbed the energy around me.5 The conversations and humor made me happy (“Why are you waving at my baby?!” exhorted one woman pushing a stroller in mock outrage at the guy leaning out of the window of the food truck, only to join the surrounding aunties in a loud cackle, as everyone clearly knew each other) and I was able to buy myself something to eat, and something for a Lakota guy from the Rosebud reservation I fell into conversation with as well, for less than a single entree from a higher brow place.
“What holiday we celebrate on the second Monday in October matters because it reflects the beliefs we hold about who we are and where we come from as a country. More often than not those beliefs are reflected in law and policy. That is true for the story of Columbus. The 15th century legal doctrine he used to colonize and slaughter the Indigenous peoples is still the law in the U.S. today.”
I’ve written in the past about not caring one way or the other for Indigenous Peoples Day but I’m trying to rethink it. And though my general attitude toward land acknowledgements remains intact6, I’m also trying to soften there as well. Mostly as it relates to being in solidarity with Native people who find meaning in such things. For example, in Montana many people, mostly Native, worked very hard for years to have Indigenous Peoples Day recognized as a legal holiday and this year was the first year it was officially celebrated as such, and there were joyous events all around the state. A lot of people are happy about this and I want to support them, even though it isn’t a replacement for Columbus Day, it is like a co-celebration, which to me kind of defeats the purpose. It feels like a token offering from legislators who really don’t care about Indians or the true and lived history as it relates to colonialism.7 Both truths can be held at the same time: the worthiness of the recognition and the token it represents. Recognizing the holiday is a necessary start to making real change in spite of, and in direct opposition to, the token nature of it.
“Let’s also reject the false idea that opposing Columbus is anti-American. If anything, it’s deeply American to confront the full truth of our history. To question who we celebrate, and why. That’s what ‘to form a more perfect union’ is about. That’s what progress looks like.”
I remember a couple years ago I was in Livingston speaking to students on Indigenous Peoples Day and few of them even knew it was Indigenous Peoples Day. At that time I was generally of the attitude of, “See? See? What is even the point?!” I’ve since changed my opinion. The recognition by the state of Montana is exactly the point and, if we talk about it enough, essential to subverting the token nature of that recognition in the first place, whether in Montana or in other places around the country. Especially in our current political moment where from the federal level on down efforts are being made to redefine the terrible and bloody history of this country. Even if most folks only think about Indians occasionally we can make them think real hard about us in those moments and that is worth doubling down on. Meanwhile we go on about our revolutionary resistance under the radar as necessary. None of this is about those haters anyway.
“'Indigenous Peoples’ Day has never been just a celebration. It is a call to action against the ongoing assault on our sovereignty and existence — and an assertion that, despite these threats, we will not be erased, silenced, or eradicated.”
In the days that have passed since I began writing this newsletter Indigenous Peoples Day has come and gone. I went to Billings and spent two days surrounded by Native people from every reservation community8 in Montana actively working to revive their languages at the Language Matters Class 7 Conference. From there I went straight to the “Together We Rise and Thrive” celebration sponsored by the Potlatch Fund. In both cases I got to be around Indigenous people and dedicated allies in a magnificent representation of truly inter-tribal effort that is happening whether the wider world is paying attention to it or not. It is inspiring and uplifting to see so many people engaged in common causes and taking a day or two here and there to celebrate them.
This is what makes me rethink my bitterness toward perceived token gestures like land acknowledgements and holidays like Indigenous Peoples Day and the like. In an episode of Tin House’s Between the Covers podcast, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson responds to a question with this:
“I think I’ve moved away from trying to get white people to be allies to Indigenous movements, to asking myself, ‘How are you, Leanne? How are you in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian people? How are you in solidarity with this global movement for Black Lives?’”
I’ve thought a lot about this. In the last week I find myself asking, “How are you, Chris? How are you in solidarity with other Native movements right here on Turtle Island as well, in all their glorious and imperfect ways?” What kind of ally am I being if I thumb my nose at a recognition of a holiday if it isn’t applied perfectly? Who am I to make judgments about the entry points for other people into becoming someone rethinking everything they’ve been taught about where they’re from, Indigenous or not? Who knows what effect a simple land acknowledgement could have with someone hearing one for the first time, or the tenth time, or the hundredth? Or experiencing a powwow for the first time on Indigenous Peoples Day?
Who am I to be cynical, whether there are reasons to be or not? Who are you to be? To get to the world we aspire to beyond the dumpster fire world so many of us are in, it’s going to take a lot of rethinking and sacrifice. I want my mind to be open to all the possibilities, and supportive of every tiny step along the way.
About Those Pull Quotes
Here are the sources for the quotes I shared in the previous word mush. Every article is worth checking out and I encourage you to make time for them, even if you’ve already, like most of the world, stopped thinking about Indigenous Peoples Day.
The Winona LaDuke quote comes from this address she gave called “Prophecy of the Seventh Fire: Choosing the Path That Is Green” as part of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture series back in 2017.
The Rebecca Nagle quote comes from this post called “The racist edict that allowed Columbus to colonize and slaughter Indigenous people is still the law in the U.S. today.” It is from her excellent newsletter Welcome to Native America that I urge you to subscribe to. Rebecca is one of the best Indigenous writers out there currently.
The Levi Rickert quote comes from this editorial called “We’re Still Here: Why It’s Still a Good Day to Be Indigenous.” Levi is the editor for Native News Online and I urge you to subscribe, and support, the resource. It’s excellent.
The Johnnie Jae quote comes from this essay called, “Native Survival Depends on Protecting Both Tribal and US Citizenship Rights” published by Truthout. It is mighty.
Of Particular Interest to Irritable Utah and Irritable Colorado Readers
I’m going to be doing events in three places over the next week. Check these out!
Weds, 10/22, 6:30pm, The King’s English Bookstore, Salt Lake City, UT, Details HERE
Thurs, 10/23, 7:00pm, Star Hall, Moab, UT, Utah Humanities Book Festival
Mon, 10/27, 4:30pm, Composition Shop, Longmont, CO, Details HERE
And Finally, Three Things I’d Like to Draw Attention To
Some friends have been doing some good work I think you might be interested in. First, my good friend and relative Kaitlin B. Curtice has a new book out called, Everything is a Story.
“We are in a story right now, asking what comes next, grasping for a solution to the turmoil. I believe this world is in a deep, conflictual, prophetic moment, and we are asking who we are in a lot of ways, reckoning with the stories we’ve told, the stories we hold, and the stories we hope to pass along.”
If you like what I do here I think you’ll like what Kaitlin does and I strongly encourage you to check this book out. She wrote about Columbus Day too!
Broadside Contest
Poets, listen up! My friend Myrna at Expedition Press is having a poetry broadside contest! The story behind the hows and whys of the contest are HERE and all the details for submitting are HERE. I was a fan of Myrna’s work long before I ever met her and she makes beautiful broadsides (and she’s also a delight to hang out with and talk poetry and broadsides and nerd-heavy stuff like that). I’m also a huge fan of broadsides as another way to experience poetry so I urge any of you who have fantasized about seeing your work in letterpress to submit. It would be cool if an Irritable Reader won it!
Prompts to Get You Writing
Anne Marie Wells has a book coming out in November that you may pre-order HERE. It’s called Write Some Cool Sh!t and what it is is a collection of daily prompts to write to. I think this kind of thing is monumentally helpful to writers and I’m speaking from experience; I wrote poetry for ten minutes every day from November 1, 2019 to November 1, 2020, based on a book of daily prompts, and filled fourteen Field Notes notebooks as testament to that effort, contents of which will likely comprise the bulk of my next poetry manuscript. And even if that never happens, the effort was well worth every minute of it because I learned a lot about being dedicated to the practice. I’ve got a copy of Anne’s book and I’ve thumbed through it and am going to do my best to use it in 2026 myself. I highly recommend pre-ordering a copy and diving in as well!
Which includes getting the books in the mail I promised some weeks ago to new paid subscribers – they’ll be going out soon, I promise!
I have messages – many of them, in fact – more than a year old, that I still hope to respond to.
Recently I recoil from such evidence of the addiction and frequently consider quitting it altogether. I always talk myself out of it, though. Coffee is one of the few consistent pleasures that is part of my favorite part of the day: morning, preferably outside, generally alone with my thoughts. Is it necessary for that experience? Probably not, but I’m not ready to jettison it from my life just yet.
I’m reminded here of the time I wrote about why I didn’t want to watch the Ken Burns documentary about buffalo (I still haven’t) and some pompous mansplainy local (OWG, of course) writer/reviewer who I’d never interacted with sent me a very scolding email about why someone should never review something they haven’t actually seen. I wasn’t reviewing the movie and I’m not reviewing Sherman’s restaurant. I’m stating why I’m not interested in experiencing either.
In this reflection on food choices and fancy restaurants and whatnot I’m reminded of my appreciation for Hank Thoreau’s famous quote, “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
To my thinking they are the progressive liberal’s version of “thoughts and prayers” and remain little more than a box to be checked in a vast majority of instances.
I need to point out here that there is no argument anyone can make that legitimizes Columbus Day as worthy of any kind of recognition of celebration. It takes a powerful, willful, and dangerous ignorance to do so, right in line with making excuses for support of the moronic wannabe dictator currently running the show from D.C.
Including non-reservation people like a handful of Little Shell relatives!
For me, the coolest thing about this year’s Indigenous People’s Day was hearing that Chinook salmon had been able to pass all the remaining obstructions in the Klamath River and made it home to their headwater homelands to spawn. What a gift from the Creator — and generations of activists! 🙏🏼
Keep up the fight, Chris! More coffee!
Chris, the thinkers I respect the most are those who say, "I'm reconsidering this" or "I've come to see it differently now." To me, it is the indication of a lively and growing mind and self. I aspire to this, always. Thank you for putting it as you have here.
On another note-as a whitey I resisted the L-A movement for a long time b/c it felt knee-jerk to me and I wanted to wait, for myself, until it felt deeply considered. It does now, because I've found it invites other white people to think about something--indigenous ownership and presence--that they may not have right at that moment. Especially outside of the West. It's become common enough in Alaska spaces and events that I miss it when I'm elsewhere. It feels like a missing piece, akin to not introducing a speaker by name. I would love to talk about this more in person. Of note, In Alaska, Indigenous People's Day is also a state holiday, and it replaced Columbus Day (at the state level--can't do much about the federal). This act happened under Republican governor Bill Walker in 2017, in case you want a sign of how much times have changed.
Lastly--are you aware of Broadsided.org? It's a project by my dear friend Elizabeth Bradfield, who I'm pretty sure you know (and you'll be sharing time at Kachemak Bay, I'm so envious!). Anyway, that project has a sizable translated archive, including poems in indigenous languages. It's beautiful: https://broadsidedpress.org/broadside-tags/american-indigenous-language/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNkkGRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHvLVFqYwvOldhkWq45JHnmxDIYav-6WNVUlf7YvwTh-KlHauAQMh9q7Ziq9P_aem_cYyqPO3Kw5Vw7MsGAWx3oA
Sorry to add to your backlog!