Anuk-Ite'

These poems honor a generation of Native American elders and their traditions, beginning with Lakota Sioux relatives: quill-worker Ethel Black Crow, quilt-maker Nellie He Dog Black Crow, and sundance leader Selo Black Crow; next, other Oglala Lakota: the American Horse family, Nikolas Black Elk, and Arthur Chips, Carrier of Songs; and finally, Bob Cannon, an Osage long-distance runner, who lived his dream to carry the Olympic torch. Framed by two medicine wheels, this chapbook honors Anuk-Ité, representing life/death, bringer of designs from the stars, and also includes poems about Camp Lakota, Wind Cave in the sacred Black Hills, place of emergence and prophecy, and traditional ceremonies in "Gift of the Healing Darkness." Oregon's Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen says of this book, "Black Crow has the wisdom and heart to do an ancient, ageless work: delving "...deep/ to pull out all those designs/ pricked in the night sky...."