When Winter Come
Kentucky Voices
Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York
Frank X Walker
The Cave
Robert Penn Warren
Famous People I Have Known
Ed McClanahan
Miss America Kissed Caleb
Billy C. Clark
Sue Mundy: A Novel of the Civil War
Richard Taylor
The Total Light Process: New and Selected Poems
James Baker Hall
When Winter Come: The Ascension of York
Frank X Walker
With a Hammer for My Heart: A Novel
George Ella Lyon
When Winter Come
The Ascension of York
Frank X Walker
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The following poems first appeared (some in slightly different form) in We Proceeded On, the journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, in January 2007: “In the Name a the Father,” “The River Speaks,” “Watkuweis Speaks,” “Art of Seduction,” “Lovers’ Moon,” “Primer II,” “Praying Feets,” “Murmuration,” “Field Up,” “Unwelcome Guest,” “Real Costs,” “Umatilla Prophecy,” and “Eye of the Beholder.”
Copyright © 2008 by Frank X Walker
Published 2008 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Frank X, 1961–
When winter come : the ascension of York / Frank X Walker.
p. cm. — (Kentucky voices)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8131-2483-4 (acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-0-8131-9184-3 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. York, ca. 1775–ca. 1815—Poetry. 2. Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)—Poetry. 3. West (U.S.)—Discovery and exploration—Poetry. 4. African American men—Poetry. 5. Explorers—Poetry.
6. Slaves—Poetry. I. Title.
PS3623.A359W47 2008
813’.6—dc22
2007037305
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Jade Imani Chiles
and all our Native Sons (and Daughters)
. . . may they recognize home when they find it.
It will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of
the state of morality, religion & information among them,
as it may better enable those who endeavor to civilize and
instruct them . . .
—Thomas Jefferson’s instructions
to Meriwether Lewis, June 1803,
from The Journals of Lewis and Clark
The federal attack on Indian self determination during
the 19th Century included the forcible displacement of tribes,
the creation of a reservation system, and the
more subtle devaluation of Indian cultures and histories.
—from Oxford History
of the American West
Contents
Introduction
Glossary
Opening
Role Call
Homecoming
The Melting
The Great Inquisition
Part I
In the Name a the Father
How the River Like a Snake
The River Speaks
Watkuweis Speaks
Without Bibles
Whupped
Like a Virgin
Like Raven from Head to Toe
Art of Seduction
Quiet Storm
Lovers’ Moon
Midnight Ride
Circle a Gifts
Forsaking All Others
False Impressions
Praise Song
Hunters’ Code
Signifying
Settling Debts
Learning Curve
Concentric
Common Ground
How to Say Goodbye to the Ocean
Cutting Back
To Honor and Obey
Primer II
Part II
Ananse Returns
Rose and York’s Wife Debate the Merits of Love
Whiskey Talks
Real Medicine
Praying Feets
Murmuration
How I Know Mamma Out There Watching
Wordsmith
Devil’s Tower and the Big Dipper
Power a Touch
Red, Light, and Blue
Field Up
Rose Shows Her Thorns
Summer a Peace
A New York
Dream Catcher
Part III
End a the Song
Say My Name
Unwelcome Guest
The Sunflower Seed Oil Conjure
Chapel a Love
To Have and to Hold
Real Costs
Seeing Is Believing
Part IV
Prenupt Agreement
Master of His Own Domain
Five Things I Don’t Know
Homing Signals
Too Many Wifes and None
Brotherly Love
Many Voices
Irreconcilable Differences
Lessons and Ghosts
Queer Behavior
Til Death Do Us Part
Weighing a the Heart
Umatilla Prophecy
Gye Nyame
Vision Quest III
Like Heroes
Time Line
Another Trek: York’s Nez Perce Legacy
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to explore the Missouri River to its source, establish the most direct land route to the Pacific, and make scientific and geographical observations. In the interests of trade and peace, they also were to learn what they could of the Indian tribes they encountered and impress them with the strength and authority of the United States.
After meeting in Louisville, enlisting the first permanent members of the party—nine young men from Kentucky—and heading down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and to the Wood River, Lewis and Clark spent the winter training the recruits and preparing for their ascent up the Missouri. On May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery officially launched the exploration phase of the great trek west and reached the ocean almost a year and a half later in November 1805.
Along the way they would encounter various tribes of Native Americans, many of whom contributed to the success of the journey. While the twenty-eight-month long, eight thousand mile journey to the ocean and back set the stage for expansion and migration that would soo
n follow, it was the beginning of irrevocable and devastating changes for Native people.
By 1830—just twenty-four years after the Lewis and Clark expedition—the newly passed Indian Removal Act had forcibly relocated many eastern tribes across the Mississippi River into Indian Territory and what is now present-day Oklahoma. Between 1778 and 1868, the United States government executed nearly 800 treaties with American Indian nations. Of these, fewer than 370 were ratified by the Congress, leaving many tribes landless and without formal recognition or acknowledgement. Since 1778, over 2.2 billion acres of Indian lands have been ceded to the United States. Today, 2.5 percent of original lands, or 56 million acres, remain in tribal jurisdiction. The last treaty was signed in 1868, forcing Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce followers to move from the Wallowa Valley in Oregon.
Inspired by visits to the Nez Perce reservation, communication with York’s Nez Perce descendents, and transcribed Nez Perce oral history, this book is about deconstructing accepted notions of history, love, marriage, and freedom while simultaneously reaffirming the power of literacy and the role of mythology and storytelling in exploration of the truth. It seeks to validate the voices of enslaved African Americans and Native peoples during a time in American history when their points of view were considered invalid. In this way, it seeks to fill a gap in the collective works about the Lewis and Clark expedition and its other important but often overlooked figures.
Glossary
Gye Nyame
Akan symbol for the omnipotence and omnipresence of God
Ile-Ife
spiritual capital of Yorubaland, center of creation
’Legba (Elegba)
Orisa of mischief, the trickster
Oludumare
Yoruba reference for Almighty God
Orisa (Orisha)
divine being
Tse-mook-tse-mook To-to-kean
Nez Perce for black Indian
Watkuweis
Nez Perce for “she who returned from a far-away country”
Yemaya
Orisa of the sea and maternal love
Opening
Role Call
Role Call
To hear hero makers tell it
wasn’t nobody
An them always mentions Seaman
Capt. Lewis’s dog
before them remembers me.
Beneath the captains was three sergeants
though something evil got in the bowels
a Sgt. Floyd an took his life, barely a year
after joining up. I was sorry to see him pass.
Among almost two dozen privates
was a sharp young boy no more than eighteen
a couple a blacksmiths
an several Virginy an Kentucke mens
that knowed they way ’round furs an skins.
We had us a couple a Frenchmans
born an raised as Indians.
Most a them could shoot straight an some
was pretty good hunters, though none
could best me.
An though alla the books praise the captains
the most valuable members a the party
was even lower than privates, but be
the ones that saved all our lives
more than a time or two.
The real heroes be old cowardly Charbono’s young squaw
an Drewyer, another man full a both French
an Indian blood.
They was the best at talking with they hands
bargaining with the Indians along the way
an quieting the killer we sometime seen in they eyes.
Sacagawea was best at finding roots to eat when we
was near starving an one a the ones to steer us right
when we was lost.
An then, there was me, just along to cook an carry,
to hear them tell it, but there be two sides to ev’ry story
an then there be the truth.
This story be born a my own spit an memory
it be the only thing I own outright
an I gives it to you freely.
Homecoming
Homecoming
You will be at ease only in your own home.
—African proverb
After I visits villages a families
in charge a themselves
meets barefoot warriors an chiefs
listens to wisdom a storytellers
an medicine men, an see people
married to the earth
fishing the rivers an living off the land
dancing an singing in circles
wearing animal masks
caressing voices
out a skin-headed drums an rattles
honoring them ancestors
an them toothless at the beginning
an at the end a life
I wonder if all the stories Ol’ York told
on the porch, was really ’bout
ol’ Africa
or just a conjurer’s way a planting seeds
so his son recognize home
when he see it.
The Melting
The Melting
Ol’ York say Mandingo, Ibo, Dogon
Akan, Yoruba, an more be chained together
in the bottom a boats
an brought to this land
He say one a the tricks used
to make a man a slave
an kill his language
be to take away the name
he call hisself
When I listens to the Sioux, the Hidatsa
Arikara, Mandan, Shoshone, Salish,
Chinook, an even the Nez Perce
all be called savage
Indian, red man, or chil’ren
by the captains
I wonders how long it take before
they answers to niggah too.
The Great Inquisition
The Great Inquisition
Some answers come so easy
the questions be barely worth asking.
Some things root in the back
ova man’s head,
wrestle him in the dark
an follow him ’round
for the rest a his life:
Why I never run to freedom?
How my heart make room
for two women?
When I come to know God?
An what did I pretends not to know
’bout the men an the facts
a the great expedition?
I’ve studied on these same questions
for many a year, struggled with some
a the answers, an eventually come to terms
with all they truths
no matter who ear them sting.
Part I
In the Name
In the Name a the Father
Them call the old guide that led us
through the mountains, Toby,
Sacagawea, Janey,
her lil’ Jean Baptiste, Pomp,
an me boy, an worse if it cross they minds.
Them call the beautiful Nimiipuu
Nez Perce though we never seen a pierced nose
in the mountains or plains.
Them give a name to ev’ry stream an place
we come ’cross
even named a group a small islands after me
without ever thinking to ask the people
who lived there if they already had names.
What is it, I wonder
gets in a white man’s head so
that when him look in the mirror
him always see God
but when him look at people
with hair like lambs wool
or feet a burnt brass
him see only devils or chil’ren.
River Like a Snake
How the River Like a Snake
Whoever sees the snake and does not flee, plays with
death.
—Yoruba Pr
overb
She turn right then left then right again
some time circling ’round to almost where we begin.
She make us dodge sharp trees an rocks
underwater logs an moving sand bottoms.
We pushes an pulls the keelboats an big canoes
the whole day long just to travel a distance
a man can cover on foot in a few minutes.
She put me in mind ova long mean snake
that swallow a pack a field mouses.
An while we trys to find our way out her stomach
she swallow sticks an rocks an enough cold water
to keep us in her belly long enough for us to pass.
My captain an the men laughs at my fear
a the river an my singing her apologies
an prayers at night an while we works
but I know she alive an I know she do all
she can to break our spirits an make the party
change they minds an give up the expedition.
But she don’t know that a company
a rugged men who take well to orders
is as fearless an hard-headed as she is long an deep.
The River Speaks
The River Speaks
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
—Langston Hughes
call me the ohio, the mississippi, or the missoura
call me wood, teton, yellowstone, milk, judith, marias,
jefferson, madison, beaverhead, bitterroot, snake,
clearwater, or pallouse
call me the wide-toothed mouth of the columbia river
call me after my many creeks
my great falls
my hot springs
i am the snow atop mt. adams
i am the salty hope in the air
at cape disappointment
i am she who is the deep and the shallows
a thundering waterfall and a quiet storm
i am always present in the air, on every tongue
in every drop of milk and blood and tear
you will find me in every thorn and flower seed and fruit
there is no life without me
i am libation and baptismal pool
i am your sprinkle of holy water