American Indian Culture and Research Journal

They Speak Like Singing: Native (American) Crossings focuses on early books of poetry and prose by select Native writers, showcasing the distinct voices and tribal diversities of living Indians. Through the pan-tribal medium of English, a second language for some, now a mother tongue for most, all of these Native writers begin as poets and go on to write novels. Long, long ago the Lakota matrix White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the medicine pipe. Nick Black Elk recalls in The Sixth Grandfather: “And she knew their thoughts and said in a voice that was like singing . . .,” With visible breath I am walking. A voice I am sending as I walk. In a sacred manner I am walking. With visible tracks I am walking. In a sacred manner I am walking. “He spoke like singing,” says Black Elk as he remembers the wanékia, or “make-live” prophet, of his Lakota Ghost Dance vision, whose “all-colors” voice goes everywhere. As with the grandfather stallion songs, everything hears and dances—the leaves, grasses, waters, leggeds, wingeds, and crawling beings. The savior’s chant is a Native blessing for all. “They were better able now to see the greenness of the world,” Black Elk says of heyoka curing songs, “the wideness of the sacred day, the colors of the earth, and to set these in their minds.” They Speak like Singing honors talk-song visions for all relatives and seeks to distinguish, if not to reconcile, Native with American poetics.