The Poetry of Simon Ortiz - Essay Example

Born in 1941 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and having grown up in an Acoma Pueblo community, he has based his writings mostly on some autobiographical events such as his struggles with childhood difficulties in speaking and understanding English and his involvement in the military service.  The vivid imagery that he uses and the direct way that he approaches a subject lends his works the timelessness and credibility that has made them popular. This paper, then, is an attempt to discuss one of his poems found in his book Woven Stone, published in 1991, titled “It Was That Indian.”

This poem tells the story of how Martinez, a Native American of Navajo origin who hails from a place called Bluewater, discovered uranium in a place called Grants and was instantly launched into fame by magazines who took pictures of him and circulated them across the country. The Chamber of Commerce also lauded him for this discovery and wanted to erect a monument in his honor because they attributed to him the boom that immediately followed this finding. Naturally, just like in the days of gold prospecting, when there’s a boom, the town also opens itself vulnerable to all kinds of unpleasantness such as chemical poisoning, high cost of living, and cancer-causing radiation. When the townspeople called the attention of the city government on these social ills, they only responded that since it was that Indian – Martinez – who discovered uranium and thus caused the boom, they should take their matters to him and blame him for the entire thing (Strom, “Native American Authors Project”).

            The reason why Ortiz’s works draw readers is that they are as close to real-life events as they could be, hence, many people could relate to them. Most of the poems that he has written in the Woven Stone are about their native history, and this poem is no exception. The setting is in 1953, when the discovery of uranium, by a Native American no less, is considered to be almost a miracle and something that must be celebrated.  This event has caused so much jubilation that the conflict between the “whites” and the Native Americans has been temporarily suspended. After all the fanfare, however, when many problems followed the town boom that naturally came after this discovery, the whites pointed back to the Native Americans as the culprit. The way this poem is written – in a direct, straightforward manner – belies the political vein of the storytelling.  Ortiz is criticizing the way the whites undermined the efforts and pride of the Native Americans by pointing back a finger at them for causing the chaos and social unrest that resulted from activities that, basically, were the works of the whites. He is basically hinting that the ills of society – then and now – could always be attributed to the industrialization and modernization of our society. This theme is consistent in his other poems which call the readers to go back to nature and the simple state of things, which was their original way of life before everything was displaced and destabilized by the whites. This is a very strong, common theme among his writings which find a ready resonance in his readers.

            If we read from history books about these events, we will find that most of what is written does not document the specific details nor the factual happenings. History, after all, as most would claim, is a story of the winner, the conqueror, the superior. And since the Native Americans were the conquered and were non-resistant, history does not reflect much of what was going on from their side of the fence. Written history, as we have come to know them today, does not cast a favorable shadow on the plight of the Native Americans who experienced severe oppression and disintegration in those times. Thus, the poems of Ortiz reflect his frustration he felt at his people’s stories not being retold, as they should be. Ortiz stepped up and became the voice of his people. This one story is representative of the other hundred significant stories within the Native American community that tell of how the whites have contributed much to the near-loss of the identity and culture of the American Indian, beginning from the Sand Creek massacre of Black Kettle’s band and how the local government was unchecked by the federal government so much so that they dominated the native communities (Wiget, “Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), par. 2)”.

It is also an effort on Ortiz’s part to contribute to continuing and passing on the tradition of storytelling, not only orally but in writing, so that present-day Native Americans will not forget, and will try to make their situation and their lives better using modern-day methods so that they can alleviate their conditions while at the same time preserve their way of life and their culture.