Defining Identity

Native American oral poetry and stories should be part of the great stack of building blocks in what we call our “identity”, our “history”, our “story”. Why should our ground works come from Greece and Rome and the Bible and European sagas, and not also from the places where we actually live.As Bringhurst says, “isn't it just possible that if we listened to the stories and the voices native to the place, we’d be a bit less eager to strip mine it, clearcut it, pave it, and pollute it in the name of making money?”

 -Margaret Artwood