When Winter Come Read online

  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

  Meteorology

  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

  on the great expedition but captains.

  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