"What I do as a writer, teacher, and storyteller is to demystify
language," says Simon Ortiz. Widely regarded as one of the country's
most important Native American poets, Ortiz has led a thirty-year career
marked by a fascination with language--and by a love of his people. This
omnibus of three previous works offers old and new readers an
appreciation of the fruits of his dedication.
Going for the Rain (1976) expresses closeness to a specific Native
American way of life and its philosophy and is structured in the
narrative form of a journey on the road of life. A Good Journey
(1977), an evocation of Ortiz's constant awareness of his heritage,
draws on the oral tradition of his Pueblo culture. Fight Back: For the
Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land (1980)--revised for this
volume--has its origins in his work as a laborer in the uranium industry
and is intended as a political observation and statement about that
industry's effects on Native American lands and lives.
In an introduction written for this volume, Ortiz tells of his boyhood
in Acoma Pueblo, his early love for language, his education, and his
exposure to the wider world. He traces his development as a writer,
recalling his attraction to the Beats and his growing political
awareness, especially a consciousness of his and other people's social
struggle.
"Native American writers must have an individual and communally unified
commitment to their art and its relationship to their indigenous culture
and people," writes Ortiz. "Through our poetry, prose, and other written
works that evoke love, respect, and responsibility, Native Americans may
be able to help the United States of America to go beyond survival."
