When Winter Come

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Authors: Frank X. Walker

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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

 

T
HE
U
NIVERSITY
P
RESS OF
K
ENTUCKY

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 soon 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

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