Ottawa
Literature

Chief Pontiac

(Ottawa Chief)

"In my opinion, it was chiefly owing to their deep contemplation in their silent retreats in the days of youth that the old Indian orators acquired the habit of carefully arranging their thoughts.

They listened to the warbling of birds and noted the grandeur and the beauties of the forest. The majestic clouds -- which appear like mountains of granite floating in the air -- the golden tints of a summer evening sky, and all the changes
of nature possessed a mysterious significance.

All this combined to furnish ample matter for
reflection to the contemplating youth."

Francis Assikinack (Blackbird)

Stories

Arch Rock on Mackinac Island

How Ioscoda and His Friends
Met the White Men from the East
and Journeyed Across the Great Waters

Potawatomi
Literature

Potawatomi Woman

"Often in the stillness of the night, when all nature seems asleep about me, there comes a gentle rapping at the door of my heart.
I open it and a voice inquires,

"Pokagon, what of your People?
What will their future be?

My answer is:

Mortal man has not the power to draw aside the veil of unborn time to tell the future of his race. That gift belongs of the Creator alone.
But it is given to him to closely judge the future
by the present...and the past."

Simon Pokagon (1830-1899) Potawatomie

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Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature

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Compiled by: Glenn Welker




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