We stand beside descendants
of that dormant mountain
across the sea—
its hills dense with māmane
its stars dauntless
its burial grounds sacred
a million years
before statehood
clobbered its hills with cattle
and machines.
Their girls gather with ours:
Hawaiian & White & Blackfeet & Salish,
hands skimming ribbon skirts
and bright beaded earrings,
buttoning flowered blouses,
a student plaiting my hair
so tight my eyes sting.
All of us sliding store-bought blooms
above our ears: orchids and hibiscus
to mingle with wild balsam.
Our island guests sing,
dance with this inland river,
Nayccˇstm
and we lean over bridge rails smiling
at cars that slow or cheer.
Posters wave:
“HONK FOR HAWAII”
“STOP THE SCOPE!”
one boy raising the union jack,
an X flying straight in the wind.
Behind me, two girls stand face-to-face,
tenderly, fingers raised to paint
red hands across their mouths
for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
and I imagine an island, fertile and lush
where they’d be safe in dark streets
their blood a strength, not a peril
old wind blowing softly,
old stars blessing sandy paths
beneath bare feet.
Author’s note: In 1891 the Salish people were forced across this bridge in Missoula, Montana during the U.S. Government removal from the Bitterroot Valley to the Flathead Reservation. Two years after the Mauna Kea Protest, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes succeeded in having the Higgins Street Bridge re-named “Sx͏ʷ͏úytis Smx̣e,” which translates in English as “Grizzly Bear Tracks.”
—
Jessica Jones is on full-time faculty at Kent State University where she teaches creative writing, Native American literature and place-based composition. She comes from a long line of makers and musicians in Northern Appalachia where trees and animals were among her first teachers. She holds a Masters from the University Montana, and regularly returns to see loved ones and teach/learn on the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations. Her chapbook, Bitterroot (2018), can be found at Finishing Line Press.
