“How To Be Native” by Jessi Farfan

How To Be Native

Come into the world screaming as loud as you can
Stay attached to your mother for a few years
Grow
Learn that you should never whistle at night
Learn that owls are an omen of death
Learn that the earth provides everything you need if you take care of it in return
Learn how to harvest and braid sweetgrass for protection
Grow
Have your long hair braided by your mother while she tells you the story of Nanih Waiya
Play in the red clay dirt and build your own mini sacred mound
Give your mother a braid of sweetgrass because you never want anything to happen to her
Grow
Eat tanchi lobana and banaha when you are sick
Smell the sage and tobacco each morning as you pray
Listen to the gourd rattles as you watch others dance and twirl around the fire
Grow
Panic when you see an owl on your way home from helping your father hunt
Learn how to skin a buffalo
Thank the earth with a bundle of tobacco
Learn how to make puckertoe moccasins
Learn how to grass dance, so you can join the circle too
Pray to creator for your wonderful life
Go to sleep dreaming
Grow
Wake up screaming
Hear a brand new noise, loud and shrill and booming
Trip on the ishtaboli stick you were making that morning as you run out of the house
Watch a paleface kill your father, his body dropping like the buffalo’s
Tremble as you and your mother are spoken to in an unfamiliar language and herded into the group that has managed to survive
Walk
Grow
Walk
Listen to your mother tell you to keep walking, no matter what
Walk
Try to ignore the snow that feels like fire on your aching feet
Ignore the gunshots when somebody falls behind
Walk
Try to ignore the horse hooves and the crying and the booming and
Stop because you are only 10, and have already lost your family, and your heart is too heavy
Fall to the earth and think of how you will never again watch the flowers
Grow
Let 150 years pass
Open a history book and see that they wrote your people went willingly

Jessi Farfan

Jessi Farfan (Choctaw) writes about identity and culture, creating the representation they wished for growing up. Passionate about diverse storytelling and moving performance pieces, they hope to share voices and experiences that often go unseen. When not writing, they enjoy exploring cultural stories, history, and visiting museums. They are currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Headshot: Jessi Farfan

Photo Credit: Staff