Dian Million (Athabascan / Alaska, 1950)
I can't find anything about her on the Net, not even on NativeWiki 
Texts below, her own words about herself and the poem we've published on the TP Podcast, from pages 163-4 of "Reinventing the Enemy's Language. Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America" , edited by Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird .
Read and listen Read Dian Million presenting herself...
I am Tanana Athabascan and Nova Scotian. I was born in Alaska in 1950, and lived on the road with my family from Nenana to Anchorage, and all over the Kenai peninsula. I was removed from my home when I was twelve because we were having a particularly hard time. |
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I spent my young womanhood in foster homes, one in Washington, D.C., and in Hillcrest School for girls in Salem, Oregon. I started writing stories to remember my folks and what we were feeling. I want to reflect on some of the confusion I experienced as a native woman looking for reasons in history and in human nature, for a myriad of experiences. I cared deeply about the forces that moved within, about the losses we endured and learned from. One was loss of children. Because I was first concerned about how many native children were removed from Alaska in the 1950s I faced learning a whole history of the attempt to destroy our families. We must be very aware of the future that we portray in English. I think of English as a strange wing that sprouted, not grounded in the old thinking about the land, but one that we must learn to soar in. |
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