Steve Russell, Cherokee.
Steve Russell was born on February 10, 1947 at Bristow, Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He received his B.S. and J.D. degrees at the University of Texas-Austin, completing his law degree in 1975. Russell obtained a Master of Judicial Studies at the University of Nevada-Reno in 1993. He is now an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University, Bloomington. Professor Russell has authored numerous scholarly articles focusing on criminal justice, American Indians, and colonialism.
Russell practiced law from 1975 to 1978 when he became an Associate Judge on the Austin Municipal Court. From 1980 to 1982 he served as Presiding Judge of that court and from 1982 to 1994 as Judge of the Travis County Court.
Russell is married and has four children. He lives, with his family, in Bloomington, Indiana.*
http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/lp-2001/russell_steve.html
HOW TO SUCCEED AS AN INDIAN POET
Don’t say “hunger.”
Write of the plump red strawberries
grown by Cherokees
in the Cookson Hills,
rather than rodents fried in lard,
garnished with herbs from the bar ditch,
government commodities on the side.
Don’t say “homeless.”
Write of the red wildflowers and stark beauty
of the Black Hills in South Dakota
rather than the gutted mobile homes and appliance cartons
on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Don’t say “disease.”
Tell us of the red sand
slipping through the hand
of a Navajo medicine man
rather than reminding us
that hantavirus is spread by rats.
Don’t say “genocide.”
Tell us of Red Cloud and Rolling Thunder,
Crazy Horse and Tecumseh,
safe dead Indians
--Pontiac as a hood ornament--
rather than reminding us
of a Cheyenne child at Sand Creek
exploding like an overripe watermelon,
red within and red without,
from the business end
of a .50 caliber Sharps.
Do tell,
do write,
O wise and noble red man,
Native American shaman,
share your hard won wisdom
---but not too much of it.*
by Steve Russell
*http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/31/how-succeed-indian-poet-poem-steve-russell-149630
CHUEN
Kin 231: Blue Planetary Monkey
I perfect in order to play
Producing illusion
I seal the process of magic
With the planetary tone of manifestation
I am guided by the power of self-generation.
Everything is part of one inherently artistic cosmic plan.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Manipura Chakra (Limi Plasma)
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