The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives

by Linda LeGarde Grover

A collective memoir in poetry of an Ojibwe family and tribal community, from creation myth to this day, updated with new poems
 

Reaching from the moment of creation to the cry of a newborn, The Sky Watched gives poetic voice to Ojibwe family life. In English and Ojibwe, those assembled here—voices of history, of memory and experience, of children and elders, Indian boarding school students, tribal storytellers, and the Manidoog, the unseen beings who surround our lives—come together to create a collective memoir in poetry as expansive and particular as the starry sky.

This world unfolds in the manner of traditional Ojibwe storytelling, shaped by the seasons and the stages of life, marking the significance of the number four in the Ojibwe worldview. Summoning spiritual and natural lore, award-winning poet and scholar Linda LeGarde Grover follows the story of a family, a tribe, and a people through historical ruptures and through intimate troubles and joys—from the sundering of Ojibwe people from their land and culture to singular horrors like the massacre at Wounded Knee to personal trauma suffered at Indian boarding schools. Threaded throughout are the tribal traditions and knowledge that sustain a family and a people through hardship and turmoil, passed from generation to generation, coming together in the manifold power and beauty of the poet’s voice.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Native American

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2022

About the author

Linda LeGarde Grover is a professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is coauthor of A Childhood in Minnesota: Exploring the Lives of Ojibwe and Immigrant Families 1880–1920 and author of a poetry chapbook, The Indian at Indian School. Her 2010 book The Dance Boots won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction as well as the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Her novel The Road Back to Sweetgrass is the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers 2015 fiction award recipient. Linda's poetry collection The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives has received the Red Mountain Press 2016 Editor's Award and the 2016 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Poetry. Grover’s essay collection Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year received the 2018 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir & Creative Nonfiction as well as the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Memoir, her novel In the Night of Memory the 2020 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for fiction as well at the UPAA (Upper Peninsula Publishers & Authors Association) U.P. Notable Book Award.

Grover is an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe.

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four main sections and each section has poetry that would make you much closer to nature, emotions and culture.

I find the writing quite interesting and thought provoking for most poems. My most favourite part still remains the first section. It has left a huge impact on me. I took most of my time in this part trying to get used to the type of poetry and the new words.

The stories are thrilling, the expressions got me curious.

It would be really helpful for curious readers like me if there's references for further reading or a glossary towards the end or at the beginning to describe the words and the stories better.

Nevertheless a good read. Please take your time.

Thank you, University of Minnesota Press, for the advance review copy.

[Lizzie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

** Thanks to NetGalley, Linda LeGarde Grover, and University of Minnesota Press for this ARC **

The Sky Watched will be available for purchase in October, 2022.

This was a beautiful, impactful collection of poetry by the award-winning poet and scholar Linda LeGarde Grover. Giving voice to a range of experience in Ojibwe lives - from residential boarding schools and the horror of Wounded Knee to private moments of tenderness and love - this is a must-read for any poetry lover. These poems made me reflect a lot on the history of violence in America and on the ways in which we have tried - and often failed - to acknowledge this harm in the present day. An important, inspirational read that would be a great addition to any library - especially for those who live in the United States.

A note - some of this collection is written in Ojibwe :)

[Aubrei K (earlgreypls)]

The Sky Watched by Linda LeGarde Grover is a short little poetry collection/memoir about Ojibwe people.

I want to preface this review by saying I am not usually a poetry reader!! I have been trying to expand my genres by dappling in poetry (especially since it's national poetry month!) but it's certainly not my genre of choice.

This collection is separated into 4 sections.

Part 1 is about Ojibwe histories and spirits,
Part 2 is about the impact of Indian schools
Part 3 is about picking up the pieces of Ojibwe culture after the Indian schools
and Part 4 is about more contemporary issues that link back to the histories discussed in part 1.

The author outlined these sections through an introduction which I found to be very helpful! Once problem I tend to have with poetry is that is so abstract and I just have no clue what to expect, but this intro allowed me to go into the poems well prepared which helped my enjoyment.

If you are looking for a quick poetry collection to read about the Ojibwe people, I definitely recommend this one <3

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished copy provided by Univ Of Minnesota Press.


Content/Trigger Warnings: Talk of Residential schools, abuse, trauma/PTSD, generational trauma, loss of loved ones, grief

I sobbed . Friends, I have sobbed all through this book, I cried after finishing this book, and even now as I write up this review I'm getting teary eyed. For starters, look at this cover. I'm in love with it! It's absolutely stunning and I just needed to point this out to everyone. That aside, this book is such a loud book. It's raw, incredibly important, and the kind of book that you need to sit on after you finish it, to feel the weight and emotions that you've read through. However, I always get super mushy when something is unapologetically Native/Indigenous.

This poetry collection is a collection that reflects on the experience in Ojibwe lives. Moments on boarding schools and Wounded Knee, but lacing the important moments of love, family, and culture throughout these pages. A poetry collection that encourages the reader to sit upon the weight of the history that Turtle Island (now known as North America or The United States & Canada) was subjected to, to encourage reflection and acknowledgement of how this history still carries into today. To encourage the reader to take their time reading with this book.

If I had to say anything negative about this collection, I think it would be that there are no resources for non-Native/non-Indigenous readers to follow up on with reading. I know many non-Native/non-Indigenous readers tend to struggle with connecting with Native/Indigenous literature and I think it would have been helpful if there were more resources linking to even more stories from Ojibwe people. HOWEVER , I will say/argue that Google is free, articles on Native/Indigenous history is free, YouTube is free, most Nations have their own websites linking their histories, stories and resources. All the sources are literally out there at your fingers tips, you just have to actually put in the work to find those resources. It shouldn't be the Native/Indigenous author's responsibility to do all the work for you.

Some of my favorites:

➸ Sea Smoke on Gichigami
➸ Mary Remembering, on a July Afternoon
➸ Redemption

Overall, I really enjoyed my time reading this poetry collection. This collection made my heart very mushy, very soft, and really emotional. This is so much more than just a poetry collection and the powerfulness, the loudness of this book is just immaculate. I don't think this book will be for everyone and I think there will be readers who struggle with this because there are poems that use the Ojibwe language. However, I love when an author uses their first language and does it unapologetically, and this book is very unapologetically Native/Indigenous. It was just a fantastic read and I can't recommend it enough to those who want to read more Native/Indigenous literature.


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[Alison Chorney-Dubien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not been a reviewer of many poetry books, but I feel this was is special! I enjoyed reading and reviewing this, especially in honour of National Aboriginal Day on June 21st in Canada. The poetry and flow of words as a story was well executed and beautiful. The meaning and teachings were meaningful and important. Recommend this book for all wishing to learn more about indigenous history.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free poetry collection!*

I really loved some of the poems by Linda LeGarde Grover even thought they are more prose than poetry sometimes. I also had to google a lot and thus learned a lot. The imagery in some of the poems is very vivid, the scope of the poems vast. I don't really want to talk too much about the content, but it was overall enjoyable and also (sounds weird I know) informative. I'm glad I could learn about Ojobwe loves.

4 stars

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨ Review ✨ The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives by Linda LeGarde Grover

Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This one's been lurking on my shelves for a while and so I'm so glad to have finally picked it up.

This collection of poetry on Ojibwe is broken up in 4 sections: creation stories and early history, the Boarding School era and the era that followed, and contemporary issues. Each of these sections was powerful, providing deep reflection on this variety of indigenous issues.

The book is part memoir, part collective memoir, bringing together the author's experiences and those of her community. This would be great for incorporating her poems into class because some of them feel very accessible.

I loved that this also blended English and Ojibwe pretty seamlessly throughout her poems - it's a really lovely testament to multilingualism.

A quote I loved:
"Is there a proper response to a land acknowledgment land acquisition statement & all that has followed that loss displacement deprivation starvation removals broken families disrupted dreams lives destroyed absent children dying far from home alcoholism trachoma tuberculosis rolling through decades, centuries, in the wake of your acquisition of land, your acknowledgment statement feeble futile & for what reason & need?"

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: poetry / collective memoir
Pub Date: 2022

[Bethany Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda LeGarde Grover's work is interesting. Her poems read like stories, and her stories read like poems. This pattern continues with her newest work, a collection of poetry titled The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives. I liked the variety in the poems. Topics included boarding school life, Ojibwe legends, language, exoticizing of indigenous culture, and the hypocrisy of the 1970's hippie movement.

The poems also provide a look at life from various bad guys - one poem from the POV of a wendigo, another from the POV of a boarding school teacher. It seemed like those poems were written to invoke sympathy and not just scorn. I respect that. Every villain has a story, and it doesn't excuse their actions, but it does make it hard to hate them.

Some of the poems I didn't understand right away. One of the poems involved some boarding school girls being taken to lie outside in a ditch, and I didn't get it. Later in the book, a poem mentioned the Wounded Knee Massacre, and how a nun had the students lie in a ditch for their safety. So then it made sense.

The poems often repeat Ojibwe-language stanzas in English, so I can imagine The Sky Watched would be a good language-learning resource. A good book - I give it five stars.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a woman, I related to the prose, Migwechiwendum Shaaganaashimowin which begins "When I look at my grandchildren"....

I read this book because I wanted to further my knowledge about Native American life--especially from a Native American woman's point of view. Linda LeGarde Grover has been publishing her prose and poetry in various sources since 2001. I am intrigued by two of these sources--YELLOW MEDICINE REVIEW: JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS LITERATURE, ART AND THOUGHT; Southwest Minnesota State University and TRACES IN BLOOD, BONE AND STONE: CONTEMPORARY OBJIBEWE POETRY; Loonfeather Press.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of prose and verse poems by an acclaimed author. Touching snippets of Ojibwe life and culture woven together in a lovingly crafted tapestry. As always, a longer review appears at www.cloquetriverpress.com. I actually rate this book 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5.
Peace.
Mark

[Maileen Hamto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor emerita Linda LeGarde Grover shares a collection of poems through "The Sky Watched," reflecting the Ojibwe tribal worldview, history, and path forward. Ancient stories of creation and reinvention converge with the long-forgotten suffering of children and grandmothers amid the Indian boarding school era. The poems in Ojibwe and English are structured in four parts, aligning with the sacredness of the number four in the Ojibwe belief system. They tell of wondrous realizations and harsh truths garnered through small moments of kindness and comfort in the most unexpected ways.

The first set of poems in "The Sky Watched" focuses on Indigenous legends and myths of old, drawing ancestral wisdom. Poems depicting separation, isolation, sorrow, and loss in Indian boarding schools are the hardest to read. Children were demanded to “forget the language of their grandparents,” and they often considered “so many ways to die.” Escape was futile, even with the certainty of death. Hope and resistance grace the rest of the poems, assuring readers that the voices and spirit of the Ojibwe have endured.

Survival and resistance assured the continuation of the everlasting Ojibwe story. "The Sky Watched" is truly a gift of collective memory through generations broken by genocide and colonization. Poetry is the medium most suitable for speaking truth and bearing witness to suffering, naming the unspeakable psychological, emotional, and physical abuse experienced by Indigenous children. Family is central to Grover’s extraordinary flair for expressing the unimaginable prospect of reclaiming joy and hope to overcome intergenerational trauma.

[Marie Zhuikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda's poems offer an expansive look in to Ojibwe culture and also scope down into her memories and personal life. Some are heart-wrenching, others humorous and perhaps a bit snarky. My favorites, of course, were the snarky ones: "To the Woman Who Just Bought That Set of Native American Spirituality Dream Interpretation Cards," and "Loss and a Question." The latter one isn't really all that snarky, but it offers a Native perspective on the practice of creating land acknowledgement statements - something I'm in the process of doing for work. I shared it with our committee and they appreciated the perspective it offered. Ojibwe words and interspersed throughout her poems and she offers translations for most. A must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about Ojibwe lives and viewpoints.

[Reagan Formea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an ARC! I really enjoyed this collection of poems. It was my first indigenous poetry collection and I feel like I learned so much about the struggles, the history, and the stories of the people. I definitely would like to pick up more from this author.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool to read such a powerful collection of poetry from an author that lives and works in the city I am from. Some poems, for me, hit more powerfully than others. I feel some might have served better as mini essays. But overall I really enjoyed this anthology.