American Indian Culture and Research Journal

I mean to say that the oral tradition, which in some real measure informs the character of contemporary Native American poetry, is itself a reflection of certain fundamental attitudes with respect to language and therefore to literature, and that above all it is a reflection of man's persistent belief in the efficacy of words. This is surely an idea which informs to one degree or another the poetry of all places and times. But it seems to me especially relevant to contemporary Native American poetry, where it is perhaps closer than anything else in our time to the surface of human experience and the center of the human spirit. With this insight, N. Scott Momaday introduces Carriers of the Dream Wheel: Contemporary Native American Poetry. In pointing to the oral character of contemporary Native American poetry and welding it with a poetic art truer to the human spirit than other poetic expression, Momaday pledges Native American poetry to a distinctly high goal. Yet, along with Momaday, I would maintain that the uses of oral tradition, both in substance and form, distinguish contemporary Native American poetry from other contemporary poetry and that, through the uses of oral tradition, contemporary. Native American poetry has influenced and will continue to influence American poetry.