Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
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Francis Yellow

Francis J. Yellow ( Wanbli Koyake, Carries the Eagle) is a member of the Lakota tribe.

Artist's Statement

77. Sipping hot coffee black

78. Relaxing in silent self rolled ease

79. we'd cultivate tobacco spittled memories

80. as always I listened

81. to the broken double sound of the Old Man's voice

82. as always I traced

83. aromatic curcilated breath & words floating

84. made visible on sunlit

85. dingy blue tobacco smoke

86. Unceremoniously sent forth

87. from an inadvertent altar drifting & circulating

88. throughout Heaven & Earth's sixteen directions

89. Unconsciously

90. story keeping Ancestor Spirits

91. to affirm his recollection of Ignoble Redman history

92. Anticipating well lived stories

93. I sat elbows on knee

94. weight counterbalanced

95. eager to jump inside

96. That time though

97. Dad skipped Long Ago Stories

98. & began with Chronicles of Immaculate Conception Indian Boarding School

99. its reddish copper cover

100. buffed & patinated by generations of faithful telling

101. & retelling

- Francis Yellow

Page updated 2013.