Machi/Nations of Indigenous Peace & Poetry: The Wolves We Feed
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ᏅᏩᏙᎯᏯᏓ. Nvwadohiyada. What is peace, and what does it have to do with poetry? With words, languages, stories? What does it have to do with all of this in Indigenous ways? In ways we’re now prompting machines—machines we made—to produce?
We are sitting at the precipice of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that drove so-called Independence Day, Fourth of July, fireworks, patriotism, and parades. A document where Indigenous People are called “merciless Indian savages.” That language remains to this day; it was never amended or redacted. And it will be celebrated in 17 months along with what is sure to be unprecedented hoopla, pomp, and unfortunate circumstance. Not everyone is looking forward to this event. Not all of us have been enjoying the last 250 years of dogged colonization of absolutely everything, including our languages, literature, and poetry.
The first tribe on Turtle Island (fka the United States) to have a written form of speech was the Aniyunwiya, otherwise known as “Cherokees.” In 1821, Sequoyah (fka George Guess, Gist) of the Cherokee Nation created Tsalagi syllabary—just 45 years after the Declaration was signed. The colonizers would have called him illiterate. However, when he saw the books and papers of the white “settlers,” he immediately recognized their importance. He called them “talking leaves” and, though the tribe initially mocked his attempts and some dubbed his work witchcraft, an indicator of the depths of colonization even at that time, he persisted.
Six months after the tribe adopted the syllabary, 25 percent of the Cherokee Nation could read and write. Less than three years later, the Cherokee Nation was three times more literate than our white neighbors. Like all Indigenous People of Turtle Island, the Cherokees were, and are, oral traditionalists. Storytellers. However, an argument can be made that oral tradition might be easier to strip and destroy than the written word. Destroy a people’s language and you destroy their culture, history, traditions, and identity. Yes, you can burn books, but you can’t burn all of them. But have you ever tried burning a language? How about a People?
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“Machi/Nations of Indigenous Peace & Poetry: The Wolves We Feed” was written by Jessica (Doe) Mehta and was published in the February 2025 Issue of Peace Policy: Solutions to Violent Conflict, a journal of The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Peace Policy offers research-based insights, commentary, and solutions to the global challenge of violent conflict. Each issue features the writing of scholars and practitioners who work to understand the causes of violent conflict and who seek to contribute to effective solutions and alternatives to the use of force.
Peace Policy is edited and distributed several times a year by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. The Kroc Institute is one of the world’s principal centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace.