Skin Like Mine

In Skin Like Mine Garry Gottfriedson offers a suite of poems on what it feels like to be inside the skin of many contemporary native individuals.EHe pulls no punches as he reflects on the challenges facing native people today. He speaks of "minds full of anticipation" yet with "tongues pointing arrowheads."EHe tells of how so many native young people are "afraid to live / afraid to die / afraid of ourselves." As he looks around what was once a pristine natural environment, he finds "the forests being / eaten from the inside out." In the poem "Political Dysfunction," Gottfriedson tackles the many problems with present-day band management.EBut as the collection passes the midpoint, a new voice begins to be heard as Gottfriedson reflects on the mysterious Horsechild, and he says: "I will bind the drying racks once again / with hemp to make ready / The rows for drying salmon / so that beneath your skin / the mountains will be forever abundant." The age-old rituals of the people and of the land return to provide comfort and assurance that some things never change.