When Grandmother Decides To Die

The two poems which make up this chapbook focus on the lives and deaths of two native people of the abenaki nation of the Kennebecs in the early 18th century, a time of many changes and many tragedies. Of the Native peoples of North America, few are as little known to the great majority of comtemporary Americans as are the Abenaki. It is ironic, for the Abenaki, the People of the Dawn Land, were among the first native peoples of North America to encounter the Europeans. Many words now in common use in English, from Moccasin and Toboggan to un-hunh and peewee have Abenaki roots, as well as such place names as Connecticut and Massachusetts...