I have been waiting a long time — perhaps even my whole lifetime — for this collection of poems. It is as if we have all been given the gift of time and perspective, allowed to view our world, our lives, our strengths and shortcomings through a primeval and potent lens. If we are to endure, persist and thrive again, we need these words. As lucid as a
spring thunderstorm on the high plains, Red Elk’s candor, clarity and wisdom are imparted amongst and across generations. This collection is what we have all been waiting for.
— Mandy Smoker Broaddus
It is important that you write in your own Indigenous language when you compose your poetry; that is the genuine voice of our people. It is so important that our own people appreciate and use their own language; that, to me, is where the real poetry of Indigenous spirit, mind, heart, soul is. Our Indigenous language is the true voice of our land, culture, and community, and it is the voice of poetry truly.
— Simon J. Ortiz
The poems in Our Blood Remembers by Lois Red Elk make a circle from the old days and old ways to the present where ghosts of the past walk with the living. These are honest poems from a grass roots Dakota woman. They offer brilliant and insightful portrayals of Native pain, hope, and joy. In the flickering campfires of these poems, the blood does remember.
— Adrian C. Louis
