Cliff Taylor, Notes of an Indigenous Futurist (2024)
Content warning:
Death, discrimination and bigotry
Synopsis
Cliff Taylor’s Notes of an Indigenous Futurist is a collection he describes as a “beadwork-and-Bigfoot saturated, ecstatic remembering” of his own life. He creates portraits of his tribe, the Ponca tribe, his childhood and the future he imagines for Indigenous folks as a whole. He muses on the connections of place, history, and future from Nebraska to Oregon and beyond.
Essay
In Taylor’s collection, landmarks like beloved Mt. Hood became the inspiration for poems like “Anniversary in Mt. Hood.” Taylor is a current resident of Astoria, Oregon and finds himself and his partner on the Columbia River throughout the collection, as well as finding big moments and history through the power of the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon Coast. Early in Taylor’s collection, he writes a mantra in “Unimaginable Indigenous Beauty:” “I know I’m not the only one” when thinking about Indigenous writers (36). Later in the collection the mantra becomes even more impactful as he writes on more Indigenous writers, uses his childhood, his future, and Oregon-based locations such as Astoria, Portland and Mt. Hood to weave together the impact and importance of his Ponca ancestors. In finding his ancestors everywhere, Taylor illustrates an Indigenous future that is expansive, and is constantly finding his mantra to be true.
His mantra drives a core element of the collection, using his Oregon experiences and atmosphere to show how, whether it is the chosen movement of Indigenous people, or the intentional and systematic displacement, the connections to land, ancestry and power bleed into every place. Some poems that highlight his experience in Oregon include “Youngs River Falls,” “Anniversary at Mt. Hood," "Packing a Good Lunch," "Opening Procedures at the Co-op,” and “Backyard Ceremonies.” “Backyard Ceremonies” depicts a scene alluding to the evening sounds of sea lions in Astoria, and being surrounded by community. Taylor reflects on seeing the world around him lush with Bigfoot, people, and ancient natural beings like the trees and mountains. The Oregon imagery spans time and place in this poem and includes seeing his brother as a “medicine-carrying storyteller” (112). Throughout the collection, including in “Backyard Ceremonies,” Taylor writes about the idea of time-travel, in the sense that daily ceremonies, like a potluck in an Oregon backyard and others like it, hold the power of his ancestors and the feelings that connect them intergenerationally. His brother as a storyteller is, in a way, another testament to building Indigenous writing, and not feeling like "the only one.”
On future, Taylor returns frequently, and notably in “Packing a Good Lunch,” where he sees future grandpas, grandmas, uncles and more preparing “Ponca souls who’re just about ready to jump into their new bodies and lives” while watching people walk about their lives in downtown Astoria (95). The poem wants us to think about the way our past and future connections come together and create day-to-day scenes like a busy downtown on a work day. In the final section of the collection, Taylor’s poem “The Last 30 Years” brings the mantra from the beginning back, reflecting on the large amount of Indigenous writing and art made in the last 30 years, he remarks on how it would be impossible to read it all, especially considering all that came before. Taylor goes on to think about the future of Indigenous art, asking “what the collective/ Native consciousness is going to do/in the next 30 years, the next century?”(115). The powerful poem illustrates a reality where Taylor is indeed not the only one, and hasn’t been for a long time. The ancestral connections and poetry inspired by his time in Oregon seem to fuel the collection's goals in creating the larger web of Indigenous collectivity, as well as honor the past that has tried and failed to be erased.
Notes of an Indigenous Futurist is a poignant collection for Oregon literature, while always honoring the Ponca tribe, Taylor is calling for the reader’s attention to the daily intimacies of everything that influences everyday life, as well as illustrating all of the ways that Indigenous futurism is, and will continue to manifest in literature and beyond.
Author Bio
Cliff Taylor was born and raised in Nebraska where he is an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Taylor is a poet, memoirist, speaker and storyteller. He now lives in Astoria, Oregon and works with the local Co-op in town. Some of his other work includes: The Memory of Souls, The Shining and The Shining Hands of my Ponca Ancestors. (Source: author’s website)