Elizabeth Woody, Seven Hands, Seven Hearts (1994)
Content warning:
Death, discrimination and bigotry, sexual assault
Synopsis
Elizabeth Woody’s Seven Hands, Seven Hearts is a collection of prose and poetry; the collection encompasses the entirety of her first chapbook of poems, Hand into Stone, as well as some of her later published works, including essays and stories. Thematically, the text focuses on how she interacts with her Native ancestry through ancestral narratives, family, and holds a larger, all-encompassing focus on her roots within the Pacific Northwest.
Essay
Woody is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; her tribal heritage includes that of Navajo, Warm Springs, Wasco, and Yakama. With roots in the Deschutes and Columbia River Basins, the collection is a culmination of her tribal and ecological beliefs, highlighting the connections between culture and place. In 2016, Woody was the first Indigenous woman to be named Oregon Poet Laureate. This overall leaves the impression that her publications are excellent representations of authentic Oregon literature.
The text refers to numerous Oregon place names, including Warm Springs, Celilo Falls, Columbia River, Madras, Portland, and Olympia, Washington, where Woody pursued her Bachelor of Arts in humanities with an emphasis on English. The Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes, which are situated in the northwest of Oregon, make up the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The three tribes united in 1937 and established a constitution and rules for tribal governance.
The book's larger Oregon canon lies within the connection Woody makes between place and community. For example, Woody’s essay at the beginning of section three, entitled “Wyam, Echo of Falling Water” directly integrates Celilo Falls with tribal communities who would gather fish for themselves and others; this connection expresses the importance of Oregon's ecological resources in conjunction with how people upkeep and support their local communities. By using a powerful Indigenous voice over dominant white, male settler-centric narratives, Seven Hands, Seven Hearts also reinvents the Oregon canon as a whole, enabling readers to leave Oregon’s historically white-dominated literature scene behind. Woody both preserves and passes down cultural traditions through her words, most notably by including Indigenous symbols throughout the text. For instance, the entire poem "Birds in this Woman" explores the spiritual significance of birds and their feathers, offering readers a fresh interpretation of the symbol and exposing them to Indigenous perspectives on everyday sights in Oregon. By drawing on her own experiences in Oregon, she reclaims the intertwined histories of her tribe and the state's landscape.
In addition to exploring Woody's profound recognition of these tribes, Seven Hands Seven Hearts also explores her relationship with what it means to be a woman. She explores the hardships of motherhood and womanhood extensively; in poems such as “Spider Woman's Coyote Bones” and “Sisters,” among others, Woody reflects deeply into the challenges and marginalizations faced by Indigenous women. She states in an Underscore Native News interview from 2023, “Women have a powerful presence. When you’re raised with women who understand that, you start to learn it, too. My grandmother was a feminist before there was feminism. Women weren’t allowed to have their own job, their own car, their own bank account in her era, but she did. You couldn’t go out and buy things without some man representing you.” Strength is ancestral, within her work, Woody isn’t only passing down Indigenous cultures and traditions, she is also passing down a message of perseverance and unity. Women can be independent, even when it may not be easy. Woody makes a point to express her independence not only within her poetry, but within other aspects of life as well.
I ultimately chose Seven Hands Seven Hearts by Elizabeth Woody to stand for a more comprehensive representation of Oregon literature because of Woody's feminist and Indigenous narrative. The people who care for and cherish Oregon communities and land are just as much a part of the state as its beautiful scenery and natural riches.
Author Bio
Elizabeth Woody is the first Indigenous and the eighth Poet Laureate of the state of Oregon. Known for publications such as Hand Into Stone; Seven Hands, Seven Hearts; and Luminaries of the Humble, she has made an influence in feminist and Indigenous literature. In addition to her published work, Woody is a founder member of the Northwest Native American Writers Association and a board member of Soapstone, a women's writing retreat.
Further Reading
- Elizabeth Woody, Luminaries of the Humble (1994)