Blood of Our Earth: Poetic History of the American Indian

Dan C. Jones
Rance Hood , Artist

A collaboration between Ponca poet Dan C. Jones and Comanche artist Rance Hood, this book focuses on American Indian life on the Great Plains. Written while Jones lived with tribes all over the United States, the poems are grounded in American Indian history, mythology, and religion. Nostalgia for the vanished past and anger at the destruction of the environment shape his work, a perfect complement to the dramatic imagery of Rance Hood, one of the best known American Indian painters.

From Blood of our Earth

When a Warrior Feels Weak

When a warrior feels weak
I think of the strength in a bee
when he chases a bear from his home.

When a warrior feels weak,
I feel no loss of strength
when I think of the sparrow
that attacks the eagle.

When a warrior feels weak
I become aware of my strength.

"From the ache left from the Sunday-afternoon departure of a man's kids to the gaiety of "Handgame," Jones and Hood will capture your heart."--Native Peoples Magazine

Dan C. Jones, or SaSuWeh, is Chairman of the Ponca Nation. He is a writer, director, and member of the Producers Guild of America, and he is executive producer, Four Directions Entertainment Inc., and producer of The World of American Indian Dance.

Rance Hood's success as a painter began in the 1960s. Today his studio is in Denison, Texas.

8.5 x 10 80 pages 32 color plates, 14 halftones