Three writers and
teachers talk about how their tribal
traditions influence their work. Ofelia Zepeda,
winner of a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship, shares the
poetry that she writes both in English and her
tribal language, O’odham. Robert Warrior takes us
back to the nineteenth century for a look at the
written 1881 constitution of the Osage nation and the
oral version of the nation’s origins. And Jean
Breinig reads and talks about writings from her
tribe, the Haida, in Alaska. Produced by “What’s
The Word.”