Justice Waiting to be Served

Natalie Diaz’s work, “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation,” illustrates the harsh treatment and injustices that Native Americans faced during their forced assimilation into white culture. With the use of irony, symbolism, and a sarcastic, yet serious tone evoking a range of different intensive emotions, the speaker is able to share her/his perspective of the social and racial situations Native Americans have and had to go through, spreading the word to others who may not even know of these issues, finally allowing those long-hushed social identities to be heard.

Diaz’s poem is an abecedarian poem. It consists of 26 lines and starts with a word beginning with the word ‘Angel’ and ending with the last line beginning with the word ‘Zion’ just like the ABC’s. She used this poem structure as a crafty way to specify the social injustices Native Americans experience. How though? Along with the poem’s structure, she includes irony and symbolism regarding ‘angels’ (Diaz, Line 1) “whites’ (Diaz, Line 20) and ‘death’ (Diaz, Line 4). She sarcastically states that “everyone knows angels are white”. Though this is quite a very strong generalization, her point was to demonstrate how ironic it was that the white, Christian people considered themselves as “saviors” and “civilized” while they forced their Catholic and Christian beliefs upon the Native Americans in a very inhumane, grotesque way, killing many. That completely takes away the idea of hope, faith, and salvation, what resulted is genocide and death. This is how angels connect back to death in Diaz’s poem. The speaker mentioned, “Angels don’t come to the reservation. Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things. Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing—death.” (Diaz, Line 1-3)

In Catholicism (from personal knowledge being in the religion myself), angels are perceived as “guardians” and “protectors from evils”. The natives were forced to believe that their saviors were the white men. They were forced to believe that they were the savages whereas those who were white and Christian were civilized and there to save them. But then, where were those “angels” when thousands of indigenous people were being killed, raped, assaulted, and oppressed? Again, angels are seen as these helpful spiritual beings, but instead of getting help, Native Americans got tortured, suffering and their land stolen. With that combination of irony and symbolism regarding “angels”, “death” and “white men” the speaker managed to demonstrate the oppression Native Americans had to endure. This is something that is still being fought to this day. With a cautionary tone, the speaker ends the poem with, “You better hope you never see angels on the rez. If you do, they’ll be marching you off to Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they’ve mapped out for us.” (Diaz, Line 32-35) This imposes the fact that the social issues Native Americans went through centuries ago are issues that are still currently happening. The speaker is referring to a “You” from the looks of it, she/he is speaking to those who are in the reservations, this is what she means with, “If you do, they’ll be marching you off to Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they’ve mapped out for us.” I believe that the first-person-point of view makes it easier for Diaz to reach out to a certain audience. The personal narrative provides a deeper understanding of what the speaker’s thoughts or feelings were about the issues being touched upon. From the tone of voice and feelings given by the speaker, I thought the main audience were those silenced Native Americans. In some way, the speaker is trying to be persuasive. By reaching out in a first-person point of view and mentioning “us”, there’s a sense of inclusion. When I read the last line of the poem, I felt like the message was, “Hey you’re not alone, keep your head up!” I’m sure this is the type of message would be considered motivational or positive to the indiginious people who have suffered greatly while living in these reservations.

Overall, with the publication of this poem, Natalie Diaz surely managed to speak for perhaps hundreds or thousands of Native Americans, who are currently in these reservations by frustratingly expressing her opinions and thoughts on the whole context of the Indigenous constantly going through cultural, social, and racial brutalities and unfairness. This is how the poem accommodates social identities that have been marginalized or silenced.

The Devil Inside Us?

In both poems, Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation and My Brother at 3 A.M., written by Natalie Diaz depict the harsh experiences that the indegenous had to go through. The one I decided to focus on was, My Brother at 3. A.M. 

In My Brother at 3 A.M., the poem revolves around a mother being awaken by her weeping son on her doorstep. There is constant repetition of “He sat cross-legged, weeping on the steps/

when Mom unlocked and opened the front door” and the time of it taking place at 3 A.M. Diaz conveys imagery by using diction on describing the brother’s “lips [that] flickered with sores.” The connection between the lips and the mom asking the brother “on what [is he] on” clearly displays that there is some drug abuse going on. It’s been known for a while that the Indigenous people abuse alcohol and drugs to cope with their past experiences, the stress and living situations.

Reflecting on Diaz’s 2018 interview, and her reflection of not having the ability to “be fully in [her] body” relates to the brother in the poem. The brother did not have permission to fully experience his body, allowing the drug to take over his body. Adding on, the time 3 A.M., is also known for it to be the “Devil’s Hour,” where spirit entities and demons alert humans that their presence is here. The brother perhaps thought he was seeing the devil, but in reality is his mind playing tricks on him.

What really stood out to me was the ending. Where the mother realizes that she’s looking at the “hellish vision” of her son.

Evelyn Hernandez

Unneeded and Unwanted

Diaz speaks on the violence of which the indigenous and queer face in current society through both her poems: “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation” and “My Brother at 3 A.M.” Though the former more blatantly discusses and criticizes the treatment marginalized people, the latter also touches upon those issues in a differing manner but with the same significance.

First, “My Brother at 3 A.M.” generally speaks on a young boy crying out about the devil to his family at 3 A.M. on the surface, but this can be interpreted in a completely different way. The fact that the brother cries for help at 3 A.M. and none of the family takes him seriously can represent how people of color and people who are LGBTQ are discriminated against and ask for help from others, but few to none with the power to affect change truly listen. Those who are capable of saving the brother are the parents and God, but the father does not stir awake and the mother takes the entire poem to realize the fear that her son possesses; the stars, representing God, “had closed their eyes and sheathed their knives,” and this line is repeated multiple times, which can correspond to the multiple times a person turns their gaze away from a minority in need.

Lastly, in “Abecedarian” (for simplicity), Diaz makes it immediately clear what society compares indigenous people to—that they are “Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things” (line 2) rather than angels, because angels are solely for the Christian whites. This is shown when Diaz writes how she hadn’t “seen an angel fly through [the] valley ever” (lines 5-6), hadn’t heard of the angel Gabriel, and how “Pastor John’s son is the angel” (line 16) aka the white man of the Christian church. Not to mention, she literally points out how “everyone knows angels are white”
(line 12) as well. However, she defends her people and displays their pride in shunning the notion that they do not need angels, referencing when the “white god came floating across the ocean” (line 19) and took their land for settling in the late 15th century and hatefully (with all rights) saying how the rich “angels” should stay “fat and ugly” (line 23) as far away from the indigenous lest they be moved to another reservation. This harshly critiques how white people view themselves as angels—the good of the world—yet force the indigenous people to move wherever is most convenient for them as though they were livestock or less than human, at least. 

In both “My Brother at 3 A.M.” and “Abecedarian,” Diaz writes on the extreme challenges she faces as a minority who is discriminated against and criticizes that society which discriminates against her entire being.

Caitlyn Klemm