Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent

In the poems, “Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent” and “Naayawva Taawi”, both poets concentrate on cultural survival. The poets highlight cultural survival to raise awareness for Native Americans. Coming from the perspective of modern Native Americans, their ethnicity influences their identity. Both “Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent’ and “Naayawva Taawi” suggest that cultural survival is an evolution of gaining what Native Americans have lost. Both of the poems initiate with a negative impact to emphasize the lost of Native Americans. In the poem, “Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent”, Manyarrows describes the pilgrims as the responsibles of affecting their lives. Manyarrows states that the pilgrims are “convincing others and ourselves/that we have been assimilated and eliminated” (6-7). The words “assimilated” and “eliminated” suggest that the
In Manyarrows’s poem, the Native people start making progress in raising awareness about their ethnicity. Manyarrows acknowledges that Native people “are the spirits of endurance that lives/in the cities and reservations” (9-10). The description of the Native Americans as “spirits of endurance” describes their hard work in gaining their lost. Also, the culture of the Native Americans becomes more well known than before. In agreement with Manyarrows idea, Rose elaborates more by telling the reality of the circumstances. In Rose’s poem, she focuses more on how the Native Americans took benefit of their lost to save their culture. Rose makes the Native Americans direct the whiteman as “see, Pahana,/how we nest/in your ruins” (52-54). The thinking process of the Native Americans starting to “nest in [the whiteman’s ruins” is notable because they consider the wasteful area as their home. With bad living circumstances and scarce materials, the Native Americans tries to recover their old