Wendy Rose Heritage

Wendy Rose has an interesting heritage. Rose used her heritage and the discrimination she faced to write her book, Bone Dance: New and Selected Poems, 1965-1994. Rose was born of Hopi, Miwok and European descent. Growing up mixed-race, “she expressed her profound sense of isolation that comes with being mixed-blood American Indian seperated from her tribal roots and alienated from white society...” (Kort). Rose wrote about how she was separated from races and faced isolation which she portrayed in her poetry. Wendy Rose’s heritage and the discrimination she faced because of it, had a major influence on her poetry. Wendy Rose’s was more influenced by her heritage than the discrimination she faced as a Native American, which is reflected in the subject matter of her poetry.
In her poem “For the White Poets Who Would be Indian,” (Rose 22) she says, “... You think of us only when your voice wants for roots, when you have sat back on your heels and become primitive. You finish your poem and go back” (Rose 22). She is saying that the poets who write Native literature only care about their subject matter when they are writing. Another example in her poetry is in “Incident at the Hamburger Stand: Iowa City” where a man comes up to her and says, “Girl, you are in the midwest now; keep your place- eyes down- while I get a long look at your fat Indian body before I go...” (Rose 23-24). In this encounter she was discriminated against and verbally harassed because of the way she looked and her heritage. Furthermore, in an interview, Rose stated that if a reader's mindset on Indian literature is based off life, it is probably not correct (Cotelli). Rose believes that all Indian literature is different because different authors, have different experiences.Overall, discrimination showed up in Rose’s poetry less often than her actual