17 pages • 34 minutes read
Joseph BruchacBirdfoot’s Grampa
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1975A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Steel” by Joseph Bruchac (2011)
“Steel” is a tribute to the Native steelworker who helped build the Quebec Bridge. While “Birdfoot’s Grampa” has a playful tone, “Steel” provides a commentary on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the white men who build on traditionally tribal land.
“Good Hair” by Sherman Alexie (2011)
The Indigenous American writer Sherman Alexie and Bruchac are friends and contemporaries. While Bruchac’s mixed heritage and late-coming to his Native roots often temper the emotional elements of Bruchac’s work, Alexie writes openly about his childhood experiences of poverty growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. “Good Hair” conveys the personal weight of being a Native American in a white world.
“America, I Sing Back” by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (2014)
Coke is another poet of mixed heritage with a similar career trajectory to Bruchac. In “America, I Sing Back,” she addresses the deep cultural heritage that existed in the United States before it was called America.
Further Literary Resources
“Ancestors: A Mapping of Indigenous Poetry and Poets” by Joy Harjo (2015)
This transcript of Harjo’s Blaney Lecture, delivered on October 9, 2015, includes links to many of Harjo’s references. Harjo is the first Native American United States poet laureate and is a member of the Mvskoke, or, Creek, Nation. In this lecture, Harjo connects Native poetry to the land and discusses the development of Native American poetry. An audio recording of the lecture can be found here.
“The Continuing Circle: Native American Storytelling Past and Present” by Joseph Bruchac (1996)
In this essay in Who Says? Essays on Pivotal Issues in Contemporary Storytelling (1996), Bruchac explores the history of Native American storytelling and how modern forms like poetry and children’s picture books both inform and enhance it.
“Placing Joseph Bruchac: Native Literary Networks and Cultural Transmission in the Contemporary Northeast“ by Christine M. Delucia (2012)
This article from the journal Studies in American Indian Literatures explores the importance of widespread publication of Indigenous stories from Indigenous peoples as well as the difficulties and negative aspects of the current Native literary landscape.
Related Titles
By Joseph Bruchac
