Simon J. Ortiz

Simon J. Ortiz (born May 27, 1941) is a Native American writer and poet. He is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Acoma, and is one of the key figures in the second wave of what has been called the Native American Renaissance.

Interview in The Kenyon Review (2010)

 * I purposely and intentionally use the term Indigenous to refer directly to Indigenous American peoples because the term is neutral; its meaning is based on Indigenous American peoples being native and/or aboriginal to the lands of their origin...Along with an insistence upon our own terminology, there is a necessary awareness or consciousness that has to do with our Indigeneity, and that has very direct bearing upon the land, culture, and community of Indigenous America. Ultimately, this consciousness is at the core of ourselves who are from and of the land, culture, and community of the Indigenous Americas. There is no going around this fact either: the knowledge of land, culture, and community as known, experienced, ascertained, evolved, created by Indigenous peoples is basic and primary. This was apparent to the first Europeans who experienced first landfall in the Americas; Europeans knew very little or next to nothing about the Indigenous lands of the continents and adjacent islands; they relied, in fact, practically and necessarily, upon Indigenous native peoples. In other words, Europeans from the very beginning depended upon Indigenous land, culture, and community for knowledge they needed to survive and thrive. And today, this is still the case. All knowledge-consciousness comes first from a basic and primary source: the land, culture, and community of the Indigenous Americas.


 * Indigenous literature is Indigenous knowledge; Indigenous writers and poets are the instigators of that knowledge.


 * We are not separate from one another; we differ ethnically; sometimes we speak our own distinct languages; our cultures are not the same and we have our own life goals. Yet at the same time we share the same world which is all around us. In some ways, we are not separate from one another at all; we are all part of the same general world and the same general human condition. Critical thinking — deep thoughts and ideas about ourselves and our relationship to others, to me that’s what critical thinking is — is crucial to the human condition now more than ever. As a human society and culture, we need to think about the condition of the world more than ever before. Indigenous peoples of the Americas who were and are the original human culture and society of this part of the world are deeply concerned. To me, this is the source of contemporary Indigenous literary criticism; it is concerned with addressing the condition of human society and culture.


 * Indigenous literary intellectuals are committed to being a part of the discourse of aesthetic sustainability — if not the leaders of it — articulating they have a role and task in healing the human condition — society and culture — so they, as living and thriving beings, shall always be regenerative rather than degenerative!


 * Continual diminishment and loss of Indigenous languages is a constant concern and issue. Diminishment and loss add to the burden of Indigenous colonization because “the problem” may seem insurmountable. Valiant efforts are constantly ongoing in grassroots ways, namely self-generated tribal community projects to revitalize Indigenous languages. Personal and family dynamics result in positive gains — younger people are learning Indigenous languages to some degree. What’s really missing is an activistic, vibrant, spirited, and culturally and socially engaging Indigenous consciousness movement that can energize, inspire, and vitalize more than anything else.


 * Feeling, thinking, and being absolutely aware of our role as communal human beings within a holistic universe will do wonders for us and all of creation because that will make us be aware of sustainability as a principle of continuance. Indigenous storytellers, writers, poets have a vital role in this dynamic of continuance

Quotes about Simon J. Ortiz

 * In the words of Acoma poet Simon Ortiz: "The future will not be mad with loss and waste though the/memory will/Be there: eyes will become kind and deep, and the bones of/this nation/Will mend after the revolution."
 * Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (2014)