—Anonymous
“An American Sunrise” is a short poem from Joy Harjo which talks about the Native Americans’ experience in the lands of the Americas. This short poem talks about how there was some injustice against the Indians as according to the “Indian” Problem. The “Indian” Problem was the problem that American colonists had created because they saw the natives of the land, the Indians, a threat to expansion across the lands of the Americas. Although this is a short poem, it does indeed provide insight with a few of its lines. Near the beginning of the poem, Joy Harjo says that “We were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike.” The “We” that he is referring to is Native Americans and when he talks about the “edge of our ancestors’ fights” is a reference to the battles and fights that the Indians had with the American people over the United States’ government wanting the Indians to move West, away from their lands. In deeper contexts, this line talks about Native Americans who are rejoining with each other to fight in the honor of their ancestors as they are ready to strike again. Another line from Harjo’s poem is “We were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin chance.” The “we” still refers to American Indians that were in need of saving from people who were labeled as “them. The “them” in the story are the American people or especially the army as they were killing Indians who were defying them by staying in the lands and even when they decided to leave, they would still shoot at them. Therefore, in deeper contexts, this line talks about Native Americans, who were seen as people who didn’t belong there, needing saving from Americans and even knowing to themselves that there was a thin chance of that. One more line in the poem stated that “We knew we were all related in this story.” This referred to the Indians knowing that in one way or another, through fighting or for purely being Indian, they were part of this story with the American people as history would dictate it as the “Indian” Problem.
