Everything Is in the Language Mud City Uses

Consider the Dakota 38 while reading the work of Layli Long Soldier in the premiere issue of Mud City, "an online literary journal promoting the ideals and vision of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Low Residency MFA Program." Mud City is published biannually, as part of the MFA residency that occurs on the IAIA campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We'd highly recommend perusing. Other poets here include Cynthia Cruz, Cedar Sigo, Heid Erdrich, and Jennifer Elise Foerster. "Everything is in the language we use," writes Long Soldier. More from her poem "38":

Here, the sentence will be respected.

I will compose each sentence with care by minding what the rules of writing dictate.

For example, all sentences will begin with capital letters.

Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period or question mark, thus bringing the idea to (momentary) completion.

You may like to know, I do not consider this a “creative piece.”

In other words, I do not regard this as a poem of great imagination or a work of fiction.

Also, historical events will not be dramatized for an interesting read.

Therefore, I feel most responsible to the orderly sentence; conveyor of thought.

That said, I will begin:

You may or may not have heard about the Dakota 38.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of it, you might wonder, “What is the Dakota 38?”

The Dakota 38 refers to thirty-eight Dakota men who were executed by hanging, under orders from President Abraham Lincoln.

To date, this is the largest “legal” mass execution in U.S. history.

The hanging took place on December 26th, 1862—the day after Christmas.

This was the same week that President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation.

In the preceding sentence, I italicize “same week” for emphasis.

There was a movie titled Lincoln about the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

The signing of The Emancipation Proclamation was included in the film Lincoln; the hanging of the Dakota 38 was not.

[...]

Read on at Mud City. And for more about the Institute of American Indian Arts, head here to read up its history and recent goings on.