An American Sunrise

“An American Sunrise” explores themes of cultural and political identity, and Harjo’s poem became even more popular during the events of Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s easy to understand how and why the poem reads like commentary on the cultural and political divisions that came to light across the US as a result of divisive leadership and controversial public relations. In the poem, Harjo asks readers to redefine what it means to be American, which is something that many Americans felt lead to do during riots, protests, and the uncertainty that arose from a global pandemic. Though poems mean different things to different people, it is important to remember that “An American Sunrise” addresses the plight of Native Americans whose cultural identity continues to face erasure at the hands of American nationalism. It’s important not to engage in erasure by sidelining the poem’s subject matter in favor of a broader, more general message.

Despite the poem’s specific subject matter, Harjo herself connects Native American struggle and resistance to other oppressed cultures in America. This struggle—and survival in the face of struggles—is at the heart of the poem, and it takes on many forms. One of the impacts of land grabs and the systemic destruction of Native American communities in the push westward is the reservation system currently in place. Many Native American writers have likened reservations to concentration camps, labor camps, and wastelands intent of stripping cultural identity by forcing isolation and assimilation. It’s assumed that Harjo’s speaker is frequenting a reservation bar, especially when she references the community around her dancing, ready to strike, and biding its time. The use of alcohol is a frequent stereotype attributed to Native American life, but Harjo uses it here to reclaim cultural identity and legacy.

The speaker in “An American Sunrise” details a unique experience in that the poem presumably takes place in an “Indian bar” (Line 3) on Native American land. The speaker also provides Native American cultural clues throughout the poem, including drumming and dancing, singing, and the destruction of Native American culture due to colonization, to underscore the poem’s unique setting and the history that forms this setting/experience. Through the inclusion of trauma and survival, however, Harjo’s poem also reflects on other cultures and even borrows from African American culture to better reflect on cultural struggles and the nuances inherent in American identity.

In the beginning of the poem, the speaker admits that “a little gin / will clarify the dark” (Lines 10-11). She immediately follows this statement by saying that “We / had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz” (Lines 11-12). These lines not only connect Harjo’s poem to Gwendolyn Brooks’s drinking, dancing pool players in “We Real Cool,” but the lines also connect Harjo’s poem culturally to African American culture, shared trauma, and the jazz and blues scene referenced in the imagery “borrowed” from Brooks.

When the speaker states that liquor will help “clarify the dark” (Line 12), the words suggest the common phrase in vino veritas (in wine there is truth). This truth underscores the fact that trauma is a part of reservation life, but it also connects to the next statement she utters, which says that Indigenous communities helped with the origins of blues and jazz. As genres, jazz and the blues stem from the trauma, struggles, and survival of enslaved people, with roots in spirituals, field songs, African music, call-and-response, etc. The music culture depicted in “An American Sunrise” indelibly links to Black culture. There is also growing scholarship regarding the Native American presence on the origins of blues and jazz.

The speaker’s line about clarifying the dark while drinking can mean that she wants to set the story straight about Native Americans’ influence on the culture of blues and jazz. The fact that Harjo’s poem is a golden shovel—a poem that borrows words, lines, or images from another poem—seems to underscore this interpretation, as is the fact that Harjo herself is an accomplished musician. Harjo uses the words of Brooks’s poem about African Americans enjoying jazz to further her own statement about the connection between music, struggle, and survival. Harjo reflects on what it means to be American by pointing to these elements (struggle, survival, and cultural expression) as a common denominator for cultures historically on the fringes of “American” society.