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Whiskey Bullets
"You can't just come here and listen."
Jeannette Armstrong's command was unequivocal--if Garry Gottfriedson was to participate in their poetry readings at the En'owkin Centre in Penticton, the province's leading school for First Nations writers, he needed to contribute more.
Knowing something of Gottfriedson's deep affinity for horses, Armstrong passed along a copy of She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. Twenty years later, Gottfreidson still remembers the impact of reading Harjo's poetry. The imagery intrigued him immediately. Speaking from his ranch at Paul Lake, near Kamloops, he recites some of her lines without prompting:
"She had some horses who were bodies of sand. She had some horses who were maps drawn of blood. She had horses who were skins of water."
Recognizing his potential, Armstrong took it upon herself to send some of Gottfriedson's earliest writing, without his knowledge, as an application to the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "I just started writing and didn't know it was poetry," he says. Much to his amazement, Gottfriedson was awarded a scholarship to work with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman and singer-songwriter Marianne Faithful.
"I went there as this very shy bush Indian, hair down to my knees and braids," he says. "I didn't know who Ginsberg was. But I didn't hold them in awe. I think they liked me because I wasn't following them around."
The once-shy "Indian cowboy" has since read his poetry across North America, had his work performed with a symphony on CBC radio, taught at Cariboo College, served as a councilor and consultant for the Kamloops Indian Band.
Along the way Gottfriedson has published five books, the newest being Whiskey Bullets: Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems (Ronsdale $14.95), which has an endorsement from Joy Hargo: "This is real cowboys and Indians, not just pretend, making a trail of intimate transformation, of fierce questioning."
Whiskey Bullets mostly looks at the duality of First Nations and cowboy culture, unravelling cliches and stereotypes. "People think cowboys aren't artistic or poetic," Gottfriedson chuckles. "People see them as rough, rugged and unbreakable people. They just look at the spurs and cowboy hat. But lots of cowboys are songwriters and musicians."
The poignant and frequently humorous poems in Whiskey Bullets easily dispel the notion that Indians aren't real cowboys. "Percy Rosette was born on the Gang Ranch, was raised there, broke all their horses and became the head cow boss," says Gottfriedson. "He could barely speak English, yet he was a cowboy and is still a cowboy. People that work at Douglas Ranch are still there, generation after generation. We are cowboys. We break and train horses, know how to work cattle. We know the ins and outs of ranching."
Talk of stereotypes naturally moves to the motion picture Brokeback Mountain. "It was a good love story," he says. "I'm not sure cowboys would be rough lovers like that. And they should have had cattle not sheep! I do know a couple of cowboys who are gay, not openly like, in Vancouver. They're not in the parade, out there marching. They're just regular guys. I guess it goes back to dismantling of stereotypes."
Despite his increasing profile in the literary world, Gottfriedson has never read any of his work to any cowboys other than his own brothers. "Gus is still a ranch cowboy; he really thinks about my work and once in a while will come to the house and is very quiet. He's a deep thinker, the kind of guy who will hang around you and then say, 'You know this one line of your poem, it got me thinking about this and that.'"
In Shuswap culture, the horse is one of the animals closest to humans. "I can't go without horses," Gottfriedson says, "they're so much a part of my life; if I sold them it would be like the death of part of me. I have had so many opportunities to move to the city but I just can't leave my horses behind. I just can't get rid of my Shuswap culture."
While teaching at the Chief Atahm School in nearby Chase, Garry Gottfriedson raises quarter horses for rodeos and he manages his ranch. All of his brothers, and his father, were professional rodeo cowboys. His father won the Calgary Stampede Wild Horse Race in 1942.
"My brother was a world champion in 1963-64 when the U.S. was at the peak of racism," he says. "He was a First Nations person right in there competing and a lot of times he was robbed points. There were people who would never let him win the Calgary Stampede. Whereas my Dad could get away with it because he looked white, and the last name is not a typical First Nations name."
The surname is a tad misleading. Gottfreidson's father was part Danish and part Okanagan; his mother was of French and Secwepemc (Shuswap) extraction. It is her heritage he identifies with most closely, speaking the language (as do his grandchildren) and honouring their ceremonies.
1-55380-043-5
Mark Forsythe of CBC Radio often contributes profiles to BC BookWorld.
Jeannette Armstrong's command was unequivocal--if Garry Gottfriedson was to participate in their poetry readings at the En'owkin Centre in Penticton, the province's leading school for First Nations writers, he needed to contribute more.
Knowing something of Gottfriedson's deep affinity for horses, Armstrong passed along a copy of She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. Twenty years later, Gottfreidson still remembers the impact of reading Harjo's poetry. The imagery intrigued him immediately. Speaking from his ranch at Paul Lake, near Kamloops, he recites some of her lines without prompting:
"She had some horses who were bodies of sand. She had some horses who were maps drawn of blood. She had horses who were skins of water."
Recognizing his potential, Armstrong took it upon herself to send some of Gottfriedson's earliest writing, without his knowledge, as an application to the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "I just started writing and didn't know it was poetry," he says. Much to his amazement, Gottfriedson was awarded a scholarship to work with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman and singer-songwriter Marianne Faithful.
"I went there as this very shy bush Indian, hair down to my knees and braids," he says. "I didn't know who Ginsberg was. But I didn't hold them in awe. I think they liked me because I wasn't following them around."
The once-shy "Indian cowboy" has since read his poetry across North America, had his work performed with a symphony on CBC radio, taught at Cariboo College, served as a councilor and consultant for the Kamloops Indian Band.
Along the way Gottfriedson has published five books, the newest being Whiskey Bullets: Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems (Ronsdale $14.95), which has an endorsement from Joy Hargo: "This is real cowboys and Indians, not just pretend, making a trail of intimate transformation, of fierce questioning."
Whiskey Bullets mostly looks at the duality of First Nations and cowboy culture, unravelling cliches and stereotypes. "People think cowboys aren't artistic or poetic," Gottfriedson chuckles. "People see them as rough, rugged and unbreakable people. They just look at the spurs and cowboy hat. But lots of cowboys are songwriters and musicians."
The poignant and frequently humorous poems in Whiskey Bullets easily dispel the notion that Indians aren't real cowboys. "Percy Rosette was born on the Gang Ranch, was raised there, broke all their horses and became the head cow boss," says Gottfriedson. "He could barely speak English, yet he was a cowboy and is still a cowboy. People that work at Douglas Ranch are still there, generation after generation. We are cowboys. We break and train horses, know how to work cattle. We know the ins and outs of ranching."
Talk of stereotypes naturally moves to the motion picture Brokeback Mountain. "It was a good love story," he says. "I'm not sure cowboys would be rough lovers like that. And they should have had cattle not sheep! I do know a couple of cowboys who are gay, not openly like, in Vancouver. They're not in the parade, out there marching. They're just regular guys. I guess it goes back to dismantling of stereotypes."
Despite his increasing profile in the literary world, Gottfriedson has never read any of his work to any cowboys other than his own brothers. "Gus is still a ranch cowboy; he really thinks about my work and once in a while will come to the house and is very quiet. He's a deep thinker, the kind of guy who will hang around you and then say, 'You know this one line of your poem, it got me thinking about this and that.'"
In Shuswap culture, the horse is one of the animals closest to humans. "I can't go without horses," Gottfriedson says, "they're so much a part of my life; if I sold them it would be like the death of part of me. I have had so many opportunities to move to the city but I just can't leave my horses behind. I just can't get rid of my Shuswap culture."
While teaching at the Chief Atahm School in nearby Chase, Garry Gottfriedson raises quarter horses for rodeos and he manages his ranch. All of his brothers, and his father, were professional rodeo cowboys. His father won the Calgary Stampede Wild Horse Race in 1942.
"My brother was a world champion in 1963-64 when the U.S. was at the peak of racism," he says. "He was a First Nations person right in there competing and a lot of times he was robbed points. There were people who would never let him win the Calgary Stampede. Whereas my Dad could get away with it because he looked white, and the last name is not a typical First Nations name."
The surname is a tad misleading. Gottfreidson's father was part Danish and part Okanagan; his mother was of French and Secwepemc (Shuswap) extraction. It is her heritage he identifies with most closely, speaking the language (as do his grandchildren) and honouring their ceremonies.
1-55380-043-5
Mark Forsythe of CBC Radio often contributes profiles to BC BookWorld.
Submitted on October 2, 2006 in By David.
