Literary BiographyA Native American teacher and creator of verse history, Joy Harjo Foster preserves in poetry her American Indian views on racism and sexism. Her works picture the cultural rape perpetrated by racist European conquerors such as Hernan de Soto and the subsequent displacement of modern Indians in the white world. She energizes her poems with glimpses of Native journey lore, shape shifting, ghost dancers, and the geographic displacement that fractures clans and tribes.