Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht

This chapbook contains original poems about the Nez Perce War. Four long cantos, interspersed with lyrical vignettes, this poem is written with an antiphon structure. The main cantos have italicized lines set flush left describing the Nez Perce perspective. Regular font lines, indented to the right, describe the perspective of the white soldiers and settlers.

The letterpress edition is set in 10 point Modern type and printed on the old family press (an 1888 Golding Pearl) at East Point in North Idaho. Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht contains 20 pages and is illustrated with five original linoleum block prints.

These Wallowa hills hold our father’s bones;
The Nez Perce river bottoms run with gold!
The sacred hills rise as our mother’s breast.
A yellow nugget is a sight to behold!
The camas prairies and the salmon streams;
A lucky strike in a single season,
Abundance for all of us year by year,
You’ll soon be richer than thought or reason.
Deep grasses turn a few horses to herds.
Stake out a claim and then sluice down a hill!
The wind will whisper the song of our hearts!
So sew up a bag for gold dust to fill.