The Native Who Never Left

An interview with Cliff Taylor

The forces in our lives are constantly colliding—sometimes in ways that work out well and sometimes in ways that don’t. This interview series is an exploration of what it can look like to work with the collisions, rather than against them. By digging into how humans and nature interact– from our relationships with other humans, to those with our non-human neighbors, to our relationship with ourselves to our relationship with the landbase–we can uncover how to best step fully into our role in the story of the world.

Today’s guest on the Ordinary Collisions Interview Series is writer and poet Cliff Taylor. Cliff and I met (of all places) on Twitter before I was banned from there. If I’m remembering correctly¹, he’d posted something about South Dakota State University, which is in my home town of Brookings, so I introduced myself, bought one of his books, and I’ve enjoyed following his work ever since. I’m pretty sure the words “Goonies never say die” were also part of our early exchanges, as he lives in Oregon, location of that iconic film.

Cliff is an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. He is a writer, poet, speaker, and storyteller. His essays and poems have been published both online with lastrealindians.com, where he is a regular contributor, and in print with The Yellow Medicine Review, Jelly Bucket, Oakwood Magazine, and Hipfish Monthly. He is the author of The Memory of Souls (which is the book of his I have on my shelf), a memoir of the Sundance and his walk/life with the little people. His most recent publication is a poetry collection called The Native Who Never Left. A Nebraskan through and through, he currently resides on the Oregon Coast with his sweetheart of many years.

Heidi: Cliff, thanks for being here with us today.  To start, I always ask the same question: What are two forces that are colliding in your life right now (or that have in the not too distant past)? 

Cliff: This might be a relatively common answer, but the two dance partners that have been both funny and frustrating to watch in my life lately, have been my day-job at the local Co-op and my growing writer’s life. 

Heidi: Oh yes…I can definitely relate to that one. I appreciate the perspective that includes both frustrating AND funny. Keeping a sense of humor sure does help a person navigate such a situation. How are you navigating the conditions this collision is creating? How does the dissonance created impact your choices?

Cliff: Some days, it’s like I just step outside, listen to the earth, pray, and then dive back into the scheduling conflicts, ‘vacation time’ negotiations, the joy and strangeness of how my recent book has been received by my customers or completely ignored by upper management that I see everyday, and then just do my best. I’ve had to say no to a lot of things I wish I didn’t have to, not just because I’ve maxed out how much time I’m allowed to take off, but also because I’m still so financially day-job bound. I actually love working at the Co-op, and I love that my writing generates all of these opportunities to speak and share about my culture as a Native person, but if only I could say yes to all the invitations, especially the ones involving travel. Maybe someday, maybe someday…

Heidi: It’s such a tough balance, when your day job doesn’t quite align with what your true calling is, to be sure. I get that, and experience it in some aspects of MY day job as well. And oh boy…time off negotiations are the worst!

What has this collision taught you about yourself? The world? 

Cliff: Indigenous Life and Capitalism have been crashing against each other since day one, and I’m not sure of how or if those two teams will ever find a way to just hug it out, so to speak, (haha/not haha), but I do know that there is always a graceful way to move through the world at this time, at this point in Mother Earth’s story that we have found ourselves in. If we quietly listen to the Spirit, time and time again, we are given instructions of Grace that actually work, that know ways through, that know ways of joyfully progressing forward through all circumstances and conditions — even in the middle of cultures, paradigms, and worlds colliding. 

Heidi: I love that truth, that quiet listening, done consistently, offers a way forward with joy at our center, even if the way through isn’t clear.

Now let’s hear about a collision you explore in your latest book….

Cliff: My latest book is a poetry collection, titled The Native Who Never Left. It’s all about the radical hope that’s ever at the center of our lives, even with what has happened to our Native people over the last 500 years. It’s a storytelling done in 106 poems about how our ancestors are one thousand percent capable and equipped at helping us to know how we are all one thousand percent capable and equipped for the pain and beauty, trauma and goodness, strangeness and poetry, of this life we have chosen as spirits and as Native people; and ultimately, this storytelling, on a deeper level, is for everyone, all of us, all human beings. 

Most meaningfully, this is the first book of poetry ever published by anyone in my tribe, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. So, it is an expression, encapsulation, a love-letter to the land and cosmos we come from; detailing with great love the experience-river we Poncas all have in common, but that has never been written about in any published form; celebrating it, singing it, painting it with accessible, heartfelt, inspired, imagination-filled words so that we all and anyone else can dive into it, enjoying the blessings and medicine of the Ponca soul. 

Heidi: I need to get my hands on a copy of that one—I enjoyed Memory of Souls very much, and your description of the new collection gives me chills when I read it. It sounds empowering and full of beauty in so many ways.

What else would you like to share about other projects you’re working on lately? 

Cliff: I have a couple other books that will be coming out next year that I can’t totally announce just yet, but I’m so happy to continue sharing more about my Ponca homelands in Nebraska, the poems that’re spilling out of Native people every day everywhere, and the Indigenous Future many of us believe Mother Earth Herself is crafting out at this very moment. It’s a wild world and a beautiful time to be alive; and I sure am happy to be here. Thank you.

Heidi: Well that’s exciting news! We’ll be on the lookout for info on these new projects as they take shape. It’s a wild world and a beautiful time to be alive—isn’t that the truth. Thanks so much for sharing part of your story, Cliff. I’m happy you’re here, too.

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Have a collision you’d like to explore in this space? Send me an email at heidi@heidibarr.com.

1. I’d go back and look at our old messages to ensure accuracy here, but I can’t get on that platform at all anymore. I did make a few good connections over the years on there, but I can’t say I miss it.