SOURCE: A review of First Indian on the Moon, in Kliatt, Vol. 28, No. 3, May, 1994, p. 23.

Below, Beschta surveys Native American themes in First Indian on the Moon.

[First Indian on the Moon] opens with "Influences," a poem of the survival of young Indian children in the face of the alcoholism that dominates their parents, their reservation, their world. That theme of Indian survival in a hostile environment is constant throughout the book, as is the alcoholism, depression and poverty of the reservation system. Through varying situations and scenes, these pieces are connected by their reaction to the establishment which has systematically abused Native Americans. Not so long ago, this would have been labeled "protest poetry" in its reaction to a perceived political agenda.

      Children, the enemy reads us the news
      at 6 o'clock every night.

Yet this book rises above this simplistic categorization. It does so because of its...