SOURCE: "As a Dakotah Woman: An Interview with Elizabeth Cook-Lynn," in Survival This Way: Interviews with American Indian Poets, Sun Tracks and The University of Arizona Press, 1987, pp. 57-72.

Bruchac is an Abenaki poet, short story writer, novelist, author of children's books, editor, educator, and critic. In the following interview, Cook-Lynn discusses her poem "At Dawn, Sitting in My Father's House," the development of her literary style, and the influence of Kiowa author of N. Scott Momaday on her writings.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn is a writer whose voice has only begun to be heard at a time when most other writers are already well established. As she says of herself, she truly came to writing in her forties and is still hesitant to call herself a poet. A member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, she was raised on the reservation and is a fluent speaker of Dakotah. Her...