The Speaker

The unnamed speaker of the poem, who resides within the reservation and who is herself indigenous, adopts a knowing, cautionary tone in speaking to her interlocutor about the absence of angels. She is resolute in her warning, but conversational in her communication: “Gabriel? Never heard of him. Know a guy named Gabe though—” (7). In the later half of the poem, the speaker makes explicit the links between angels, Christianity, whiteness, and white supremacy, portraying angels as harbingers of death and destruction. In so doing, the speaker sets herself up as a figure of wisdom — perhaps something like an elder — giving herself the authority to teach someone else about what she knows. The repeated emphasis on what “I said” (12) aligns this poem itself as an enactment of inheritance, perhaps from someone more senior to someone more junior, to ensure the continuity of indigenous memory and knowledge.

The Unnamed Interlocutor