Margo Tamez facts for kids

Margo Tamez was born on January 28, 1962, in Austin, Texas, United States. She is a talented historian, a poet, and an activist. An activist is someone who works to bring about change in society.

Margo Tamez is a member of the Lipan Apache Band of Texas. This group works to protect the rights and culture of the Lipan Apache people. However, this specific group does not have official recognition from the United States government or the state of Texas.

Who is Margo Tamez?

Margo Tamez is a respected scholar, which means she is a person who studies a lot and knows a great deal about a subject. She is also a poet, writing beautiful and meaningful verses. She is a strong defender of Indigenous rights. Indigenous people are the original inhabitants of a land.

Tamez grew up in South Texas, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley. She also spent time along the border between Texas and Mexico. Her experiences in these areas have greatly influenced her work.

Margo Tamez's Poetry

One of Margo Tamez's important works is her 2007 book, Raven Eye. This book is a special kind of American poetry called a 'long poem'. A long poem is a poem that is much longer than usual. It tells a story or explores a topic in depth.

Raven Eye won a special prize in 2008 called the WILLA Literary Award for poetry. This award recognizes excellent writing by women in the American West.

What is Raven Eye About?

In Raven Eye, Margo Tamez used many different sources for her inspiration. She included stories from the Athabaskan and Nahua peoples. These are groups of Indigenous people with rich histories. She also used oral history, which means stories passed down by speaking, not writing.

Tamez also included stories about the difficult history faced by the Lipan Apache people. She combined these historical accounts with parts of her own life story. Raven Eye connects the traditional stories of the Lipan Apache from the Lower Rio Grande Valley to a modern literary style. This style includes pictures and tells a history of people standing up for themselves.

Her poetry is known for looking closely at tough topics. These include challenges related to fairness and safety for women. She also writes about identity, not being recognized, and the difficult journeys and forced moves faced by Indigenous people.

Margo Tamez's Prose Writing

Margo Tamez also writes prose, which is like regular writing in sentences and paragraphs. Her prose often shares important ideas about how Indigenous peoples have been affected by history. She writes about how their lands and traditions have been broken apart or forgotten.

She also talks about how Indigenous people have lost their homes and resources. Tamez makes important connections between past events and current challenges. These challenges include colonization, which is when one group takes control of another's land. She also writes about militarization, which is when an area has a strong military presence.

These issues affect the right of Indigenous peoples to make their own decisions, which is called self-determination. This is especially true in areas divided by country borders, where many Indigenous people who stayed in their traditional lands were often ignored by governments.