Peter Blue Cloud facts for kids

Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate) (1933 – 2011) was a Mohawk poet and storyteller. He was known for combining Native American stories with modern issues.

Early Life and Adventures

Peter Blue Cloud was born on June 10, 1933. His family was part of the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation. He was born on the Caughnawaga Reserve in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada.

His Christian name was Peter Williams, but he was known as Peter Blue Cloud. His Mohawk name, Aroniawenrate, means "Stepping across the Blue Sky" or "Climbing up toward the Blue Sky." He also used other pen names like Coyote 2, Owl's Child, Turtle's Son, and Kaienwaktatsie.

Peter grew up speaking the Mohawk language. He went to school on the reserve and in Buffalo, New York. Later, he learned English and French. He loved to read and started writing poems when he was a teenager.

His grandfather, a school teacher, taught him about storytelling. He learned from both William Shakespeare's plays and the traditional tales of the Haudenosaunee people. These stories greatly influenced Peter's own work.

As a teenager, Peter became an ironworker. He worked in many cities across the American West. In the late 1950s, he moved to California. After working with iron, he had many other jobs. He was a logger with the Haida people in British Columbia. He also worked as a ranch hand in California and did archaeological work with the Paiute people in Nevada. He even lived with the Maidu people for a while, learning their stories. Peter also worked as a carpenter and a woodcarver.

Writing and Activism

Peter Blue Cloud cared deeply about the rights of Indigenous people. His work often spoke out against European colonization. He wanted to bring attention to Native rights.

When he returned to California, he discovered the Beat poetry and folk music scenes. He also saw the social changes happening in the 1960s. He continued to develop his skills as a poet, sculptor, carver, and painter. He worked with other Native artists and writers and showed his art in exhibitions.

While he was talented in many art forms, Peter Blue Cloud is most famous for his writing. He published several poetry books. His poems also appeared in many collections and magazines. In 1981, he won the American Book Award for his book Back Then Tomorrow. He was known for mixing Native American myths with current events. He often used the character of Coyote, a trickster from Native American stories, in his poems and tales.

Peter loved to walk and observe the world around him. He put these observations into his writings. The occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971 greatly interested him. This event was a fight for Native American rights. He lived on the island for some time and supported the occupation. He wrote about these events in various publications.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Blue Cloud moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills in California. He continued to write, carve, and paint. He also worked as a carpenter. There, he met guitarist Rex Richardson. In 1979, they toured the U.S. together. Rex set Peter's poems to music, and they released several recordings.

Peter Blue Cloud also worked as a writer and editor for the national Native journal Akwesasne Notes. He worked there from 1975 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1985. In 1986, he returned to Kahnawake. He briefly published his own newspaper, the Kariwakoroks. From 1992 to 2006, he wrote a column for The Eastern Door Newspaper.

A consultant named Lorna Wilkes-Ruebelmann reviewed Peter Blue Cloud's work. She said that his writing uses images of Indigenous Americans and language that shows both the past and the present at the same time. His images include quiet mountaintops and country trails. These contrast with busy city scenes like high steel buildings and freeways.

Death

Peter Blue Cloud passed away in Montreal on April 27, 2011. He was cremated as he wished. His ashes were spread in Modoc country in Northern California. This is where Modoc warriors fought and died.

Awards

• 1981 American Book Award, before Columbus Foundation

Works

• "Coyote, Coyote, Please Tell Me" poem
• "An Arrangement" poem
• "Coyote makes First People" poem
• "Sketches in Winter, With Crows" poem, 1984
• "Clans of Many Nations" selected poems, 1969-1994
• "Back then tomorrow" short story, 1978
• "Tomorrow" poem
• "Alcatraz Visions" poem
• "Thunderman" poem
• "First Brother" poem
• "Alcatraz" poem
• "White Corn Sister" play, 1979
• "Elderberry Flute Song; Contemporary Coyote Tales", 1982
• "Other Side of Nowhere: Contemporary Coyote Tales", 1990
• "Badger's Son", Haven Community
• Alcatraz is not an island, Wingbow Press, 1972
• Turtle, bear and wolf, Akwesasne Notes, 1976
• Back then tomorrow, Brunswick, ME : Blackberry Press, 1978
• The paranoid foothills: a work of fiction, Blackberry, 1981
• Crazy Horse Monument, 1995