Sly Alley writes: If I was introduced to you / as an American Indian poet, / you might think my poems / will be about how Coyote / tricked Chief So-And-So, / or how it’s sacred to use / all of the buffalo parts” (p. 12, lines 6-12), but this Native poet avoids such gimmickry. Reading (listening to) his Strong Medicine, reveals a contemporary, conscientious citizen of the world who is deeply frustrated by our political and social mess. Alley’s “Medicine” speaks to the complacent who pretend the world is a playground for the powerful rich. Speaking proudly and comfortably as a member of the Otoe people, he distrusts casinos and the popular church. He reminds his brethren, and the rest of us, that something vital is lost when we turn our backs on the heritage that has been replaced by corrupting forces of assimilation:

When a name that sounds Indian
is “Whitecloud”
rather than “Mahaska”
we have to realize
that we are fighting a war
against the Self that They turned us into (36, lines 9-14).

Here the poet’s assertion of the indigenous name, rather than the anglicized version intensifies not only his respect for his heritage, but it also portends the heartfelt loss when assimilation becomes the rule of the day. From this rich tradition Sly Alley speaks to the wider world. In the poignant language demonstrated in the poem “Under the Shadow of This Red Rock” the speaker returns to the Otoe Agency, to “visit[ed] the same housing edition” of his early years. He wryly notes that “Not much has changed. But everything / that exists there is because of change” (p. 44, lines 8 &13-14). He then informs readers of the vulnerable, un-chronicled pioneers who settled Oklahoma:

My great-grandparents moved
to this patch of dust just outside
of Red Rock, Oklahoma, shortly before
the Land Run. They rode down
in a horse-drawn buggy from the border
of Kansas and Nebraska. The fear
they must have felt. The courage
it must have taken. Leaving behind
their history in search of a future.
But fear is like a handful of dust.
Once you decide to open your hand
and let go of it, the dust is gone (lines 15-26).

From this sense of identity, Alley speaks forthrightly about a number of unsatisfying social and political tendencies. His themes include irreverent commentary for Trump, Mary Fallin, Nixon, the Kardashians, the “Bush boys” and the NRA. His poetry offers a frustrated, wounded respect for the attempts at freedom in Tunis, Yemen, Libya. He writes compassionately for the victims of our over-wrought world, including the offering of his own experiences of being brown-skinned in the intimidating presence of police and TSA agents. His sensitivity is especially pronounced in the haunting poem “Lo Siento” which commemorates the loss of a young dancer in Baja de Sur.

Strong Medicine is a striking, relevant warning against the petulance that grips the current disposition of American society and politics. Denial, one of Alley’s themes, has become a way of life, as if the consequences of such refusal to be honest can continue without catastrophic consequences. Too often we look to the wrong places and the wrong people for our prophets. In Strong Medicine, hear the prophetic words of a humble, vulnerable Native son of Oklahoma prairies speaking to the American democracy for which he longs.

Reviewed by Ken Hada, Ada, Oklahoma

Sly Alley, Strong Medicine: poems. Cheyenne, OK: Village Books Press, 2016. ISBN: 9781936923182