nila northSun is a Native American poet and tribal historian.
northSun's gritty, realistic poems about life both on and off the reservation have made her one of the most widely read of all Native American poets.
She is often considered an influential writer in the second wave of the Native American Renaissance.
Background
northSun was born in 1951 in Schurz, Nevada to a Shoshone mother and a Chippewa father, Native American activist Adam Fortunate Eagle.
Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she is a graduate of the University of Montana-Missoula.
northSun uses colloquial "Reservation English," irony, and humor to explore themes of alienation, disenfranchisement, anger, loss, and brutalization.
She lives on the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Reservation in Fallon, Nevada and works as a grant writer for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.
Recognition and honors
In 2000, the "Friends of the Library" group at the University of Nevada honored her with the Silver Pen Award for outstanding literary achievement. Governor Kenny Guinn appointed her to the Nevada State Arts Council that same year.
In 2004, she received the "Indigenous Heritage Award in Literature" from ATAYL, an international agency and is the recipient of a Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Award.
Selected works
Poetry
whipped cream and sushi (2008) Love at gunpoint (2007) A snake in her mouth: poems 1974–96 (1997) Small bones, little eyes: poems (1981) (with Jim Sagel) Coffee, dust devils and old rodeo bulls: poems (1979) (with first husband Kirk Robertson) Diet pepsi and nacho cheese: poems (1977)
Non-fiction
After the Drying Up of the Water, a tribal history of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone (1980)