“On the Crow,” an excerpt

by Robert A. Poirier

Baraka Books, 2013

The river flowed unnoticed for thousands of years. One day, a group of people pulled their canoes up onto its shore. Was it to bathe, or to fish, or perhaps to bury one of their own? Whatever the reason, the people stayed. After they pulled their canoes ashore and set up camp, no one had a desire to leave.

It wasn’t long before someone gave the river a name. They called it Àndeg Zibi. Nobody knew why. That was the river’s name and, according to the elders, Àndeg Zibi had always been the river’s…