Ray Young Bear

Ray Young Bear (born 1950 in Marshalltown, Iowa) is a Meskwaki poet and novelist. He was raised on the Meskwaki Tribal Settlement in Tama County, Iowa. He writes about contemporary Native Americans in English and in Meskwaki. The theme of his poems and other works are Native Americans' search for identity. His poems express the painful awareness of identity loss.

Young Bear's great-great grandfather, Maminwanike, purchased the land that the Meskwaki Settlement was built on.

Early life and education Ray Young Bear was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, and raised on the Meskwaki Tribal Settlement in Iowa. It is unique as a place where in 1857 the Meskwaki bought land privately for the tribe, like other citizens, authorized by state legislation.

Ray Young Bear was raised by his maternal grandmother, No-ko-me-sa, for the first ten years of his life. Young Bear spoke Meskwaki as his first language, taught by his maternal grandmother; she also encouraged him to learn English. He was not comfortable in this language until late in high school. Ray Young Bear has taught creative writing as well as Native American Literature at The Institute of American Indian Art, Eastern Washington University, Meskwaki Indian Elementary School, the University of Iowa, and Iowa State University. He always keeps his grandmother in mind while writing. He said, "My grandmother was always giving me advice on how I should watch what I say, because she would say that the single word itself is very, very powerful."

Works Young Bear's work has appeared in numerous magazines, including American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Parnassus, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

Poetry Collections Grandmother (1975) Winter of the Salamander (1980) The Invisible Musician (1990) The Rock Island Hiking Club (2001) The Aura of the Blue Flower That is a Goddess (2001)

List of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedFour hinterland abstractions2015

Fiction Black Eagle Child (1992) Remnants of the First Earth (1996)

List of Anthologies Containing Ray's Work Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English The Best American Poetry 1996 Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness New Worlds of Literature: Writings from America's Many Cultures Columbus & Beyond: Views from Native Americans The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature Harper's Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry Songs from This Earth on Turtle's Back: An Anthology of Poetry by American Indian Writers Words in the Blood: Contemporary Indian Writers of North and South America Voices of the Rainbow: Contemporary Poetry by Native Americans Nothing but the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature