Red Cedar Publishing

Mission Statement
Prayer for Writing
The Sad Story

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Mission Statement:

Red Cedar Publishing
Mission Statement

The red cedar tree is utilized by tribal people of North America for many things. The greenery, supple long narrow twigs, the wood of bough and trunk, the bark, inner bark, and even the roots find their way into our pharmacopoeias, our ceremonies, into implements of utility and art, into containers both sacred and secular. Red Cedar Publishing intends to keep these primal relationships in mind as we engage with the fibers of wood in a very modern way.

Respect. Respect for creation and each other is one of the basic teachings that come to us from our ancestors, our Grandparents, and their relationship to the red cedar tree. Beneath that shadowed canopy we have learned about collaboration and co-creation. We have learned about how everything and everyone contributes to each creation as it comes into form.

It is with this respect for our traditions, for our own ways of creating, that we approach this publishing venture. We will not be engaged in anyone’s idea of “business as usual.” We hope to infuse all of our projects with the spirit of respect, collaboration, and co-creation. We hope to grow into the kind of organization that those familiar with publishing “as usual” will find as refreshing as a breeze through red cedar smoke.

We are committed to encouraging and publishing contemporary Native folk literature as an act of respect, resistance, and healing. Today, at the beginning of the sixth century of the subjugation of Turtle Island, we are still very much at risk. We are beset by higher than average; infant mortality rates, deaths from violence, accidents, and suicide, higher than average incidence of certain diseases, and a near certainty of being born to poverty or discrimination - all resulting in a shorter life expectancy than the average citizen of the United States. (1) In spite of these facts, what we are good at is survival.

We believe that the shared stories of our personal perseverance, told with our own sense of beauty and grace will turn the tide from just barely surviving to once again - learning to thrive. By taking this language that was forced upon us, mastering it, and giving it our own special touch and polish we will be able to send a voice that will be heard around the world. But more importantly, perhaps, that voice will be heard by us. Red Cedar Publishing hopes to be a small part of this process.

Native people have always used stories, poetry, chants, and songs to fashion paths through the myriad skills needed to survive and thrive. Our contemporary folk literature expands that tradition into the present day and the current cultures of our lives. Please join us in celebrating our words, our struggle, our survival, and our journey back to balance.

Red Cedar Publishing

Prayer For Writing

My prayer is a laugh, a cry, a plea, a wall of grief, a yelp, a denial,
a wail, a holler, a bowing of my head in humbleness, a tender kiss, a
wish, a demand, but most of all an affirmation of my awareness of my
place in the wholeness of infinity.

What I do…First an acknowledgment to those who have come before,
submission of ego.

Then acknowledgment that all persons are indeed on their paths and my
hope and faith that they will reach peace and share what they have, it
is not for me to judge the course of these paths.

Then sometimes humor and talk of today.

Then thanks for the opportunity to pray, thanks for the particular
rituals and ceremonies I happen to have fit in with.

I use some words from my childhood. My language.

Sko:nen Ko:wa, tanon, Nia:wen Ko:wa, Totas,
[and] (in English) Thank you for this day
(Peace [To You] and Thanks [To You], [My] Grandparents)

Prayers for all who are in this circle, for those who wish to be here
but cannot be here.

I ask that my words are not preposterous, and that my logic and
assembly approach an ideal.

I pray that my words come with a rhythm, and that I may always sense it
and depict it under the subject layer.

I pray that my words sing with that rhythm and complement those who
read them, the energy that drives the rhythm and thus comprehension and
community.

I ask for to hear the greatest rhythm, love.

Etho Naia:wen, All my Relations
(Amen)

Russell Imrie

Russ says of himself: I am half Kahnawake Mohawk and half Scot. When we moved to California in 1956 I was a bit traumatized - both at moving so far away from my big family and language but also at dropping into an intense urban environment. Both of my parents totally encouraged that I read and so I did. I think I read every book in the bookmobile. My imagination flourished. Between my maturing as an Indian in this society and adoption of a critical analysis of it, my viewpoint jelled. My writing includes perspectives on emotion, technology, science and integrity from the eyes and heart of a person both within and without the culture of contemporary California and indeed America.