The task is not to become the anthropologist
but the informant
Gary Snyder - The Old Ways

White folks called them one-elevens
the three lines
looking like the number
that marked the chins
of native women
women of the Klamath tribes
Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa
from California
up the coast
north to the Arctic
where the same stripes
added beauty
allure, meaning
to the faces of Inupiat
Inuit and Yupik women

The tattoos marked the northern stretch
of the long road
Alaska south
to Argentina
travelled by those first comers
leaving its traces
along the way and taken
to a fine art by the Kayabi
and other peoples of the Amazon

Almost lost
and we know
all too well
the reason why
now they're coming back
these lines applied
when a girl crosses
into womanhood
although today
the lines have more to do
with native pride
with continuity
and healing

In California
the ink is made
from alder burned
to sooty black
the stripes
appear dark blue
just recently
I saw a woman
wearing them
she seemed completely
unselfconscious
in a local restaurant
a tribute to the tribal
world's resilience
and the good work
of bringing back
what still can be
retrieved from all that's lost
those precious gifts
the ancestors passed down
and that we each
whatever tribe we claim
must try
as best we can
to bring to light
to share with others
and to own ourselves