“our Scriptures are in the stars”:

An Interview with Anpotowin Jensen

Reflecting on her work as a Lakota poet and engineer, Anpotowin Jensen describes how together, the two disciplines make sense of the world and its mysteries. Of her grandfathers’ advocacy for Indigenous rights, she says, “I am stepping into their legacy by recognizing that words hold power,” and her words in this interview, in her poetry, and in her own advocacy work at forums like the UN are a testament to her clear, resonant voice.

As both a poet and engineer, how have those two disciplines interacted?

Engineering is a way of understanding how the world works and poetry is making sense of these experiences and mysteries. I am an Indigenous Engineer so to me poetry and engineering are both avenues of expressing my interaction with everything around me. But I found my voice silenced in engineering and poetry helped me craft that voice in the best way I knew how. I used my advocacy to turn that experience of being unseen and unheard to being championed for thinking against the status quo. 

As a Lakota woman, I noticed that so much of our history has been told for us. It’s time that our voices roll in with the clouds like a storm and share our stories of who we are before struggle, before colonialism. We had an entire civilization that understood every part of the natural and built environment. Lakota’s to me are natural environmental engineers. I’m only stepping into that. 

Great speakers like Steve Jobs were known to turn to poetry to help shape their rhetoric. In your work teaching public speaking to engineers at Stanford, were you able to incorporate poetic tenets?

I wrote a poem as though I would be speaking to the UN on Indigenous Issues. I’d never been involved with any form of formal advocacy before then but I quickly learned that advocacy ran in my blood. Since the time of the U.S Government's encroachment onto our lands I learned that our grandfathers advocated for our rights. They knew of a life before colonialism so the standards for our quality of life were high; considering that we had the best healthcare and we had the best land practices. I am stepping into their legacy by recognizing that words hold power. 

How has your poetry been influenced by your Native American identity?

I am not Native American. I am older than that. I am Lakota. I am Lakota everywhere I go and in everything I do. My poetry is Lakota poetry.  

There’s this idea that Native People need to walk into two worlds to be successful or that it influences the way we move in the world, as though it’s outside of us. It's within me so everything I do is Lakota; it's the fabric of my life. It's the reason I succeed. I am nothing without the Lakota Way. It’s Lakota poetry. 

When my grandfather speaks Lakota, it’s poetic. One time I found a story he told and noticed that it sounded like a poem so I took his literal words and structured it like a poem. It was published, with his permission as he is the author of it, in the Oxford Climate Review for a story I featured him in. It was a way to demonstrate how poetic and uplifting Lakota thinkers are. It’s my favorite poem. (I read it at the UNICEF Leading Minds Conference in Italy and when I was asked to speak to a class at Stanford University on the environment and energy. A woman came up to me after a speaking event and said, “Your grandfather’s words are reaching the world.” It’s true because his words changed my world first.) When Lakota speakers tell a story it encapsulates every moment of the story like a motion picture. In fact, most of the Lakota language is verbs, and you can’t lie with verbs. You either are doing something or you are not. It either happened or it did not. I do my best to make sure my writing comes from my heart in the same way the Lakota language comes from our hearts. 

Do you have any favorite poets we could look to?

I love Joy Harjo. I love Kai Carlson-Wee’s poetry. Even when lived experiences are different I feel like the craft of poetry resembles life the closest and the fact that I can experience that one poem at a time is beautiful. 

Are there any upcoming projects, related to either poetry or your studies in engineering, that you could share with us?

I am currently working on my first poetry book and finished the manuscript. It’s Indigenous galaxy-space themed. It’s a tribute to how Lakota’s follow the stars. Our scriptures are in the stars.