'Sacred language'

Thank you for the thoughtful, in-depth profile of Rex Lee Jim ’86 (cover story, Nov. 3), “the poet as politician,” who believes Navajo pride and self-determination begin with language.

At the fourth biennial Dodge Poetry Festival in 1992, the year marking the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving in America, we wanted to hear the voices of Native American poets. A conference the prior summer featured more than 250 writers and poets from the Arctic to Tierra de Fuego. Jim Haba, our poetry coordinator, attended that gathering and suggested five for our four-day event at Waterloo Village.

Among those five was Rex Lee Jim, who was pictured in tribal dress in our annual report, saying, “I am sacred language, / Sacred language I am.”

Congratulations on such an engaging article.