The language of sandhill cranes

 

 

 

 

Linda Hogan, one of our most respected Native writers and Writer in Residence for The Chickasaw Nation, captures the wonder of sandhill cranes in this fine poem.  "As far as you can see / the ancient story made new."

 

The Sandhills 

The language of cranes

we once were told

is the wind. The wind

is their method,

their current, the translated story

of life they write across the sky.

Millions of years

they have blown here

on ancestral longing,

their wings of wide arrival,

necks long, legs stretched out

above strands of earth

where they arrive

with the shine of water,

stories, interminable

language of exchanges

descended from the sky

and then they stand,

earth made only of crane

from bank to bank of the river

as far as you can see

the ancient story made new.

        - Linda Hogan

Poem reprinted from Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas, Ed. by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, The Univ. of Arizona Press, 2011

The Platte River Valley of central Nebraska is a stopover for more than a half million sandhill cranes as they make their way north from Texas, Oklahoma or Mexico. Each gray bird, with its distinctive red forehead, will stay for several weeks before resuming its long migration to nesting areas in the Arctic.

Sandhill cranes' nesting dance is an example for us all:

"Mated pairs of cranes... engage in unison calling, which is a complex and extended series of coordinated calls. While calling, cranes stand in an upright posture, usually with their heads thrown back and beaks skyward during the display. In Sandhill Cranes the female initiates the display and utters two, higher-pitched calls for each male call. While calling, the female raises her beak about 45 degrees above the horizontal while the male raises his bill to a vertical position. All cranes engage in dancing, which includes various behaviors such as bowing, jumping, running, stick or grass tossing, as well as wing flapping. Though it is commonly associated with courtship, dancing can occur at any age and season. Dancing is generally believed to be a normal part of motor development for cranes and thwarts aggression, relieves tension, and strengthens the pair bond." 

(International Crane Foundation)

 

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