Blue Cloud, Peter, 1933-2011

Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate) (1933 – 2011[1][better source needed]) was a Mohawk poet, and folklorist.

He was born June 10, 1933, of the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation[2] on the Caughnawaga Reserve in Kahnawake, Quebec, CanadaHis Christian name was Peter Williams but he went by Peter Blue Cloud. The name Aroniawenrate as a nickname has been translated in English as "Stepping across the Blue Sky" or "Climbing up toward the Blue Sky". Peter Blue Cloud had pen names of Coyote 2, Owl's Child, Turtle's Son, and Kaienwaktatsie.[2] Blue Cloud was born in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory (Quebec), where he attended school and was raised in the Mohawk language. The family moved to Buffalo, NY, for a while before returning to Kahnawake. He got educated in grammar school on the reserve and in Buffalo. He was raised speaking the Mohawk language and later in his life learned English and French.[2] He was a lifelong avid reader and began writing poems as a teenager.

At an early age, Blue Cloud got influenced by European and American traditions. He became an ironworker in his teens, working in various cities in the American West.[4] In the late 1950s, he traveled to California, where he was employed as an ironworker in the Bay Area.[5] After quitting the iron, he worked as a logger with the Haida people in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, as a ranch hand in the vicinity of Susanville, California, and doing archaeological field work with the Paiute people of Pyramid Lake, Nevada.[5] He lived for some time at the Maidu Bear Dance grounds near Janesville, Ca, where he absorbed the stories and teachings of Maidu elders, and where some of his first creations as a carver and sculptor emerged.[5] Overall the jobs he worked were jobs as a carpenter, logger, ironworker, and as a woodcarver.[2] Peter Blue Cloud was very concerned about pantribal awareness and indigenous rights. His work stood as a symbol of Native Rights in opposition to European colonization. The corrupted colonizing power by the reclamation did not go unheard.[2]

Moving back to the Bay Area, he discovered the Beat poetry and folk music scenes, and the social and political upheaval of the 60's. There he continued to develop his talents as a poet, sculptor, carver and painter, collaborated with other Native artists and writers, and participated in art exhibitions. In the city or country, Blue Cloud loved to walk, was a keen observer of events both natural and political, and incorporated them into his writings.[4] As it did for so many Native people, the occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971 sparked his interest in the fight for the rights of Native Americans. He lived on the island for a while, and supported the occupation and similar events in California and the Northwest by chronicling them in various publications.