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6. The poem’s last line is “Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they’ve mapped out for us.” 5
Zion is a reference to an American Indian boarding school in Oklahoma. What comment is
Diaz making by suggesting Zion and hell are the same thing? What does the word “mapped”
suggest about the speaker’s characterization of the relationship between American Indians
and the United States government? Kathryn Schulz
7. How does the poem address the common stereotypes used to describe and define American
Indians? What techniques and images upend and resist those damaging tropes?

Topics for Composing

1. Analysis. Write an essay in which you examine the connotations of the word “angel” as used
in the poem. How does Diaz use the word to comment on American culture?
2. Research. In a review of Whereas, a poetry collection by Oglala Nation poet Layli Long
Soldier, Natalie Diaz noted, “It is easy to forget that America is an occupied land unless you
are familiar with the hundreds of treaties made between the United States government and
over 560 federally recognized indigenous tribes across our nation.” Research the history of
these treaties and the ways they led to removal and resettlement on reservations. Write an
essay in which you examine the ways the trauma of this history and the resistance to that
trauma is reflected in the poem.
3. Connections. Analyze “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym
Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation” as a protest poem. What protest is Natalie Diaz
making? Is it effective? Why?
4. Creative Writing. Write an abecedarian poem about an issue you are passionate about.
Then, write a short paragraph that explains how your poem explores overlooked or frequently
misunderstood aspects of that issue.
Parts of this sample chapter have been purposely omitted. Please see full Table of Contents for more information.

from Citizen Khan

Kathryn Schulz

Kathryn Schulz (b. 1964) was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio,
and graduated from Brown University in 1996. She has been a
book critic and a journalist, often focusing on environmental and
human rights issues, for a variety of online and print journals and
newspapers in the United States, South America and elsewhere.
She is the author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error © Craig Barritt/Getty Images
(2010), and is currently a staff writer at the New Yorker, where this
article originally appeared.

KEY CONTEXT “Citizen Khan” was originally published in June 2016 in The New Yorker, with the
subheading “Behind a Muslim community in northern Wyoming lies one enterprising man — and countless
tamales.” Schulz’s title alludes to Orson Wells’s classic film Citizen Kane (1941), which is a fictional
biography of a quintessentially American newspaper tycoon.

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Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
Distributed by by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.

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