The Magazine

Ancestral Answer Key

  • By: Marique B. Moss
Photo Courtesy of Marique B. Moss

“Ancestral Answer Key” is a poem about a young Afro-Indigenous girl who asks difficult questions about who she is and where she comes from. Her mother is Hidatsa. Her father is Black from Detroit, Michigan, with family roots that trace back to with family roots that trace back to the American south and farther still, across the Atlantic to Nigeria. As she grows, she turns to all of her ancestors for guidance. Her Hidatsa Magúu (grandmother), her Southern Gran, and her Nigerian Baba respond with memory, wisdom, and care. This poem explores identity, culture, and belonging through a conversation across generations and across continents.

Me:

I live in a city you never imagined.

How do I honor you here?

 

Hidatsa Magúu:

Child, we invented time travel before they

called it memory.

Every story was our portal, every ceremony our

rocket ship.

Honor travels through bloodstream, not

geography.

 

Me:

I’m Black and Hidatsa.

Why do I have to prove ratios?

 

Nigerian Baba:

Baby, we been defying their logic since they

started categorizing us.

You’re not a problem to solve—

you’re a revolution in progress.

Their equations can’t hold infinity.

 

Me:

My hair confuses people.

Which version would you recognize?

 

Southern Great-Gran:

I pressed mine to blend in their static.

You wear yours to broadcast power.

Every curl is a satellite dish to wisdom they said

was extinct.

We recognize truth in any texture.

 

Me:

Dating is complicated when you have to

explain yourself first.

 

Hidatsa Magúu:

True love recognizes truth across centuries,

across worlds.

The right soul will see your full spectrum

without needing a translation key.

Wait for the one who speaks fluently to you.

 

Me:

They want me to pick one struggle.

 

Nigerian Baba:

We survived every catastrophe they

manufactured for profit.

Your inheritance includes immunity to their

newest poisons.

Collect all the trauma cards—

you’re built for the full deck.

 

Me:

Is mixing sage with trap beats disrespectful?

 

Hidatsa Magúu:

Wisdom shapeshifts but never dies.

Your voice carries our frequencies into

dimensions we dreamed of.

Tradition isn’t fossil fuel—

it’s solar power, always renewing.

 

Me:

What does success look like now?

 

Southern Great-Gran:

We buried seeds in slave soil, harvested hope

from barren ground.

You plant dreams in hostile terrain, grow

gardens in concrete hearts.

Success is your spirit intact

after the empire falls.

 

Me:

Our sisters keep disappearing.

How do I stay safe and visible?

 

All ancestors together:

You burn bright enough to rewrite their star

charts.

Every step illuminates what they tried to

eclipse.

We travel with you through every shadow—

your visibility is our victory song.

 

Me:

What if I’m doing this wrong?

What if I’m not enough?

 

Nigerian Baba:

Tradition isn’t a museum piece gathering dust

behind glass.

You’re the living experiment

we dreamed into being.

 

Hidatsa Magúu:

You carry our genetic libraries in your

quantum consciousness.

Every breath they gave you programs

tomorrow’s possibilities.

Wrong and enough are their words—

we speak in eternities.

 

Me:

Will you stay with me?

 

All ancestors together:

We travel with you through every dimension.

You can’t lose us—

we are your compass pointing toward forever,

your factory settings for magnificence,

your username and password for the universe.

 

“Ancestral Answer Key” is part of Sweetgrass and Soul Food: A Memoir in Poems, a collection of free verse poems exploring Afro Indigenous identity, survival, grief, and healing. Blending personal history with cultural reflection, it is both a celebration and an offering. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at select independent bookstores.

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About the Author

Marique B. Moss (Miriguá Miásh, Woman in the Water) is an Afro-Indigenous writer, educator, and cultural worker from Minneapolis, Minnesota. An enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, she writes at the intersections of identity, survival, and healing, carrying forward the voices and stories of her people. Marique holds a degree in Native American and Indigenous Studies from Fort Lewis College and a law degree focused on Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma. She is the co-founder of Mashkiki Studios, an educational studio offering plant medicine teachings, cultural storytelling, and community wellness programs, and she oversees the NatuvWay Foundation, a national woman and Native led nonprofit working to close the digital divide and advance digital sovereignty and education in Indigenous communities.