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The collection is divided into four sections based on how the Lingít talk about g̱agaan—the sun. Featuring some poems in English, some in Lingít, and some that combine the beauty of the two, Gagaan Xʼusyee / Beneath the Foot of the Sun displays an equal dignity in both languages that transcends monolingual constrictions.
“There are only a handful of people on this planet who could write a book like this one. X̱'unei Lance Twitchell’s is a voice of healing, one that shows us what is possible, one that provides for the next generation a sense of history and connection, plus a sense of freedom. The kids will use cell phones and will carve cedar. There’s no contradiction there. They are citizens of this moment as well as descendants of thousands of generations of people who lived and loved in Lingít Aaní.”
—Peggy Shumaker, University of Alaska Fairbanks
X'unei Lance Twitchell is a multimedia artist in poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction, Northwest Coast Native design, and traditional and contemporary music and is professor of Alaska Native languages at University of Alaska Southeast. He is from the Lingít, Haida, and Yupʼik Native Nations; speaks and studies the Lingít language; and advocates for Indigenous language revitalization. This is his first book of poetry.