Chrystos (/ˈkrɪstoʊs/; born November 7, 1946, as Christina Smith)[1] is a two-spirit writer and activist who has published various books and poems that explore Indigenous American civil rights, social justice, and feminism.
Born "off-reservation" in San Francisco, California, Chrystos is an urban Indian,[6] who was taught to read by their self-educated father, and began writing poetry at age nine.
[7] A self-described political poet, Chrystos was inspired by familial angst stemming from European American cultural hegemony,[8] and more positively influenced by the work of Audre Lorde, Joy Harjo, Elizabeth Woody, and Lillian Pitt, among others,[9] to produce a series of volumes of poetry and prose throughout the 1980s and 1990s (see bibliography below).
[10] Much of the writer's childhood is evident in works about street life, gardening, mental institutions, incest, "the Man" (authoritarian patriarchy), love, sex, rage, and hate.
[18] Chrystos' activism has focused on efforts to free Norma Jean Croy and Leonard Peltier, and the rights of tribes such as the Diné (Navajo) and Mohawk people.