E. Donald Two-Rivers

Who is E. Donald Two-Rivers?

E. Donald "Ed" Two-Rivers, sometimes known as Donald Two-River, was Anishinaabe. He was a noted poet, playwright and spoken-word performer.

Brought up first on the reservation and then in the urban Native community in Chicago, Two-Rivers has been an activist for Native rights since the 1970s, for which he was awarded the Iron Eyes Cody Award for Peace in 1992. He is also an accomplished poet, who has, among other honours, been awarded the American Book Award in 1992. A critic of "victim politics", Two-Rivers is a strong supporter of programs that give disadvantaged Native peoples the chance to stand on their own two feet.

He had been critical of Euro-American directors and actors in the past, saying that "I believe that for non-Natives to perform a Native American play, they would first have to undergo a certain level of sensitivity training. In fact, I would require it for any of my plays."

E. Donald Two-Rivers was the founding of the Chicago-based Red Path Theater Company.

In 2007, he returned to Chicago, to work on his last book In the Spirit of the Coyote.

He died December 27, 2008.