Joy Harjo is a Native American poet who uses her heritage as an influence in her writing. She also uses her Native American background to raise awareness of the adversities they face in society, especially from a feminist perspective. The poem, written in the style of a Native American song, “She Had Some Horses” gives voice to a voiceless woman which gives her the opportunity to tell her story and provides her with a sense of worth. In the poem “She Had Some Horses” we can identify various themes throughout the poem that show the influence of her Native American culture and feminist views in her writing. The poem "She Had Some Horses" describes the metaphorical horses in the speaker's life as he struggles with his contradictory feelings. The speaker ultimately wants to achieve a sense of unity, which the Native Americans achieved with nature. We see the theme of nature in the poem. Native Americans were known to take pride in their tribe, caring for and respecting the land they lived on, a hallmark of Native American life. This is evident when Harjo writes, “He had horses that were skins of ocean water / He had horses that were the blue air of the sky” (4-5). Harjo also uses the horse as a metaphor for the struggles the speaker is experiencing. Whereas for Native Americans the horse was symbolic, the horse is perceived as a symbol of power, strength and survival. However, as the poem continues, the speaker sees the horse in different forms and sometimes appropriates it. In the first stanza, due to the incorporation of his culture into his writing, horses are compared through nature, which, as mentioned, plays a significant part in his culture. When Harjo writes: “Sh… middle of the paper… a discovery that can help readers have a better understanding of our purposes in life, along with a better understanding of ourselves. Harjo's use of her culture and feminist views ultimately leads to a better understanding of the horses in her life. Although the horses are different and contradict each other, in the end the speaker loves the horses in his life equally. Whereas each line of the verses begins with: “She had horses. . . ,” reinforces the speaker’s Native American identity, which Harjo wanted to continually incorporate into his poetry. By effectively labeling the horses as loved and hated, the dichotomy between his emotions and experiences and the reason he attempts to reconcile them becomes clear. The speaker's life is made up of the various "horses" in his life and by uniting them an entire sense of self can be realized.