Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this interview.

In "Interview with Simon Ortiz," Ortiz asserts that Native Americans have been stripped of their rights and denied justice, and that any critic's honest appraisal of Native American literature would recognize these truths and consider their consequences when formulating a critique.

Which evidence from the text supports this position?

"Another point—I guess of criticism of the critics—that I have, is that they write very much from their own education in Western literature. This again is another limitation. You can’t discuss the poetics of Simon Ortiz in terms of the poetics of Charles Olson."
"He would have to say, yes, and agree and press the Supreme Court and U.S. Congress to give the Black Hills back to the Lakota people. He would have to say, yes, the Native American people do own Arizona."
"The works that I have read, have, unfortunately—I would say 90 percent—a limited perspective, a limited view of my poetry. By that I mean that too often their understanding of my poetry is based on their acceptance and judgment of what a Native American should write about."
"I am a human being. I write about the same things that Robert Browning or Shelley or Shakespeare did, maybe not in the same way."