Hope this helps, the answer is conflict
in Joy Harjo's "New Orleans", the line "beaten silver paths" refers to the streets of such city. She remembers of certain Spanish conqueror, De Soto,who came to this lands searching for, and constantly states that he wouldn't find it here. Maybe is a mock to that fact.
The "silver blades and crosses" refers to the sword and crucifix of the conqueror, who drawn in the Mississippi river which dreamt of those items. Maybe this means that the streets of New Orleans were made of the things and dreams of the many conquerors who came to that land in search for gold and failed.
The answer is... In hazardous situations, the instinct to survive overcomes everything else.
