Full Description
A documentary-style collection of stories, poems, essays, and interviews by Southeastern Native American women.
Upon Her Shoulders is a collection of stories, poems, and prose by Southeastern Native American women whose narratives attest to the hard work and activism required to keep their communities well and safe. This collection highlights Native female voices in the Southeast, a region and its peoples rarely covered in other publications.
The editors have deep roots in the scholarship and culture of Native women. Featured prominently is the Lumbee community, where two of the editors (members of the Lumbee tribe themselves) teach at the nearby University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a center for scholarship about the Lumbee people.
This volume honors the Native American tradition of passing on knowledge through stories and oral histories. With contributions by both professional and everyday writers, the collection spotlights these societies that have raised girls from an early age to be independent and competent leaders, to access traditional Native spirituality despite religious oppression, and to fight for justice for themselves and other Native people across the nation in the face of legal and societal oppression.
Contents
Table of Contents
PART ONE: MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL, CHILD
Introduction, Cherry Beasley
My Question for Creator, Madison York
Native American, Olivia Brown
You Can Help Others Do More Than You Did, Ruth Revels
A Firm Foundation to Withstand the Storm of Life, Mary Ann Elliott
Mary Alice, Play for Us, Mary Alice Teets
To Be a Part of It, Barbara Locklear
Our People Are Moving in a Positive Direction, Mardella Sunshine Constanzo Richardson
Reflection Questions for the Reader
In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders
PART TWO: SPIRIT MEDICINE
Introduction, Ulrike Wiethaus
Some Indian Women, Marijo Moore
Spirit Medicine, Kim Pevia
What It Takes to Believe in Physical Health and Community, Lisa Huggins Oxendine
Clan Mother, Daphine L. Strickland
Bruises of a Battered Woman, Christine Hewlin
Not Anymore, Nora Dial-Stanley
Farming Always Brings Us Home, Charlene Hunt
Reflection Questions for the Reader
In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders
PART THREE: GETTING JUSTICE WHEN THERE WAS NONE
Introduction, Mary Ann Jacobs
Patchwork Images, Gayle Simmons Cushing
The Alcatraz Occupation and the Advent of Civil Rights and American Indian Nationalism, Ruth Dial Woods
The Black Lives Matter March in Pembroke: Women's Perspectives, Mary Ann Jacobs and Flora Jacobs
I Always Knew I Was Indian, Kay Oxendine
Uncle R. Never Killed Nobody That Didn't Deserve It, Mary Ann Jacobs
Knowledge is Power, Rosa Winfree
Reflection Questions for the Reader
In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders
Contributor Biographies
