Description
Book SynopsisA 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.
Trade Review"
Upon Her Shoulders is a book for everyone; the wisdom located within the pages, from American Indian women elders and from younger women, offers guideposts for living and learning that reinforce the power of story, of kin and community, and of place. The personal journeys detailed here are truly comprehensive as they use their gifts to challenge stereotypes, renew themselves through ceremony and medicine, and create just communities for all.
Upon Her Shoulders is as much a manual for living as a priceless record of our journeys as American Indian women."
—Malinda Maynor Lowery, The Lumbee Indians: An American StruggleTable of ContentsTable of Contents
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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
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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
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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
