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Special to the Advance

By Dr. Deidra Dees

“I think of my ancestor Menawa who was forced into Removal on the Trail of Tears—a resilient leader. They say he did not reach the territory, but he did. I know where he is buried. I have been to his grave to honor him,” Joy Harjo said.
Harjo spoke to a spellbound audience at the Alabama Writers’ Hall of Fame at the University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa on March 7. The event was put on by the Alabama Center for the Book and the Alabama Writers’ Forum of which Dr. Deidra Suwanee Dees is a member.
Harjo, who served three terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022, recounted the endurance and steadfastness of Menawa. He and her other Mvskoke ancestors overcame hardships consigned upon them under the tragic forced Removal of Indigenous peoples from the American southeast to present-day Oklahoma. This wholesale Removal was initiated by the United States government to “relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy…” said President Andrew Jackson, author of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. “It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites.”
After almost 200 years, Harjo returned to the land where her ancestors were removed, not as an exile, but as a distinguished author who wrote about this horrible stain on American history in her acclaimed book, “An American Sunrise.”
Harjo was inducted with seven other inductees including Ace Atkins, Frye Gaillard, Janice Harrington, Robert McCammon, Dr. Sue Walker, C. Eric Lincoln and Brad Watson (the latter two posthumously).
Dees attended the event with Carrie Martin, both of whom are Atmore residents.
Martin, a Poarch Band of Creek Indians Tribal Citizen, said, “I really enjoyed listening to the inductees share about how they got to where they are; their struggles to become writers. I did not realize we have so many people in the state that are writers and have books published.”
One inductee pointedly stood out.
“I could relate to Joy Harjo about being of Native American heritage,” Martin said. “Listening to her share her story, I made comparisons to what Poarch Creek has gone through. There were a lot of similarities that also affected Poarch Creek.”
Dees posed for a picture with Harjo and congratulated her on her Award. She told her that her Native American Studies students at the University of South Alabama are reading her work about the Trail of Tears.
“We are studying Removal and students are fully engaged with the subject,” Dees said. “Your exquisite and powerful writings tell the story in a way that no one else can.
“Please accept our heartfelt congratulations on your award,” she added. “You deserve it! Mvto [thank you].”