Remembrance of Ancestors

Harjo acknowledges that her story begins before her birth, and this establishes a historical perspective with, respect and tribute for, and spiritual guidance from her ancestors. While the memoir begins in her early childhood, it quickly shifts to her family’s personal lineage: “My father was born of tribal leadership. Monahwee, who was one of the leaders of the Red Stick War, which culminated in the Battle of Horseshoe Ben, the largest Indian uprising. In the country, was his grandfather, six generations back on his mother’s side” (21). The lineage establishes Harjo’s family as warriors, and she a descendant of warrior spirit. It also opens the memoir to a larger historical perspective: the Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole people, from which Harjo descends, are part of the nations forced from their lands by the U.S. government in the 1800s. Though not at the forefront of...