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Upon Her Shoulders: Southeastern Native Women Share Their Stories of Justice, Spirit, and Community
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.
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.
- GenresIndigenousNonfiction
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 7, 2022
6 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 27, 2022
A good look into the cultures of southeastern native tribes/nations from the words of their members. Much of my reading has focused on Plains tribes, First Nations/Anishinaabe tribes, and Northwestern US tribes, so it was good to get another set of perspectives.
The first two sections were a bit too abstract for me. They were stories in the realm of parables, with lots of “lessons learned” but fewer details. I recognize that these stories are deeply important to Native people; it just felt like I wasn’t necessarily the target audience. I think they probably benefit from being told aloud rather than in writing.
The third section is well grounded in examples and specific language, which lets the experiences of the storytellers speak for themselves. The anthology came alive in this section in a way it hadn’t for me in the earlier sections.
I learned of the fraught racial relationship between native folks and black Americans, which I hadn’t realized was an issue. The book was worth it for that insight alone. I also appreciated the discussion of the contrast between Indigenous and white perspectives on “justice,” with the white focus on punishment, retribution, and suffering, and the Native focus on restoration, righting wrongs, mending relationships, and seeing the whole person of the offender.
I give this less than 5 stars because I think it could have been improved with a slight reorganization: there is contextualizing material for each story at the beginning of each section and in the end materials; this volume would be improved by grouping all materials for each story, such that each story (and it’s context) is entirely self contained. I enjoyed How We Go Home, which took the described approach. I think the contrast to How We Go Home is partly the reason for my lower rating.
Some thought-provoking sections:
p. 38: “She is never mean-spirited. Her gentle demeanor comes from a place of wisdom and insight, not indifference and witlessness.”
p. 40: “Language is more peaceful in Cherokee language than it is in English. … Translation, after all, is about worldview, and quite often English and Cherokee worldviews collide. … It is a lifestyle perspective of peace—a complete peace that requires mind, body, and spirit to be aligned. … So many Cherokee-speaking mothers swear that correcting a child in the Cherokee language is far more effective than the same command given in English. It is a peaceful approach that is not weak or passive. To-hi is an active, all-inclusive peace.”
p. 67: “ ‘What’s your spiritual practice?’ That question is not about how many times a day we pray. It is about what we do to tend to our spirit. … We can cultivate it as a place of refuge.”
p. 74: “Losing her job left her feeling empty and void. Her unemployment seemed to have stripped her of her identity and self-worth.”
p. 97-98 on restorative Indigenous justice. p. 100: “The widely used Lakota prayer statement Mitakuye Oyasin (“All my relations”) reminds us that all life is sacred. … Offenders are more than what they’ve done. They. along with their victims, must be made whole and reintegrated into our communities.”
p. 101: “Jim Crow policies separated American Indians in the South from all other groups.”
p. 109: an explanation of the process of Relocation and developing ghettos: “On many Indian reservations, the BIA sponsored relocation projects that enticed Indians to leave the reservation to go to… big cities. … One relocatee… had left his family because they could not relocate with him, come to the city, and enrolled in a training program but could get no permanent employment because he was an apprentice. He could not work long enough to save the money he needed to go back home… and had to sleep in mission houses… The relocation project offered grants of $1,700 to purchase homes; however, when an Indian reached a relocation area, the money failed to cover a down payment. As a result, relocatees had to incur debt to buy a decent place to live. Ultimately, Indian ghettos formed.”
p. 111: “The Alcatraz Tribal Council had decided that anyone with less than 3/4s Indian blood would be excluded from the island.”
p. 114: “The Indian headmaster who worked for the BIA had been more interested in his job and pleasing the BIA than in the well-being and education of young Indian people.”
p. 126: “Daddy sat me down and expressed how both he and mom were Indian from the same tribe. He said, ‘How come you didn’t know that?’ I told him it was because in history they told me all the Indians were dead.”
p. 151: “I learned to overcome prejudices. People who say they do not have prejudices… I just think they are wrong. I had prejudices, and I learned how to work through them. … I just listened and tried to be as loving and as kind as I could to the people I served.”
The first two sections were a bit too abstract for me. They were stories in the realm of parables, with lots of “lessons learned” but fewer details. I recognize that these stories are deeply important to Native people; it just felt like I wasn’t necessarily the target audience. I think they probably benefit from being told aloud rather than in writing.
The third section is well grounded in examples and specific language, which lets the experiences of the storytellers speak for themselves. The anthology came alive in this section in a way it hadn’t for me in the earlier sections.
I learned of the fraught racial relationship between native folks and black Americans, which I hadn’t realized was an issue. The book was worth it for that insight alone. I also appreciated the discussion of the contrast between Indigenous and white perspectives on “justice,” with the white focus on punishment, retribution, and suffering, and the Native focus on restoration, righting wrongs, mending relationships, and seeing the whole person of the offender.
I give this less than 5 stars because I think it could have been improved with a slight reorganization: there is contextualizing material for each story at the beginning of each section and in the end materials; this volume would be improved by grouping all materials for each story, such that each story (and it’s context) is entirely self contained. I enjoyed How We Go Home, which took the described approach. I think the contrast to How We Go Home is partly the reason for my lower rating.
Some thought-provoking sections:
p. 38: “She is never mean-spirited. Her gentle demeanor comes from a place of wisdom and insight, not indifference and witlessness.”
p. 40: “Language is more peaceful in Cherokee language than it is in English. … Translation, after all, is about worldview, and quite often English and Cherokee worldviews collide. … It is a lifestyle perspective of peace—a complete peace that requires mind, body, and spirit to be aligned. … So many Cherokee-speaking mothers swear that correcting a child in the Cherokee language is far more effective than the same command given in English. It is a peaceful approach that is not weak or passive. To-hi is an active, all-inclusive peace.”
p. 67: “ ‘What’s your spiritual practice?’ That question is not about how many times a day we pray. It is about what we do to tend to our spirit. … We can cultivate it as a place of refuge.”
p. 74: “Losing her job left her feeling empty and void. Her unemployment seemed to have stripped her of her identity and self-worth.”
p. 97-98 on restorative Indigenous justice. p. 100: “The widely used Lakota prayer statement Mitakuye Oyasin (“All my relations”) reminds us that all life is sacred. … Offenders are more than what they’ve done. They. along with their victims, must be made whole and reintegrated into our communities.”
p. 101: “Jim Crow policies separated American Indians in the South from all other groups.”
p. 109: an explanation of the process of Relocation and developing ghettos: “On many Indian reservations, the BIA sponsored relocation projects that enticed Indians to leave the reservation to go to… big cities. … One relocatee… had left his family because they could not relocate with him, come to the city, and enrolled in a training program but could get no permanent employment because he was an apprentice. He could not work long enough to save the money he needed to go back home… and had to sleep in mission houses… The relocation project offered grants of $1,700 to purchase homes; however, when an Indian reached a relocation area, the money failed to cover a down payment. As a result, relocatees had to incur debt to buy a decent place to live. Ultimately, Indian ghettos formed.”
p. 111: “The Alcatraz Tribal Council had decided that anyone with less than 3/4s Indian blood would be excluded from the island.”
p. 114: “The Indian headmaster who worked for the BIA had been more interested in his job and pleasing the BIA than in the well-being and education of young Indian people.”
p. 126: “Daddy sat me down and expressed how both he and mom were Indian from the same tribe. He said, ‘How come you didn’t know that?’ I told him it was because in history they told me all the Indians were dead.”
p. 151: “I learned to overcome prejudices. People who say they do not have prejudices… I just think they are wrong. I had prejudices, and I learned how to work through them. … I just listened and tried to be as loving and as kind as I could to the people I served.”
January 1, 2025
It was a good read!! I appreciated the learning experience it brought fourth as well as the personal growth and look at myself it allowed me to take. There was one sentence in particular that made me self reflect “many people thought there were no natives in *insert city* but that’s because they were looking for a stereotype” I think the only example of native people like modern native people I’ve been given is those who participate in the culture but I think that example made me form a stereotype in my head. Reading this book allowed me to look past that and acknowledge that sometimes the culture is stripped due to colonialism and that they shouldn’t be invisible consequently. It’s something I appreciate a lot about this book.
That being said, I think the chapters or atleast the sections they tried to do, were a bit unnecessary because some of the stories I feel like didn’t fit the overarching chapter which for me made it hard for me to connect some dots. It’s not a huge deal at all.
I loved the poetry I think that was my favorite part of the book as well as the brief history lesson on the Alcatraz take over. I got the book to expand my knowledge on native history through personal narrative, and while the whole thing wasn’t that exactly, I appreciated what was in there.
I also appreciated the examples of intersectionality and how many of the woman speaking pushed for it. I am black myself and are reading so I can be a better ally, and it was nice to read and see how they participate in solidarity. I think we all need to do better to support eachother and I think this book is a good way to start.
That being said, I think the chapters or atleast the sections they tried to do, were a bit unnecessary because some of the stories I feel like didn’t fit the overarching chapter which for me made it hard for me to connect some dots. It’s not a huge deal at all.
I loved the poetry I think that was my favorite part of the book as well as the brief history lesson on the Alcatraz take over. I got the book to expand my knowledge on native history through personal narrative, and while the whole thing wasn’t that exactly, I appreciated what was in there.
I also appreciated the examples of intersectionality and how many of the woman speaking pushed for it. I am black myself and are reading so I can be a better ally, and it was nice to read and see how they participate in solidarity. I think we all need to do better to support eachother and I think this book is a good way to start.
March 29, 2023
Mostly North Carolina stories about women supporting women, especially native women.
Collection of stories, not all written well, but all interesting.
I was challenged by poem about what do you think about natives - tepees, feathers or doctors, lawyers?!
Collection of stories, not all written well, but all interesting.
I was challenged by poem about what do you think about natives - tepees, feathers or doctors, lawyers?!
November 30, 2022
“Sacred space is sometimes as simple as listening to other women”
August 11, 2022
“Non enrolled Cherokee/Appalachian writer Marilou Awiakta offers her understanding of an American Indian contemplative approach to story and poetry as follows. First, we settle quietly into common ground. Then we go to the heart of the matter—the definition, or “being”—of the story. From there we spin strands of thought outward and in ever-widening circles to a parameter of understanding, where the story itself can be told. In short, we follow the pattern of the Native American story and weave a web where we can be still and know that in the belly of the story is life for us all.”
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews