Upon Her Shoulders: Southeastern Native Women Share Their Stories of Justice, Spirit, and Community

This book documents the autobiographical stories and poems of
Southeastern American Indian women whose hard work and daily fight to keep
their communities well and safe is all too often disregarded by mainstream
publications and the general public. At the end of each section, the editors
provide questions for reflection.







Aimed at general readers and especially
American Indian women themselves, this book celebrates the voices of those in
native communities in the US Southeast, a region rarely covered in other
publications. The editors, with deep roots in the scholarship and culture of
Indian women, have collected original stories, narratives, and poems. Featured
prominently is the Lumbee Indian community, where two of the editors (one of
them active in the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina) teach at the nearby
University of North Carolina at Pembroke College, a center for scholarship
about the Lumbee people.







Traditional American Indian culture places
high value on teaching and passing down knowledge through story and oral
history, and this volume honors that tradition with the written narratives and
poetry of a variety of Native women. Through this work, provided by
professional and everyday writers, readers learn about the 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 Native peoples across the nation in the
face of legal and societal oppression.







Included in this volume is Annette Saunooke
Clapsaddle who documents the work of Cherokee linguist Marie Junaluska, and A.
Kay Oxendine, whose essay addresses the murder and path to justice for a young
Halawi-Saponi woman.