REMEMBERING KIN: CONSTRUCTING CREEK TRIBAL SITES OF MEMORY By OLENA MCLAUGHLIN Bachelor of Arts in Philology Petro Mohyla State Humanitarian University Mykolayiv, Ukraine 2005 Master of Arts in Philology Petro Mohyla State Humanitarian University Mykolayiv, Ukraine 2006 Master of Arts in Native American Studies Montana State University Bozeman, Montana 2009 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 2019 REMEMBERING KIN: CONSTRUCTING CREEK TRIBAL SITES OF MEMORY Dissertation Approved: Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith Dissertation Adviser Dr. Katherine Hallemeier Dr. Timothy Murphy Dr. Louise Siddons ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my family for their support, love, understanding, and most of all patience. To my mother, Liudmyla, for believing in me, nudging me on, and raising me to persevere. To my husband, Brad, for sticking around through all the years of coursework and research. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues for their moral support, writing and venting sessions. Special thanks go to Laura Tunningley and Jean Alger for their never ending encouragement. To my children, Sophia and Andrew: you were part of the writing process! This is for you! iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: OLENA MCLAUGHLIN Date of Degree: MAY, 2019 Title of Study: REMEMBERING KIN: CONTRUCTING CREEK TRIBAL SITES OF MEMORY Major Field: ENGLISH Abstract: This dissertation is a tribally-specific study of Creek texts, Alexander Posey’s The Fus Fixico Letters , Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave and Sterlin Harjo’s documentary This May Be the Last Time, that focuses on manifestations of Creek kinship memory. Kinship memory reflects the complex systems that define belonging in many Indigenous communities and signifies interdependence and relationality that are at the core of kinship for Indigenous nations. It presupposes accountability to past, present, and future, but also focuses on agency of its carriers. By centering kinship practices, it assists Indigenous nations in asserting sovereignty. For each Native nation, kinship memory serves as the core of their national/tribal identity based on what the nation holds important or chooses to remember/include for the definition of their identity. The dissertation investigates three Creek texts as potential sites of kinship memory reflecting tribally-specific past and present and containing tribally-specific worldviews, histories, cultural, political, spiritual, and everyday practices. Close reading of the three texts revealed that most often the narrators presented their individual experiences through the prism of communal/tribal experiences that constitute kinship memory, which then, in its turn, defines Creek identity. Investigation of the texts showed that the narrators and characters that populate the texts define Creekness through their relationship to their community, tribal history, tribal landscape, Creek oral tradition, music, intergenerational trauma, participation in tribal current affairs, cultural realia such as traditional meals, everyday practices and objects of everyday use, etc. The dissertation claims that these works not only reflect the past, but participate in construction of the future; that is, they not only help remember the past, but actively shape the community’s cultural present. The recurring use of memory in these works re-examines historic and cultural pasts, inscribes Indigenous peoples into the narrative of contemporaneity, and resists the western mythology of erasure. Both personal and kinship memories offered by Joy Harjo, Sterlin Harjo, and Alexander Posey in their works have the ability to exercise power over the colonial metanarrative. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 TEXTS AS SITES OF MEMORY ..........................................................................6 KINSHIP MEMORY .............................................................................................13 STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................22 II. ALEXANDER POSEY’S THE FUS FIXICO LETTERS AS A SITE OF MEMORY .............................................................................................................27 ALEXANDER POSEY’S LITERARY AND HISTORIC PERSONA .................29 THE FUS FIXICO LETTERS AS MIRROR OF THE COMMUNITY .................33 REVISING STEREOTYPES.................................................................................45 WHO CARES ........................................................................................................60 III. UNTOLD HISTORIES AND SITES OF MEMORY IN STERLIN HARJO’S THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME ...........................................................................64 INDIVIDUAL REMEMBERING: GETTING TO KNOW YOUR KIN..............66 COMMUNAL REMEMBERING: KINSHIP CONNECTIONS ..........................74 INDIGENOUS DOCUMENTARY: EXERCISING VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY....................................................................................................77 REVISING THE METANARRATIVE: ASSERTING INDIGENOUS PRESENCE............................................................................................................83 v Chapter Page IV. REMEMBER YOUR KIN: JOY HARJO’S CRAZY BRAVE AS A SITE OF MEMORY..............................................................................................................91 FINDING INDIVIDUAL VOICE THROUGH KINSHIP ....................................93 EMBODYING MEMORY, SPEAKING IN KINSHIP VOICES .......................106 SPEAKING COUNTER-MEMORY...................................................................113 SUBVERTING THE GENRE .............................................................................120 V. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................123 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................129 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Postmodern and postcolonial studies have revived scholars’ interest in memory. Yet, when it comes to Indigenous memories in the US, much interest has been focused on pre-contact and first-contact tribal memories, their authenticity and the possibility of continuous Indigenous memories due to “high degrees of cultural and linguistic assimilation, physical relocation, and genetic hybridity” (Allen 93). Instead of questioning the validity of Indigenous memories of the past, this study accepts the premise that collective memory is a socially and culturally constructed phenomenon and alters along with the community it memorializes and represents. Marita Sturken insists that “[m]emory is crucial to the understanding of a culture precisely because it indicates collective desires, needs, and self-definitions. We need to ask not whether a memory is true but rather what its telling reveals about how the past affects the present” ( Tangled Memories 2). Therefore, this research project focuses on individual Creek texts, namely Alexander Posey’s The Fus Fixico Letters , Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave and Sterlin Harjo’s documentary This May Be the Last Time, and attempts to uncover Creek self-definitions through memory investigations and close reading of the texts. Unlike the stereotypical representations of American Indians in Hollywood, Native nations are not fossilized in the past and are changing and adapting. In fact, most Indigenous cultures portray change as crucial and view adaptation and borrowing through trade and exchange 1 of goods as integral parts of perseverance. Therefore, instead of trying to determine authenticity of Native memories, this study aims to focus on the processes of construction of Indigenous memories in Native-generated texts, which reflect contemporary experiences of individuals as well as the community as a whole, and the significance of such memories for Indigenous peoples. Montaño claims that “analysis of the realms of memory contributes to the knowledge of the connections between memory, forgetfulness, identity and the imaginary construction of a nation by means of its national memory” (4). Considering this premise, this research project hoped to uncover some of the values Creek authors hold important for Creek identity as tribal members. I would like to note that I did not initiate the study with an assumption about what Creek identity should constitute. Instead, the study attempted to discover by what means the authors under consideration defined themselves as Creek and in what Creek identity might be culturally rooted. This research focused on the local and the personal as these have often been left out in studies about Native American nations. I find it important to move away from generalizations and focus on the definitions the texts and their authors provide themselves. While intercultural interaction is present in the narratives of some authors (particularly Joy Harjo), all of the authors clearly identify as Creek. Close reading of the three texts focused on the self-definitions the authors provided and revealed that most often the narrators presented their individual experiences through the prism of communal/tribal experiences that constitute what I term kinship memory, which then, in