S. Williams LeBlanc PHS English III
The Author Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in Creek father and Cherokee-French mother. Full member of the Creek Indian tribe. The poem “New Orleans” is from her book, She Had Some Horses (1983).
Historical Narrative Following violent resistance to the encroachment of white settlers by some Creeks, President Andrew Jackson began a process of government-sponsored removal of Creek people that continued until Many Creeks were taken by ship to New Orleans and then overland to Oklahoma.
Historical Narrative On their way west, the Creeks endured heavy rain and extreme cold. Other Creeks boarded ships in New Orleans and were taken up the Mississippi River.
Historical Narrative On this journey, one steamboat was stuck by another ship, and approximately 300 Creeks died. Between 1827 and the end of the removal in 1837, more than 23,000 Creeks emigrated from the Southeast.
The Trail of Tears At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States.
The Trail of Tears WWorking on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River. TThis difficult and sometimes deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears.
Historical Poetry When poets write about historical events they do not usually narrate the events as a historian would; instead, they allude, to refer briefly, to events to evoke images, ideas, and feelings. In “New Orleans,” Harjo refers to a few different historical events that are closely related to the themes that she is developing in her poem.
Hernandez de Soto’s Conquest In late May 1539, de Soto landed on the west coast of Florida with 600 troops, servants, and staff, 200 horses, and a pack of bloodhounds. From there, the army set about subduing the natives, seizing any valuables they stumbled upon, and preparing the region for eventual Spanish colonization.
de Soto Conquest Traveling through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, across the Appalachians, and back to Alabama, de Soto failed to find the gold and silver he desired, but he did seize a valuable collection of pearls at Cofitachequi, in present-day Georgia.
de Soto de Soto ill-treated and enslaved the natives he encountered. For the most part, the Indian warriors they encountered were intimidated by the Spanish horsemen and kept their distance. In October 1540, however, the tables were turned when a confederation of Indians attacked the Spaniards at the fortified Indian town of Mabila, near present-day Mobile, Alabama.
de Soto All the Indians were killed, along with 20 of de Soto’s men. Several hundred Spaniards were wounded. In May 1541, the army reached and crossed the Mississippi River, probably the first Europeans ever to do so. From there, they traveled through Arkansas and Louisiana, still with few material gains to show for their efforts. Turning back to the Mississippi, de Soto died of a fever on its banks on May 21, 1542.
Historical Narrative in Poetry Repeated words and ideas are a clue to theme.