The Chemawa American, February 29, 1928, Image 1

1926
CHEMAWA < AMERICAN
Printed at Chomawa,
■.................
_
-...................... -
_
.................. -..........................- '■
Vol. XXIX
Oregon, and Devoted to the Interest* of Indian Education
...............................................................
.......................
' ■
-
—
•
■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 1928
—. ■■■■■■■........................
.i,
।
$ Famous American Indians £
ALEXANDER LAWRENCE POSEY
By JOSEPH MATTE. Chemawa Student
Alexander Lawrence Posey, better known to his
friends as Alex Posey, translated Indian music and
the music of his own spirit into poetry. Even his
numerous prose writings were poetical. Posey was a
Creek Indian, born Aug. 3, 1873. He is known as
the Creek Indian poet.
Posey was not only a poet, he was a humorist,
philosopher, satirist and a “man of affairs.’’ He
loved out-of-doors and lived next to nature, yet he
was militant in defense of his people against injustice.
As a child Posey was a real boy. He was very
quick and observing and Hiawatha’s boyhood could
have been said of him: “He learned of every bird
their language.”
He played many pranks, and,
living in the day before the paddle had gone out of
style, Posey’s mother frequently applied the rod to
her mischievous son. As a little child he would not
wear a dirty dress and throughout life he was well
groomed.
Posey’s father was Scotch-Irish and his mother was
a full-blood Creek Indian. He spoke the Creek
language until he was twelve years of age. Once,
when speaking to his father he started to tell him of a
horse hunt in the Creek language. Posey’s father
told him if he did not tell him the story in English
after supper that he would be “worn out.” Posey
did many errands after supper, hoping to cause his
father to forget, but his father remembered and called
for the story. Posey gave it and his father would
never allow him to speak Creek afterwards.
“All of my people are poets,” said Posey. “All
Indians are poetical by nature, creators by instinct,
and in their conception of life is manifest their religion.
Gifted with wonderful imaginative powers and the
ability to express in sonorous musical phrases their
impressions of life and nature, many ot the Indian
songs and poems, if they could be translated into
English without losing their characteristic beauty and
flavors, would rank among the greatest productions of
all times. English words eem hard, sound mechanical,
....
■„■■L ijii . i
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3
-.¡VW
■
*
.........................
No. 21
,i fciurY ■ i i di
i»i, ■ U
and it is to these things that I attribute the failure of
the civilized Indian to win fame as a poet.” Posey
overcame the harshness of the English words as com­
pared with the softness of the Creek words and let the
music that it seemed his soul must say come forth.
Posey’s love for his mother and his family ap­
proached worship. He loved and worked for the
Indian and his welfare. The subject of one of his
poems was “Sequoyah:”
The names of Waitie and Bondinot,
The valiant warrior and gifted sage,
And other Cherokees, may be forgot,
But thy name shall descend to every age;
The mysteries enshrouding Camus* name
Cannot obscure thy claim to fame.
The people’s language cannot perish—nay,
When from the face of this great continent
Inevitable doom hath swept away
The last memorial—the last fragment
Of tribe—some scholar learned shall peer
Upon thy letters, seeking ancient lore.
Some bard shall lift a voice in praise of thee,
In moving numbers tell the world how men
Scoffed thee, hissed thee, charged with lunacy!
And who could not give enough honor when
At length, in spite of jeers, of want and need,
Thy genius shaped dream into a deed.
By cloud capped summits in the boundless west,
Or mighty river rolling to the sea,
Where’er thy footsteps led thee on that quest,
Unknown, rests thee, illustrious Cherokee!
Posey won his fame in literature when he was editor
of the Indian Journal. Here he brought the attention
of the public to the graft and plunder that had begun
among the Indians such as had never been seen in
America. He wrote letters in a humorous and satirical
way, all original in conception and unique in literary
annals. These letters were published all over the
country and caused many truly sensible people, not
of the “slush and sentimental kind,” to fall in line
with Posey’s ideas and really to help the Indians.
He was not only a writer of prose and poetry, but
was the author of several documents of state that are
noted today for their simple, clear English.
While every one thinks of Posey as a poet he filled
many positions of trust and responsibility. He gradu­
ated from Bacone University in 1895. While at Ba-
(Continued on page 4)