Poetry by Dr. Deidra Suwanee Dees

You Taught Me

i was 

not 

born

biologically 

savage 

until 

you taught 

me 

i was

---

Indian Sin

sunday

school 

 

teacher taught

us Indians

 

we

were

 

born into

original sin,

 

and jesus

 

paid

 

for our

sin;

 

teacher,

 

if jesus

 

paid for our

sin,

 

why

do

I  

have to pay?

---

Damaged

 

polluted                       culture,      

 

damaged by     invasion,

 

 

 

in all my years

 

growing up on             dog river,

 

 

 

no one

 

ever taught      me

 

where

the                   sun rises

---

Dr. Deidra Dees is the second-place winner of the Native Voices Award, a member of the Mvskoke nation, and descends from Hotvlkvlke (Wind Clan). She grew up picking cotton on a rural Alabama farm, where her ancestors lived. Dr. Dees is a Cornell and Harvard graduate and the published author of Vision Lines: Native American Decolonizing Literature. Dr. Dees currently serves as Director/Tribal Archivist at the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and teaches Native American Studies at the University of South Alabama.