Louis Oliver (poet)
Louis Oliver (April 9, 1904 – May 10, 1991), also known as Little Coon or Wotkoce Okisce, was an American poet of the Muscogee people.[1][2] His poetry combines themes of Creek folklore with an examination of intellectualism in the context of the Creek nation.[3]
Oliver was born on April 9, 1904, in Coweta, Oklahoma, which at the time was still part of the Indian Territories; his parents died when he was young and he was raised by relatives in Okfuskee.[3] He studied at the Euchee Indian School and then Bacone College;[4] unlike many of his contemporaries, he earned a high school diploma in 1926, an accomplishment that alienated some other Muscogee who accused him of "capitulating to the White Man's ways".[3]
While living among the Cherokee in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in the early 1980s, Oliver joined a writing group that included several published authors, and moved away from the more classical European forms of poetry that he had been practicing until then.[4] He became the author of two books of poetry, Caught in a willow net: poems and stories (Greenfield Review Press, 1983) and Chasers of the sun: Creek Indian thoughts (Greenfield Review Press, 1990). In 1987, the Este Mvskoke Arts Council of the Muscogee people gave him their inaugural Alexander Posey Literary Award.[4] He died on May 10, 1991, in Tahlequah.[4]
One of his poems, about and in the form of a tornado, is included in the Wall poems in Leiden outdoor poetry project in Leiden, Netherlands.[5]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
