Alexander Lawrence Posey (August 3, 1873 – May 27, 1908) was a Native American poet,

humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...

, journalist, and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

in the

Muscogee (Creek) Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

.Schneider 190 He founded the ''Eufaula Indian Journal'' in 1901, the first Native American daily newspaper. For several years he published editorial letters known as the ''Fus Fixico Letters,'' written by a fictional figure who commented pointedly about Muscogee Nation, Indian Territory, and United States politics during the period of the dissolution of tribal governments and communal lands. He served as secretary to the

Sequoyah Constitutional Convention The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention was an American Indian-led attempt to secure statehood for Indian Territory as an Indian-controlled jurisdiction, separate from the Oklahoma Territory. The proposed state was to be called the State of Sequo ...

and drafted much of the constitution for its proposed Native American state, but Congress rejected the proposal. Posey died young from drowning while trying to cross the flooding

North Canadian River The North Canadian River is a river, long, in Oklahoma in the United States. It is a tributary of the Canadian River, draining an area of U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset/Watershed Boundary Dataset, area data covering Nor ...

in Oklahoma.

Early life

Alexander Posey was born on August 3, 1873, near present-day Eufaula, Creek Nation in

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

. He was the oldest of 12 children, and his parents were Lewis Henderson "Hence" Posey, of Scots-Irish and Muscogee Creek ancestry, from the Muscogee Berryhill family and Nancy (Phillips) Posey (

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Here they waged war again ...

name: Pohas Harjo), who was Muscogee and a member of the Harjo family.Alexander Posey's lineages information
"Parent's names show as immediate Family"Wilson, Linda D
"Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873—1908)"
, ''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.'' (retrieved 28 April 2025) The Muscogee have a

matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

kinship system, by which Posey and his siblings were considered born into his mother's Wind Clan of the Tuskegee tribal town. They inherited her clan, and property and hereditary positions were passed through her line. Posey's father, Lewis H. Posey, was born to a Scots-Irish and Muscogee family, and he was a citizen of the Muscogee Nation. He had been orphaned at an early age and raised in the Creek Nation; he spoke the

Muscogee language The Muscogee language (also Muskogee , ), previously referred to by its exonym, Creek, is spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida. Muscogee was historically spoken by various constitue ...

fluently; and he was made a member of the Broken Arrow tribal town. Young Alexander and his siblings spoke Muscogee as their first language. As they grew older, their father insisted they speak English as well; when Posey was fourteen, his father would punish him if he spoke Muscogee. From that time, Posey received a formal education, including three years at Bacone Indian University in

Muskogee, Oklahoma Muskogee () is the 13th-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of ...

. In 1896 at 23 years old, Posey married Minnie Harris, a schoolteacher. Together they had three children, Yahola Irving, Pachina Kipling, and Wynema Torrans Posey, each with a middle name drawn from one of the couple's literary heroes.

Career

Posey studied writing at Bacone College. He read naturalists such as

John Burroughs John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in the United States. The first of his essay collections was ''Wake-Robin'' in 1871. In the words of his bi ...

and

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...

, who inspired him to write about the landscape of his childhood. After college, he worked at ''Indian Journal'', where he published poems. In 1895, he represented the Wind Clan as a member of the Creek National Council. He was also the director of a Creek orphanage. In 1901, Posey edited the newspaper, ''Eufaula Indian Journal.'' He gained national recognition for founding the first Indian-published daily newspaper. In 1906, Posey was secretary for the

, called to draft a constitution for a state to be majority Native American. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma'', he is credited with having written most of that constitution.Mullins, Jonita. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. "Muskogee County." Retrieved April 22, 2013. The Native Americans hoped to gain a state of their own, in the period when whites were pushing for the Oklahoma and Indian territories to be admitted as a state to the Union. The Native Americans were not successful. Their tribal structures were dissolved as part of extinguishing Native American land title in what became the state of Oklahoma.

Fus Fixico letters

As Posey honed his satirical skills, he created a fictional persona, Fus Fixico (Muscogee for "Heartless Bird"), whose editorial letters were published in the ''Indian Journal.'' Fus Fixico was represented as a full-blood Muscogee traditionalist, whose chatty letters were about his everyday life or detailed accounts that he had heard the fictional Muscogee medicine man Hotgun share with an audience of Creek elders: Kono Harjo, Tookpafka Micco, and Wolf Warrior. These monologues are written in Muscogee dialect.Schneider 191 The ''Fus Fixico Letters'' have aspects of nostalgia but are primarily sharp political commentary about Muscogee Nation, Indian Territory, and United States politics. This was a time of political upheaval because Creek and other tribes' communal lands were being broken up into individual household allotments under the

Dawes Act The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the P ...

, to extinguish land title in preparation for statehood. The

Curtis Act of 1898 The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...

dismantled tribal governments and institutions, also in preparation for Indian Territory to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Experienced politicians from the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Cr ...

met to draft a constitution to establish an Indigenous-controlled State of Sequoyah, but their proposals were rejected by the US Federal Government. Posey served as secretary for the 1906 State of Sequoyah convention. His ''Fus Fixico letters'' from 1902 to 1908 poked fun as statehood was debated. Various US newspapers proposed syndicating the Fus Fixico letters nationwide, but Posey refused. His readership was within Indian Territory, and he did not believe a non-Native audience would understand the humor. So-called dialect literature was extremely popular at the dawn of the 20th century. Usually dialect literature was based on African-American dialect. The Posey family had also avidly read

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

, who wrote poetry in the Scots language. Posey's father read such dialect writers as Max Adler, Josh Billings,

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

, and

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

. Alexander Posey saw dialects as a means of expressing Muscogee oratory styles in English; he did not care for dialect writers who tried to adopt it as part of a popular trend: "Those cigar store Indian dialect stories...will fool no one who has lived 'six months in the precinct.' Like the wooden aborigine, they are the product of a white man's factory, and bear no resemblance to the real article."

Death and legacy

On May 27, 1908, Posey was swept away while trying to cross the flooded

with a friend. His body was recovered a week later, and buried at Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee. In April 2017, the

University of Central Oklahoma The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma, United States. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with almost 13,000 students and approximately 430 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founded in ...

honored Posey by inaugurating the Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series, showcasing voices considered "othered" in contemporary literary discourse. Poet Danez Smith was the inaugural speaker.

Published works

A number of his collected works have been published posthumously. *''The Poems Of Alexander Lawrence Posey: Alex Posey, The Creek Indian Poet,'' Minnie H. Posey, ed. (2010). Kessinger Press. . *''Lost Creeks: Collected Journals,'' Matthew Wynn Sivils, ed. (2009) Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . *''Song of the Oktahutche: Collected Poems,'' Matthew Wynn Sivils, ed. (2008) Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . *''Chinnubbie and the Owl: Muscogee (Creek) Stories, Orations, and Oral Traditions,'' Matthew Wynn Sivils, ed. (2005). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . *''The Fus Fixico Letters,'' Daniel Littlefield, Jr. and Carl A. Petty Hunter, ed. (1993)Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ASIN B001QREZM0. *"Journal of Alexander Lawrence Posey," ''Chronicles of Oklahoma.'' 1968, ASIN B003ZW6ZHM. *"Journal of Creek Enrollment Field Party, 1905," ''Chronicles of Oklahoma.'' 1968, ASIN B003ZWAAOG.

Notes

References

*Schneider, Bethany Ridgway
"Alexander Lawrence Posey (Creek) (1873—1908)."
Lauter, Paul, general ed. ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume C: Late Nineteenth Century: 1865—1910. Volume C.'' Wadsworth Publishing, 2009: 190–197. .

External links

* *
The complete journals and poems of Alexander Posey
Oklahoma State University
''Alex Posey, the Creek Indian Poet: The Poetry of Alexander Lawrence Posey''
a free Google e-book.
Gravesite of Alex Posey, with photo of tombstone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Posey, Alexander 1873 births 1908 deaths 19th-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers 19th-century American poets 20th-century American poets 19th-century Native American politicians 19th-century American politicians 20th-century Native American politicians Accidental deaths in Oklahoma American humorists American satirists American male non-fiction writers American male poets American people of Scotch-Irish descent American people of Chickasaw descent Bacone College alumni Deaths by drowning in the United States Native American comedians Native American journalists Native American poets Muscogee (Creek) Nation politicians Native American tribal government officials in Indian Territory Oklahoma independents Writers from Oklahoma 20th-century Oklahoma politicians