Question

How does the speaker describe DeSoto and the creeks in lines 37-57 ? What do these descriptions indicate about their relationship with one another ?

Answer 1

In the poem "New Orleans" by Joy Harjo, the author refers to the ancestral tribe, The Creeks, and their journey from Mississippi to New Orleans.

Hernando de Soto was a spanish explorer who reached the American territory in 1541. He and his men were searching for gold. He crossed Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, until reaching New Orleans.

As a barbaric Spanish explorer, the relationship of De Soto with the native people called The Creeks was awful. As the Spanish conquerors used to do, they enslaved the indigenous people and he kept his distance from the members of the tribe.

The Creeks wanted to defend its people and land, meanwhile, De Soto was searching for the precious rock. The fights forced the Creeks to leave their ancestors territories.