White Buffalo Award
It was a wise choice to mark
The namesake's resting place
In Molly Field Cemetery,
Near Tahlequah, Oklahoma,
With a natural, unpolished stone,
Shaped like a feather.
Her spirit can flow through
Her sacred monument
To find a shade tree
In the heat of the day,
Speak with the full moon
After midnight or soar
To the top of Hanging
Rock Bluff to watch
Over us whenever
She chooses to grace
Us with her spirit
And her chanting.
"TEH YO OO DAUNT,
LEE E HAH NUN DAH,
WA HI YAH, AH GEY YAH,
JAH LEE SEE.
KOW SSS DUE
AH WOE HA LEE,
DAH AN NEE YUH WE."
Barbara Youngblood Carr
Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Barbara Youngblood Carr, 70, lives in Austin, Tex. with her husband Milton. She has three children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Barbara uses her own name when writing for adults, but young readers of her children's stories know her as Granny Bean.We are proud to name Barbara as recipient of the first White Buffalo Native American Poet Laureate Award, an honor deserved not only for her excellent writing, but because she is part Cherokee. Her parents are buried in the cemetery about which she writes.
As a retired writer and musician who now freelances, she has recently completed her eighth book in the Ancestor Series partially funded by the City of Austin Arts Commission.
Her books are located in many public school and university libraries, including the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas; Baylor University in Waco, Texas; Huston-Tillotson University, in Austin, Texas and in the archives at Northeastern University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (capital of the Cherokee Nation) and in the archives of the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas. Barbara was appointed the National Poet Laureate for the Military Order of the Purple Heart (in Washington, D.C.) 2005-2008.
For information about titles and how to purchase her books, contact Barbara Youngblood Carr at bcarr2@austin.rr.com.
You may see her books on her website at www.ancestorpoet.com