Alexander Lawrence Posey

Alexander Lawrence Posey was born on 3 August 1873, in the Muscogee Nation, near present-day Eufaula, Oklahoma. He was the first child of Nancy Posey, Chickasaw-Muscogee of the Wind Clan, and his father, Lewis Henderson Posey, predominately of Scots-Irish heritage. In 1889, Posey attended Bacone Indian University, enrolling for the second academic year. The school, established by the Baptist Church as a college preparatory for American Indian students, offered a conventional but well-rounded curriculum. In 1893, Posey launched his writing career, publishing articles in the school’s newspaper, the B.I.U. Instructor. In 1894, he left Bacone University to pursue his writing while he held various jobs working for the Muscogee Nation, including as an elected member of the House of Warriors, the lower chamber of the Muscogee National Council. In May 1896, he married Minnie Harris. A year later, he returned to the Muscogee Nation, serving as superintendent of the boarding schools at Eufaula and Wetumka. The following year, he left his job as superintendent of the Muscogee boarding schools and purchased the Indian Journal, a weekly newspaper at Eufaula. By this time, he had produced nearly 200 poems; some were published in local territorial publications. Posey turned his attention to journalism, which built his national literary reputation as a political humorist: his vehicle for his humoristic rantings were his Fus Fixico letters. With a unique sardonic stance, his “letters” provided a Native perspective on events transpiring in the rapidly changing territories. Fus Fixico, translated into English as “heartless bird,” “repeats” the conversations of an array of colorful Muscogee natives. Fus Fixico, Posey’s own invented “fearless bird,” critiques the political events occurring in the territories. In October 1902, Posey launched his first letter in his Indian Journal. During his literary career, he penned seventy-two letters, garnering national notoriety with his commentaries on local as well as national politicians involved with territorial politics. The following year, he sold the Journal, becoming the city editor of the Muskogee Evening Times. In 1904, his journalism career was interrupted while he worked as a translator and later a fieldworker for the Dawes Commission. When the commission had completed its enrollment of Native people, Posey became a real estate agent before assuming the editorship of the Indian Journal. On 27 May 1908, at the age of thirty-five, Posey died in an unforeseeable accident while he was crossing the North Canadian River near Eufaula.

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