Paper Details

Joy Harjo’s poetry collections, An American Sunrise and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, sit squarely at the intersection of Indigenous eco-consciousness and decolonial ecology. This paper explores that dynamic. Scholars often frame the Anthropocene as a universal human problem, but this Eurocentric view misses the mark. Instead, I argue that Harjo’s poetics correctly identify ecological collapse as a symptom of much more specific forces: settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and historical dispossession. Grounded in Mvskoke (Creek) epistemologies, her work tears down the artificial wall between nature and culture, treating the Earth not as a resource, but as a sentient web of relatives. By looking at themes like blood memory, the trauma of the Trail of Tears, and "trickster capitalism," this study shows how Harjo uses sonic kinship and the botanical imagination to work through historical wounds. Harjo’s vision for planetary healing demands a complete overhaul of environmental ethics, suggesting that true ecological justice simply cannot happen without Indigenous sovereignty and genuine respect for nature.

Indigenous Eco-Consciousness, Decolonial Ecology, Anthropocene, Joy Harjo, Native American Poetry, Environmental Justice