Memorials of those Gone Before Their Time: Joy Harjo and "For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash"

On this day of memorial for the events that happened in 2001, the randomizer picked another song of memorial. Today's song, For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, is part of the hard history of Native Americans. Native American poet and author Joy Harjo is a Muscogee Indian from Oklahoma. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, and also played alto saxophone with her band Poetic Justice. She is credited with being a leader and force in what has been termed the Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. The song is an homage to a member of the American Indian Movement who died under mysterious circumstances on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1976. You can find For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice album Letter from the End of the 20th Century, released in 1997. The tragedy of people whose lives are taken before their time is sadly a common occurrence in this day and age...regardless of who they are or how they died, let us remember.