‘We did all the work’: seeing smartness in a Poarch Creek way

Abstract

In the Poarch Creek community, being ‘smart’ individually is not something that we learn until we go to school. Instead, in our community, to be considered ‘smart’ you must learn how to work with and in the tribal community in a way that contributes to the needs of all of the people in the community. Through this article, I will discuss how the Poarch Creek community frames ‘smartness’ as knowledge and wisdom that individuals have and use to advance the tribe and community. I will look at how the community operates in ‘smart’ ways to navigate the larger society and how individuals within the community are ‘smart’ because they each possess the knowledge necessary to support, survive, and advance the tribe as a whole.

Keywords:

• Southeastern
• American Indian
• Indian
• Poarch Band of Creek Indians
• smartness

Notes

1. Gaming is a term that we use to refer to the operation of our tribal casinos.