Laura Da': Walking the Scioto Trail with Lazarus Shale
The poet and educator Laura Da’ (Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma), across three collections of poetry—tributaries (2015), Instruments of the True Measure (2018), and Severalty (2025), each published by the University of Arizona Press—has enacted a deeply personal accounting of Shawnee history, community, and selfhood.
Grounded in the historical removal of the Shawnee from Ohio, first to Kansas and ultimately to Oklahoma, Da’s poetry offers a timely celebration of Shawnee survivance and life. Specifically, through the character of Lazarus Shale, Da’ has created a complex personality who not only embodies the history of Shawnee removal but also the vitality that is central to contemporary Indigenous creativity.
Our team was one of six awardees from the 2025 round of The Ohio State University’s Arts Creation and Spark Grants. Funded by the Mellon Foundation, Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme (GAHDT) and the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, Spark Grants and Arts Creation Grants are designed to provide seed funding for community-engaged arts projects and foster new, impactful, arts-led research and creative work.
More information about this grant can be found here.
Principal Investigators:
- Richard Finley Fletcher, Associate Professor, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, The Ohio State University
- Elissa Washuta, Associate Professor, Department of English and Director of the American Indian Studies Program, The Ohio State University
- Marti Chaatsmith, Interim Director, Newark Earthworks Center, The Ohio State University
Community Partners: Laura Da’ (Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma), Curatorium Collective, Ohio History Connection, Great Council State Park, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Mound City, Matter News, WYSO Public Radio, Two Dollar Radio HQ, Paper City Coffee, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, and The Monuments Project.