Award-winning poet Laura Da’ traces land loss, trauma and healing in her new collection “Severalty” In her third poetry collection, teacher and poet Laura Da’ explores Indigenous endurance in the face of erasure. by Shin Yu Pai | October 16, 2025 UW Magazine Facebook @UWalum @UWalum Jump To Comments Laura Da’, whose book “Severalty” references the Dawes Severalty Act, studied creative writing at the UW and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Laura Da’s latest poetry collection, “Severalty,” centers on the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, a piece of federal legislation that was used to dismantle the political, cultural and territorial cohesion of tribal communities. The law authorized the division of communal reservation lands into individually owned parcels. “It had a direct bearing on my ancestors by reducing tribal landmass into small ...
