02-11-2021, 02:03 AM
This is very miscellaneous...
This is a poem of which I wrote only the first stanza (which is a paraphrase of a supposed prophecy by Wovoka, the Paiute who started the religion). The rest are taken from Ghost Dance songs sung by Paiute, Arapaho, Sioux, and others which I stitched together into a semi-coherent order (I think). I wanted to bring these beautiful words out to an audience. I've cited the source at end of poem where there are lots of notes explaining each song. Sorry, not patient enough to cite each song. You'll have to do it the old fashioned way
A train will come from the east
Bringing our grandfathers and grandmothers,
Our fathers and mothers, our sons and daughters
Back to the beginning
When I met him approaching
I then saw the multitude plainly
My children, my children
I take pity on those who have been taught
Because they push on hard
My children, my children
The earth is about to move
My father tells me so
The yellow-hide, the white-skin
I have put him aside
I have no more sympathy with him
My father showed me
Where they are coming down
My father
He put me in five places
I stood upon the earth
My children, my children
It is I who wear the morning star on my head
I show it to my children
Says the father
Well, my children
When you meet your friends again
The earth will tremble
The summer cloud it will give us
Our father has come
The earth has come
It is rising
It is humming
My children, my children
I am coming in sight
I bring the whirlwind with me
That you may see each other
My children, I am now humming
Your children are crying
They are hurrying me along
Now he is walking
There is a buffalo bull walking
Says the father
There is the father coming
The father says this as he comes
“You shall live” he says as he comes
The father will descend
The earth will tremble
Everybody will arise
Stretch out your hands
The spirit is approaching
He is going to give me a bird tail
He will give it to me in the tops of the cottonwoods
The spirit host is advancing
They are coming with the buffalo
They are coming with a new earth
From James Mooney, The ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 (1896) (https://archive.org/details/ghostdancerelig00moongoog)
This is a poem of which I wrote only the first stanza (which is a paraphrase of a supposed prophecy by Wovoka, the Paiute who started the religion). The rest are taken from Ghost Dance songs sung by Paiute, Arapaho, Sioux, and others which I stitched together into a semi-coherent order (I think). I wanted to bring these beautiful words out to an audience. I've cited the source at end of poem where there are lots of notes explaining each song. Sorry, not patient enough to cite each song. You'll have to do it the old fashioned way
A train will come from the east
Bringing our grandfathers and grandmothers,
Our fathers and mothers, our sons and daughters
Back to the beginning
When I met him approaching
I then saw the multitude plainly
My children, my children
I take pity on those who have been taught
Because they push on hard
My children, my children
The earth is about to move
My father tells me so
The yellow-hide, the white-skin
I have put him aside
I have no more sympathy with him
My father showed me
Where they are coming down
My father
He put me in five places
I stood upon the earth
My children, my children
It is I who wear the morning star on my head
I show it to my children
Says the father
Well, my children
When you meet your friends again
The earth will tremble
The summer cloud it will give us
Our father has come
The earth has come
It is rising
It is humming
My children, my children
I am coming in sight
I bring the whirlwind with me
That you may see each other
My children, I am now humming
Your children are crying
They are hurrying me along
Now he is walking
There is a buffalo bull walking
Says the father
There is the father coming
The father says this as he comes
“You shall live” he says as he comes
The father will descend
The earth will tremble
Everybody will arise
Stretch out your hands
The spirit is approaching
He is going to give me a bird tail
He will give it to me in the tops of the cottonwoods
The spirit host is advancing
They are coming with the buffalo
They are coming with a new earth
From James Mooney, The ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 (1896) (https://archive.org/details/ghostdancerelig00moongoog)