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Introduction: Native American Oral Poetry
by K. L. Nichols
In traditional Native American cultures, poems (more properly called "songs") were usually created for tribal occasions such as initiation rites, healings ceremonies, and planting or hunting rituals. The songs could also be used to pass on tribal history, standards of ethical conduct, and religious beliefs to other members of the tribe. Usually the songs were rhythmically chanted or sung in a tribal context to drums or musical accompaniment.
To tribal singers, words could magically connect them with the supernatural forces in all of nature. Rather than describing a present-tense scene, the singers often projected themselves into the future by "visualizing" the outcome they hoped to produce or by identifying with, for example, the rain cloud or the buffalo irresistibly attracted (hopefully) to the singer's powerful song-words.
Economy of language was also common in traditional Native American oral poetry, as can be seen in this superb two-line poem "Spring Song" (Chippewa):
As my eyes search the prairie
I feel the summer in the spring.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
The precision of tersely worded images like this one can sometimes remind modern readers of imagist poetry or a Japanese haiku, but in a performance context, those lines--repeated over an extended period of time--would have a very different effect as the speaker invoked and anticipated the warmth and fullness of summer after a winter of hardship.
The commonly-used parallelisms and repetitions of similar or contrasting phrases often create the effect of "rhyming thoughts" rather than the rhyming sounds of western non-Indian poetry, according to Spinden (cited in A. Grove Day, The Sky Clears: Poetry of the American Indian, 1951). What may sometimes seem like unnecessary repetition to non-Indian readers can become, in the context of performed tribal ceremonies, a powerful and mesmerizing technique.
Links:
Iroquois Earth Songs--describes how these social songs would be danced or performed.
Indian Songs--musical transcription of selected songs.
Hunting Songs:
Hunting Song (Navajo)Comes the deer to my singing,
Comes the deer to my song,
Comes the deer to my singing.He, the blackbird, he am I,
Bird beloved of the wild deer.
Comes the deer to my singing.From the Mountain Black,
From the summit,
Down the trail, coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.Through the blossoms,
Through the flowers, coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.Through the flower dew-drops,
Coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.Through the pollen, flower pollen,
Coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.Starting with his left fore-foot,
Stamping, turns the frightened deer,
Comes the deer to my singing.Quarry mine, blessed am I
In the luck of the chase.
Comes the deer to my singing.Comes the deer to my singing,
Comes the deer to my song,
Comes the deer to my singing.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
The Rising of the Buffalo Men (from the Osage Rite of Vigil)
I rise, I rise,
I, whose tread makes the earth to rumble.I rise, I rise,
I, in whose thighs there is strength.I rise, I rise,
I, who whips his back with his tail when in rage.I rise, I rise,
I, in whose humped shoulder there is power.I rise, I rise,
I, who shakes his mane when angered.I rise, I rise,
I, whose horns are sharp and curved.from Francis La Flesche, "The Osage Tribe: The Rite of Vigil,"
Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology 1917-1918, Vol. 39 (1925)
Healing Songs:
Prayer (from the Navajo healing ceremony called Night Chant)Tségihi,
House made of dawn.
House made of evening light.
House made of the dark cloud.
House made of male rain.
House made of dark mist.
House made of female rain.
House made of pollen.
House made of grasshoppers.
Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zigzag lightning stands high upon it.
Male deity!
Your offering I make.
I have prepared a smoke for you.
Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my mind for me.
This very day take out your spell for me.
Your spell remove for me.
You have taken it away for me.
Far off it has gone.
Happily I recover.
Happily my interior becomes cool.
Happily I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
Impervious to pain, may I walk.
With lively feeling may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, may I walk.
Happily may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily may I walk.
Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.
May it be beautiful before me
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
With it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.from Washington Matthews, Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs (1906)
Rain and Planting Songs:
Song in the Garden of the House of God (from the Navajo corn-planting ritual)Truly in the east
The white bean
And the great corn plant
Are tied with the white lightning.
Listen! rain approaches!
The voice of the bluebird is heard.
Truly in the east
The white bean
And the great squash
Are tied with the rainbow.
Listen! rain approaches!
The voice of the bluebird is heard.From the top of the great corn-plant the water gurgles, I hear it;
Around the roots the water foams, I hear it;
Around the roots of the plants it foams, I hear it;
From their tops the water foams, I hear it.The corn grows up. The waters of the dark clouds drop, drop.
The rain descends. The waters from the corn leaves drop, drop.
The rain descends. The waters from the plants drop, drop.
The corn grows up. The waters of the dark mists drop, drop.Shall I cull this fruit of the great corn-plant?
Shall you break it? Shall I break it?
Shall I break it? Shall you break it?
Shall I? Shall you?Shall I cull this fruit of the great squash vine?
Shall you pick it up? shall I pick it up?
Shall I pick it up? Shall you pick it up?
Shall I? Shall you?from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Korosta Katzina Song (from the Hopi corn-planting dance, with Kachinas wearing rainbow masks)
Yellow butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin corn,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant throng.Blue butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin beans,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant streams.Over the blossoming corn,
Over the virgin corn,
Wild bees hum;
Over the blossoming beans,
Over the virgin beans,
Wild bees hum.Over your field of growing corn
All day shall hang the thunder-cloud;
Over your field of growing corn
All day shall come the rushing rain.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Love Songs:
You Have No Horses (Teton Sioux)Well, when I was courting
"Horses you have none"
To me was said.Therefore, over the land
I roam.from Frances Densmore, Teton Sioux Music (1918)
I Will Walk (Chippewa)
I will walk into somebody's dwelling,
Into somebody's dwelling will I walk.To thy dwelling, my dearly beloved,
Some night will I walk, will I walk.Some night in the winter, my beloved,
To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk.This very night, my beloved,
To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk.from Daniel G. Brinton, Aboriginal American Authors (1883)
War Songs:
From the South (Chippewa)From the south they come,
The birds, the warlike birds,
With sounding wings.I wish to change myself
To the body of that swift bird.I throw my body in the strife.
from James S. Brisbin, “The Poetry of Indians,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 57 (1878)
Arrow Song (Chippewa)
Scarlet
Is its head.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Song of War (Chippewa)
The Sioux women
pass to and fro wailing.
As they gather up their wounded men
the voice of their weeping comes back to me.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Miscellaneous Songs:
Song of the Thunders (Chippewa dream-vision)Sometimes I,
I go about pitying
Myself
While I am carried by the wind
Across the sky.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Song to the Pleiades (from the Pawnee Hako Ceremony)
Look as they rise, rise
Over the line where sky meets the earth;
Pleiades!
Lo! They ascending, come to guide us,
Leading us safely, keeping us one;
Pleiades,
Teach us to be, like you, united.from George W. Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
NOTE: These pages are for educational use only. The introductions were written by
K. L. Nichols and are not to be used by anyone else without the author's permission.
Comments/suggestions: knichols@pittstate.edu
Updated: 2-10-10
Background images by Silverhawk's Creations
