Wampumpeag -- Native American Poems from Aquidneck Indian Council in Newport
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Transcript of Wampumpeag -- Native American Poems from Aquidneck Indian Council in Newport
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Moondancer
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Wampumpeag is dedicated to the Spirit of my mother, Lillian Mary Fortier.
Nokace cawammaunsh
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Wampumpeaagby
Moondancer
1996 Frank O'Brien (Moondancer)Aquidneck Indian Council
12 Curry Avenue, Newport, Rl 02840-1412ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Credits
Some poems in Wampumpeag are selected from Food and Fire: A
Collection of Poetry, Analects and Neologisms, 1990, Frank O'Brien
[Moondancer].
"Moontime" has also appeared in Chrysalis , Vol. 1, Number 1,1993. "O
Spirit" appeared originally also in Chrysalis , Vol. 2, Number 3,1993 as did
"A Walk on the Seas " (Vol. 2, Number 1,1994). "Keihtanit-oom" ("O
Spirit") is written in the extinct Algonquian language Massachusett (Natick),and is reprinted from Moondancer & Strong Woman, Understanding
Algonquian Indian Words (New England). Newport, RI: Aquidneck Indian
Council, 1996.
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Contents
1. Keihtanit-oom
2. O Father! Teach Me the Ways of My People
3. The Dream
4. Moontime
5. A Walk on the Seas
6. To Them
7. A Survivor's Prayer Under the Hunter's Moon at Dawn
8. The Wail of the Coyote
9. Bird Song
10. Pining
11.
The Voice of My Past
12. On What American Indians Want Today
13. Kehchisog
About the Author
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O Spirit Keihtanit-oom
O SpiritThat gives us our breath
Watch over us
O SpiritThat gives us our food
Watch over us
O Spirit
That gives us our family
Watch over us
O Spirit
That gives us our happinessWatch over us
O Spirit
That makes all livingWatch over us
O SpiritThat makes us one with you
Watch over us
O SpiritYou are the only One
Watch over us
Keihtanit-oom
magunt'che nashaiionk
wadchanish
Keihtanit- oommagunt'che meechummuonk
wadchanish
Keihtanit- oommagunt'che teashiyeuonk
wadchanish
Keihtanit-oommagunt'che wunnegenash
wadchanish
Keihtanit- oommagunt'che pomantamoonk
wadchanish
Keihtanit-oomkesteau yau ut nashik ohke
wadchanish
Keihtanit- oompasuk naunt manit
wadchanish
Keihtanit- oom written in Natick-Massachusett Algonquian language
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O Father! Teach Me the Ways of My People
0 Father!
Teach me the ways of my people
I must know why the bird sings
and flies so high in the sky
Why the flower blooms
and smells so pretty Why the
sun warms my face
and the moon stares at me Why
the water washes me clean
and makes my skin bump
Why the wind whistles
and makes the trees dance in the sky
Why the coyote wails
and I can never see him Why
the thunder roars in anger
and the lightening cracks
Why the fire warms my hands
and then is gone in the night
O Father!
Teach me the ways of my people
Talk to me in words I can know
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The Dream
A big black bird flew to me in my dreams
He circled round and round coming closer and closer
Then he landed on my right shoulder folding his wings
He looked up into the sky Then directly into my eyes and
there peered for a long time
Suddenly he spoke to me "Your People are near. Soon you
will be at one with them."
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Moontime
The moon looks at me in a cold curious way
The Man-in-the-Moon carols a wide-mouthed song
Moonbeams dart through dancing leaves
On a cold country road
He dares me to tread it
"Go home," He whispers
"Night is moontime."
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A Walk on the Seas
I took a walk on the seas To
find my mother, the Moon
She lifted me up
To the skies And
showed me the past
I saw a fiery ball of all colors
That opened and closed
Embracing in all directions
Then she put me back on the shore
And resumed her watch over the seas
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To Them
To them
The rocks are dead
The water is dead
The trees are dead
And all the animals are dead
They even see their own people
As dead
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A Survivor's Prayer Under the Hunter's Moon at Dawn
The sun is my father
The moon and seas are my mother
The stars are my brothers and sisters
The land is my kingdom
Here there was a time they say
When there was no time
A time when there was only time
A time when there was no space
A time when there was only space
But all that was before
The Time
Now There is
Only Time
Only Space
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The Wail of the Coyote
There was a bird once
Who knew a man once
They danced and sang together once
For they were brothers always
Now the bird is sad always
His brother has vanished from the Land
Always
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Bird Song
I died
And was resurrected
Somewhere in the wind and ashes
Upon the land
Among the birds
Who fell from the sky
To me
And from me
Winged to the wind
To sing again
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Pining
I know a tall pine tree in a Newport park
They say it blew its top one hurricane day
Upon first acquaintance I saw that
This evergreen bleeds Mom, noon and dusk to dawn
Pine sap So clear, sticky, and tasty
Its lower limbs are severed to the bark
Perhaps so tourists can touch and film a real tree
And feel safe amidst the mist of a moonless night
But only black ants march up and down the fir trafficking then-
wares in fast streams of quiet dignity
They live in the holes under the tree
Where the white blood streaks and seeps
Yellow-jacket bees visit the green pine in a slow, busy search
Maybe they come to sharpen their stingers on the needles
And gray park-pigeons still parade about its snaking roots head bowing in
rhythmic ceremony
I too come once and again
I like to touch the tough dark bark
And drink from its wounds
For the tree and I are brothers
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The Voice of My Past
The voice of my Past
My People
Dancing to the seasons
Of their Cycle
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On What American Indians Want Today
They want to dry the tears that drowned the sun
They want laughter to return to their hearts
They want to go home! To Mother and Grandmother
They want to hear their ancestral voices 'round the fire
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Kehchisog
(The Elders)
The Elders pray for the rising of the sun
The Elders pray for the setting of the sun
We pray for the Elders
"Elders, please pray for the rising of the sun"
"Elders, please pray for the setting of the sun"
The sun rises
The sun sets
The Elders pray
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"If the Sacred does not live in youYou are not alive"
(Anonymous Native American)
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About the author ofWampumpeag
Dr. Francis Joseph O'Brien, Jr. (Moondancer) is a mixture of European Canadian-Indianheritage. His mixed Indian heritage dates back to the 1600s when a fisherman from Normandynamed Antione Fortier married a Huron girl in Beauport, Nouvelle France, on November 21,1677.
"My mother taught me to see connections among allthings under the sun. So, now I dedicate this bookto the honor of her memory and all Native Peoplesof the Americas."
Frank has authored 7 poetry chapbooks and has published poems in obscure sources.He has graduate degrees from Columbia and makes his living as a government researchmathematician.
His Indian name is Moondancer. Moondancer is President of the Aquidneck IndianCouncil, and lives in Newport, RI with his wife Strong Woman (Julianne Jennings) and theirbeautiful children Brian (age 8) and Julia (age 6).
Moondancer and Strong Woman currently are completing Understanding AlgonquianIndian Words (New England).
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