wampumpeag -- native american poems from aquidneck indian council in newport

7/25/2019 Wampumpeag -- Native American Poems from Aquidneck Indian Council in Newport

1/20

Moondancer


2/20

Wampumpeag is dedicated to the Spirit of my mother, Lillian Mary Fortier.

Nokace cawammaunsh


3/20

Wampumpeaagby

Moondancer

1996 Frank O'Brien (Moondancer)Aquidneck Indian Council

12 Curry Avenue, Newport, Rl 02840-1412ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


4/20

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.


5/20

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


6/20

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

1


7/20

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

2


8/20

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."

3


9/20

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."

4


10/20

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

5


11/20

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

6


12/20

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

7


13/20

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

8


14/20

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

9


15/20

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

10


16/20

The Voice of My Past

The voice of my Past

My People

Dancing to the seasons

Of their Cycle

11


17/20

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

12


18/20

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

13


19/20

"If the Sacred does not live in youYou are not alive"

(Anonymous Native American)

14


20/20

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).

15

wampumpeag -- native american poems from aquidneck indian council in newport

Documents