Free Native American Songs and Poems by Brian Swann Page B

sight.
That is what I’m thinking.
We have arrived here.
An illness.
I sit down,
I sing myself a song.
This is what I’m thinking:
A medicine spirit,
a healer,
I am the same.
An illness.
I sit down.
I sing myself a song.
The things I have named
I leave behind.
This is what I’m thinking.
We arrive there.
We are leaving the canyon.
Out on the rim
horses that are mine.
They roam there
at the junipers,
where the junipers are straight,
and low.
They are right there,
horses that are mine
are gathered there.
This is what I’m thinking.
Here we arrive, then
we swing back down,
moving back down the rocks,
white rocks streaked with brown.
Down at the foot
a spring will always be there,
a spring that heals,
it is right there.
My horses drink the water
that is there.
White rock streaked with brown
shooting up high
is right there.
There is my horse’s trail,
zigzagging right down the center,
the color of dust.
It leads to
the source.
It is right here.
That is what I’m thinking.
And now we arrive
down in the canyon,
red rocks,
down in the canyon,
they are right here,
down in the canyon,
red rocks, low down,
they are right here.
Here I walk,
I go alone.
This is what I’m thinking.
Red rocks, streaked with brown,
shooting up high.
It is right here,
down at the foot,
red rocks, boulders
streaked with brown.
They are right here.
My illness is absorbed,
right here.
I will this to be.
I will this to be.

Arapaho Ghost Dance Songs 8
    [ARAPAHO]
    I
    How bright the moonlight
how bright the moonlight
as I ride in with my load of buffalo meat
    II
    My father did not recognize me.
Next time he saw me he said,
You are the child of a crow .
    III
    I am looking at my father
I am looking at him
he is beginning to turn into a bird
turning into a bird
    IV
    They say
the spirit army is approaching,
the spirit army is approaching,
the whole world is moving onward,
the whole world is moving onward.
See, everybody is standing, watching.
Everybody is standing, watching.
    V
    The whole world is coming,
a nation is coming, a nation is coming.
The Eagle has brought the message to the people.
The father says so, the father says so.
Over the whole earth they are coming.
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming.
The Crow has brought the message to the people,
the father says so, the father says so.
    VI
    My children, my children,
it is I who wear the morning star on my head.
It is I who wear the morning star on my head.
I show it to my children.
I show it to my children.

Paiute Ghost Dance Song
    [PAIUTE]
    Â 
    Snowy earth
comes
swirling
ahead
of the whirlwind
ahead
of the whirlwind
snowy earth
swirling

Luiseño Songs of the Seasons 9
    [LUISEÑO]
    I
    The ant has his season;
    he has opened his house.
    When the days grow warm he comes out.
    The spider has her house and her hill.
    The butterfly has her enclosure.
    The chipmunk and squirrel have their hollowed logs for acorns.
    It is time for the eagle to take off.
    It will soon be time for the acorns to fall from the trees.
    II
    In the north the bison have their breeding grounds,
    and the elk drops her young.
    In the east the the mountain sheep
    and the horned toad have their young.
    In the south other animals give birth.
    In the west the ocean is heaving,
    tossing its waves back and forth.
    Here, at this place, the deer sheds his hair
    and the acorns grow fat.
    the sky sheds, changing color,
    white clouds swept away.
    III
    The Milky Way lies stretched out on its back,
    making a humming sound.
    Â 
    From the door of my house I recognize in the distance
    Nahut, the stick used to beat Coyote, and Kashlapish,
    the ringing stones. I look up.
    Â 
    Look: Antares is rising,
    Altair is rising. The Milky Way,
    Venus is rising.

Six Dream Songs 10
    [WINTU]
    I: You and I Shall Go
    above
above
you and I shall go
you and I shall go
along the Milky Way
along the trail of flowers
you and I shall go
picking flowers on our way
you and I shall go
    II: Minnow and Flowers
    flowers droop
flowers rise