Hello, friends!

I am working on a Native American program for the Library (long story) but I just found this Inuit poem and wanted to share:


<center>HOW SONGS ARE MADE</center>
Songs are born in that stillness
when everyone tries
to think of nothing but beautiful things
Then they take shape
in the minds of people
and rise up like bubbles
from deep in the sea,
bubbles seeking the air
so that they can burst.
That is how songs are made.

I wonder if that's how Arlo did the Motorsickle Song <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>
<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/tiedye.gif" width=17 height=17>

Thank you, Pat...thst is besutiful!

Have you included Robbie Robertson's Muisc in your project?

Kitty--actually, a song from "The Native Americans" is what sort of started this whole program!! We're going to try to teach the audience the Cherokee Morning Song from that soundtrack.
Glad you liked the poem. It was nice meeting you at the Church. <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/tiedye.gif" width=17 height=17>

It was great to meet you too...!

Please tel;l us more about this project you're working on...sounds so interesting!

I really like "It's A Good Day To Dai"....and....and...all of the songs. I've worn out several albums.

Kitty,
I haven't actually had time yet to listen to the whole CD, but after your recommendation, I surely will make time. A good friend at work suggested the "Cherokee Morning Song" to me as something that would be easy for kids to learn, and a colleague and I decided to do more of a Native American slant to Thanksgiving--enough Pilgrins already!

We are telling a couple of Native American folktales, showing clips of an educational video, learning to count, a few signs, and a craft along with the songs. We actually have almost an entire second grade class coming with their parents, and the program is on a Saturday afternoon, Nov. 22. I'll let you know how it goes--do you have any other suggestions?

Well Pat, I am a diehard Robbie Robertson fan....his music is powerful, so much of it based painstakenly on Native American legacy.
I am partial to "It's A Good Day To Die" , ..and one of the songs is the exact speech of Chief ( I forget his name...will look it up and get back w/ you) who speaks of the earth being a sacred spirit that in essence cannot be bought or sold...
"Broken Arrow", that was covered by Rod Stewart, takes on a stronger believability through RR's voice (in comparison to Rod S.)

"Fallen Angel" is a song he wrote in his grief over the death of fellow band member Richard M.....
"Golden Feathe"...oh, what a beautiful song...
"I gave my love
A golden feather
I gave my love
A heat of stone
And if you find
A golden feather
You will never
Lose your way back home.." oooohhhhh....something about his voice combinded with his brilliant storytelling ability and haunting melody weave, pulls me into another time, another place.
He is consistant in his top knotch artistry.
Did you happen to listen to "The Band" in "the old days"?
Music From Big Pink is still in my top 5 favorites of all time.....

Pat
You've got to be commended for taking the time and energy to refresh another generation on the teachings and importance of Native American culture.I have always respected the spirituality of Native American beliefs.I have been saddened by the lies that are perpetuated generation after generation in our public schools at the cost of true spirituality that is part of traditional Native teachings and culture.I am aghast that we still celebrate a federal holiday in the name of a man who "discovered" America centuries after native people first called America their sacred homeland."We" persist in perpetuating the phrase "Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492...",burning it into the brains of children,generation after generation,as if the people who lived here before Columbus never existed.It is a lie that is taught year after year,and encouraged by our society.Anything you do to help remind us of truly spiritual people who called America their home long before Columbus was born must be commended.
"If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced
with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the...
present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet
in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"

"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the
crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off
its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable
spirit."

Tom Brown, Jr., The Tracker