If it's the chorus you are having trouble with, here it is phonetically:
Po-how-ya Mother, I leave you with your white man.
I curse their church that tells us our fathers were wrong.
And I'll hunt my own Mau-wich, and I'll drink my own whisky.
And I'll sing until morning, the old favorite songs.
Fires of the potlatch are all scattered in their ashes.
A-se-chi-tama-now is the evil ones remains.
And our children cannot follow the old northern new ways.
And the poles of their fathers are rotting in the rain.
From a long time ago, as I remember through the haze, Ian described the lyrics as:
Po-how-ya = Good-bye or farewell
Mau-wich = Destiny or fate
A-se-chi-tama = Covering the ground, ????
Pot-latch = Campfire or elders meeting
Hope this helps -- Ian and Sylvia are in my top five of all-time!
HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 3-May-03.