ADD: Trail of Tears songs for kids & adults

Subject: ADD: Trail of Tears (Pat & Victoria Garvey)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Oct 24 - 04:35 PM

The Trail of Tears
(Pat & Victoria Garvey)

The trail of tears went winding weeping into Tennessee
Kentucky Illinois Missouri Arkansas would see
Four thousand silent graves to mark the trail to Tahlequah
Four thousand testimonies to the white man's cruel law

The Choctaw went before him to the Western country
The Creeks were next to suffer loss of pride and property
The smoky mountain region bid the Chicasaw goodbye
No more would see the Cherokee beneath its giant sky

One October morning in the chilling drizzling rain
Six hundred forty wagons left for Oklahoma's plain
Many went before and many more would come behind
Till fifteen thousand gathered there in March of thirty-nine

The voices of the drivers of the moving caravan
Were melancholy heralds of the troubles to begin
For many met their doom upon that woeful weary way
The frost and ague took their deadly toll from day to day

The cause of all this suffering was gold dust so they say
The greed of white and Christian men made Indians to pay
John Ross to Jackson cried in vain to spare the Cherokee
Now many moons would show the wounds of their barbarity

Repeat 1

(as sung by Guy & Candie Carawan)

http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/t/trailoft.html

Subject: RE: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 12:34 AM

I know you probably cannot teach them to sing in Cherokee, but the CD of the Cherokee National Youth Choir has two very beautiful songs on it which have to do with this subject: Orphan Child and On the Road Where They Cried. There are samples of both on that page. I'll bet you might be able to write to them for the English translation. Here's more about the album:

oices of The Creator's Children, by the Cherokee National Children's Choir featuring two-time GRAMMY winner Rita Coolidge (who is of Cherokee descent) combines traditional Cherokee gospel music, and original compositions, sung both in Cherokee and English. Coolidge is spotlighted on four of the songs on the album, including the featured radio track, "On the Road Where They Cried," a song about the Trail of Tears that was created especially for the project, and was co-written by Geneva, Ballou and Parker. Other songs feature solo vocal performances by various members of the choir, and there is a spoken word piece delivered by Cherokee storyteller and musician, Choogie Kingfisher, which is used as an introduction to "Orphan Child." The 13-song compact disc concludes with a bonus track, which is a stirring rendition of "Amazing Grace," sung a cappella in Cherokee, by Coolidge.

Subject: LYR ADD: Trail of Tears - John Denver/Randy Handly
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 12:24 AM

There is also this one done by John Denver:

Trail of Tears Lyrics
Artist(Band):John Denver

This song was first released on the Dreamland Express album. It is the only album it has been released on.


No more beautiful moons may we spend on our land
In the north, the scarlet council talks of war
And the long knives have massacred the tribe and burned corn
We're not welcome in our homeland anymore

No more songs of the hunters on the baffalo plain
No more smoke from sacred fires touch these hills
And the numbers of the people grow fewer every mile
And our children will not leave the Great Spirit's ways

There will be a trail of tears
There will be a trail of pain
And Jackson will have the Mississippi and the twenty dollar bill
But for us the trail is all that will remain

On the streets of rapid City
On the road to Wounded Knee
There is whiskey for forgetting everything
But the old ones say there may be time learning from each other
The way that it had once been meant to be

There is still a trail of tears
There is still a trail of pain
And Jackson has got the Mississippi and the twenty dollar bill
But for us the trail of tears remains
And Jackson has got the Mississippi and the twenty dollar bill
But how long will the trail of tears remain

Words and Music by Randy Handley

Subject: RE: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: Jim Lad
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 12:18 AM

You may also want to listen to this young lady.
It's Amazing Grace in a Native American dialect and is well worth a listen.
Jana is an "Urban Indian" who enjoys her Native heritage. An interesting quote from her web-site...
"She walks in beauty in two worlds."
-Lumbee proverb

Subject: RE: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 05 Jan 08 - 11:49 PM

Previous postings, to this thread, removed.... by clones of MC or "knock-down."

Look to the Choctaw Indian Nations (Oklahoma/Mississippi)

Gregory Pyle is the chief...and they publish monthly.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: KT
Date: 05 Jan 08 - 11:34 PM

Not about the Cherokee, but Fred Small's "Heart of the Appaloosa" does a great job telling the story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. I used it with fifth graders.

Subject: RE: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jan 08 - 06:07 PM

From THIS WEBSITE:

Amazing Grace is a song that holds
great meaning to the Cherokee people
and it is often referred to as the
Cherokee National Anthem.

The words in Cherokee are shown on
on the artwork above. But you will
find the words below, and the English
translation. I am not fluent in Cherokee.
I am trying to learn as much as I can, as
many of us are. But there are differences
in dialects, in the Cherokee Nation, so
this is but one example for better understanding.

Amazing Grace Sung in Cherokee

u ne la nv i u we tsi
i ga gu yv he yi
hna quo tso sv wi yu lo se
i ga gu yv ho nv

a se no yi u ne tse yi
i yo no du le nv
ta li ne dv tse lu tse li
u dv ne yu ne tsv

e lo ni gv
ni li s qua di
ga lu tsv ha i yu
ye di go i
da ni e lo ni gv

u na da nv ti
a ne hv
do dv ya nv
hi li

tso s hna quo
ni go hi lv
do ho wa ne
he s i he s i he s i

Translation of Cherokee version into English

God's son paid for us
then to heaven He went
after paying for us.

But He said, When He rose,
"I'll come again"
He said when He spoke.

All the earth will end when He comes.
All will see him
All over the earth.

All the good people living
He will come after.

Heaven always,
in peace they will live.

---------------------------------------
I'll see what else I can find in my sources

Subject: Trail of Tears songs for kids
From: Chris Holder
Date: 05 Jan 08 - 04:14 PM

I'm preparing some songs and stories for 5th graders about the 19th century Westward Expansion era and would like suggestions about any possible songs (hopefully in English - I do not speak Cherokee) about the Trail of Tears. Am already familiar with John Denver's, Billy Ray Cyrus' and the "Cherokee Queen." Anyone know of an English translation of the Cherokee song reportedly sung on the Trail to the tune of "Amazing Grace?"