Lyr Add: YVETTE'S SONG - Native Rights song

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 09:53 PM

Hi Bill,
Virginia says there isn't a news site yet but she is working on it. I thinks she is writing up something about what happened to the Native Stewardship agreement. When I get a copy, I'll pass it on to you.
BB

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 05:03 PM

Bill, from what I understand the Native Stewardship agreement is dead and there has been a somber feeling around Bear Island for the past few weeks. I'll hopefully be speaking with Virginia tonight. When I do, I'll ask her if there is an up-to-date news site on the web about it.
Bonnie

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Willie-O
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 02:22 PM

Bonnie--

I was only up there (aside from passing through on the highway) two times for a weekend--once at the TWS blockade camp, and then I went up Remembrance Day weekend when the natives started their own blockade on the Red Squirrel Road. (I walked in and camped at Sharp Rock with Mr Potts and others--woke up at 3:00 a.m. hearing this weird buzzing sound. Finally figured out it was Mr. Media Conscious Chief Potts shaving by flashlight in his tent. Asked him later, he just grinned and said "No comment." I really liked the guy--what a character!) Its been way too long. The place is unbelievable--but I haven't been keeping up with all the strange political twists and turns since then, not least of all the Harris government whose native affairs policy seems to be "Don't talk, just shoot." Is the Native Stewardship agreement dead? Is there any up-to-date web news site for this stuff?

Bill

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: InOBU
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 12:38 PM

Ah Great song Bill!
In the words of the old song about folk singing and causes, in refrence to the Spanish civil war...
They may have won all the battles,
But we had all the great songs!

With the exception of the great song about building the Manicogan Dam

Winning a few battles, I hope, In solidarity Larry

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 11:54 AM

Thanks for the effort Bill
I thought the 'boat ride' was an initiation to Bear Island visitors.
I'm going to fax these great lyrics off to some people right after I finish this post.
I'm close friends with Virginia and Doug McKenzie. Virginia is the Medicine Woman and Doug is the Chief of Bear Island. To say the least, there have been some interesting conversations around the breakfast table.
I spend a great deal of time in Temagami canoeing and have a dream of eventually living there.

I have some other Temagami activist friends who will appreciate these lyrics.
I'll give Gary your regards.

Mama Kat I'm embarrassed to say I learn most of the current world events through the Mudcat.
Bonnie

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 10:57 AM

Bill, that is great! I am just getting ready to write an op/ed on the Artic Natioanl Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska, which abuts the far reaches of northern Canada. It is prime birthing ground for polar bears, musk oxen, grizzlies, wolves, foxes, eagles, owls, and migrating heard of 180,000 caribou. If the BP Amoco-Arco merger is approved, they are looking to open up even more of the area to oil development and have 88% of the drilling leases in the nearby Alaskan Reserve. They are in full force lobbying mode to accomplish this destruction and have already turned 2 million acres of tundra into a huge industrial complex, plus the gov. is considering 10 million acres of offshore drilling in Beaufort Sea.

There's lots more to it than that, but I was wondering if any of you Canadians have ehard anything about this and whta your thoughts are. It seems somehow relevant in this thread in light of the experiences and the song above.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: Lyr Add: I CAN SEE YOUR CLEARCUTS
From: Willie-O
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 10:33 AM

Bonnie--I had to dig through a bunch of floppies to find this, but figured it would be worth the trouble if you take it to Bear Island! How did you get to know folks there? Say hi to Gary Potts--I survived one of his famous boat rides on the lake once.

I was quite involved in the Temagami struggle in 1989/90 (old growth pine forest & native land claim issues) and wrote a couple of songs about that stuff. Banjo-friendly at that. This one is a parody of "I Can See Your Aura (And It's Ugly)" by Mark Graham, a song that probably deserves this fate, but the less said the better. (Rick can probably refer you to the tune).

There are some topical references in this song. Patti Starr was convicted of illegal fundraising for the Ontario Liberal Party (the government at that time) and did some jail time for it. About three months after I wrote the song, Liberal Premier Dave Peterson lost an election which had been considered a shoe-in for him, to the complete bafflement of the media. Little did they know about the curse I put on him...

I Can See Your Clearcuts (Aura)
                            

I've done lots of forest "tending"
It's a task that's never-ending
In the forests of Her Majesty the Queen (or so they say)
And it really bums me out
Cause you have without a doubt
The worst clearcuts that this forester's ever seen.

        I can see your clearcuts and they're ugly
        What grew there once you never can restore
        And to the Teme-Augama Anishnabai you've brought more lies and treachery
        So Dave I cannot vote for you no more.

When the Tories ruled before
You said "Nuclear power no more"
Now you've sold us out and we see where we are;
Now that Darlington's gone through
You want another one or two
Cause your ethics were all learned from Patti Starr.

You could cut them here and there
And not leave the landscape bare
But it's better you should leave those pines alone
Because Mr. Justice Steele does not have the final deal
And you can't go selling trees that you don't own.

Well I've got a chainsaw too, and I'm coming after you
You'll see it cut a hole in your front door;
I'll carve up your furniture just like it was balsam fir
And leave it up to you to grow some more.

-B.C.
(attention CSIS: last verse is a joke, get it?)

(attention CSIS: last verse is a joke, get it?)

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: InOBU
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 11:55 AM

Small correction... Misto is good, or well as in I am good as opposed to Lasho which is good as in a good book or a thing possesed of goodness.

A few words of Innu, to accompany the above song... Kwai Kwai, hello, Niout good bye, though that is particular to the Mistashipu Innu (Mani Utenam) and as close as 14Km away, the Saint Margarette Innu at Ushat have another way of saying good bye. Mistashipu, means great river, and is the Innu word for the Moise river,

Slan go foil agus au bien tot (to tottally confuse the issue) Larry

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 10:04 AM

Banjo Neo, I love that! Well, the Romani explains even more to me about our connection! Thanks, darlin, for the lesson.

Larry, I don't know. That branch of the family has never been well-documented, 'course noone has really tried much, either. That's my job.*bg* I did find some Earls and Hudsons, last night, in the 1807-1907 General Land Office records for Washtenaw County. Is that anywhere near where you are talking about? My dad always said she was Mohawk, but, as I am sure you know that is a pretty broad designation and not exactly the right area, from what I remember of my research when living in back East.

Thanks to you both.

luvyaKat

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:30 AM

Good morning Mama KSW, I guess I'll teach ya some Romani.
What can I say, us Gypsies are bonded.
Misto (pronounced meestow) - hello
Sar my san - how are you
My Misto - I'm good
Lasho Geeneemos - good learning, study or booking learning
Baxthai Sastimos - good fortune & well being
note: endings of das baxtal(o) is masculine
endings of das baxtal(i) is female
endings of das baxtal(ay) is plural
Lash Drom - good road (example to complement a song)
Lasho Voodron - good wagon (qualities of being good)
Nyees Tuka - thanks
Lolya - larry
Delo Gadjo - crazy non-Gypsy (avoid that word)

What other words would you like to know?????
Luv Banjo Neo

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: InOBU
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 07:46 AM

Say Kat? Michigan? Potowotomy by any chance? I had the great honnor of representing a friend in a Potowotomy court in the UP of Mich. Lovely people, you should go up and see if you can find any relitives. Thanks for the responce to the song. All the best Larry

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 10:00 PM

I knew there was more than the little hints you've dropped around here, Larry! I was getting ready to send you a message when is saw this, so close to my heart. Bonnielass, any wonder we resonate to one another?

Thank you very much, Larry and Bonnie. That is an eloquent and heratfelt song and I shall cherish my copy of it and share it with my native friends.

I was just at a genweb site trying to track down some ancestors up Michigan way. My great-great-great grandma was full native from up there, name of Mary Earl. For the first time tonight, I found some Earls from around her time. Then I came here and found this thread.

Thank you and how about teaching us some of the words you two are bantering about? I had a thread on other languages a while back and love learning phrases, at least, that I may use as a courtesy to someone whose native tongue is not English.

luvyaKatlaughing/Sagewalker

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 08:18 PM

VERY GOOD AND THANKS, Moose or Caribou, all the best

Larry

Subject: RE: Native Rights song - For Bonnie
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 08:16 PM

Nyees Tuka Lolya
Boy, a whole thread dedicated to me. What an honour
I'm have some very close friends who live on a reserve at Bear Island, Temagami, Ontario. I'm quite sure they would love a copy of this. Better yet, maybe I'll play it on my banjo when I go visit next. I'll make sure I introduced your song appropriately. I don't think I'll be singing it for profit. At the most for a big plate of moose meat stew.
You Lolya are on a Lasho Drom and I hope you travel safely in a lasho voodron.
How am I doing?
Nyees Tuka, again,
Bonnie

Subject: Lyr Add: YVETTE'S SONG
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 01:53 PM

As per Bonnie's request, and as an honor gift to native sisters and brothers who have been my family and teachers and friends, I pass along this is a song I wrote for my sister Yvette Michele, of the Mistashipu or Mani Utenam Innu of Nitassinan. I ask that if any of you wish to sing this, you introduce it with a request not to destroy the Innu nation and Nitassinan, the land the Innu have lived on forever, and if you sing it for profit, make an appropriate contribution to either stop Hydro Quebec's assault on our planet, or to aid intervention to stop Innu teen suicide through support for traditional culture and hunter/gather rights. I hope you all like it.



YVETTE'S SONG

When I was young, my people lived
Along the Moise River's flow.
Summer when the Salmon came,
It's fishing we would go,
And oh the way the Salmon ran!

Then came the fall, and with it the snow.
North and west to hunt we'd go,
Following the Caribou,
And O the way the Salmon ran!
And O how the Salmon ran!

Then one day, the Canadians came,
Took away the children in a big sea plane,
Told us we were for boarding school,
And O how the children ran!
And O the way the children ran!

"Kwai kwai," I said to the teacher there.
She slapped my face and pulled my hair.
"Bonjour" was the greeting then,
And O how my old words ran!
And O the way my old words ran!

They took away my clothes of Caribou,
Took my moccasins and cut my long hair too,
Schooled me in the white world's ways,
And O how traditions ran,
And O the way traditions ran!

When I was 18, I went to Quebec
To get a job with a fat pay check.
It was there I found I was Indian,
And O how my hope then ran!
And O the way all hope then ran!

For an Indian there was no work at all,
But there were drugs and there was alcohol,
And soon my life, it was adrift,
Like a feather on the Moise's flow,
Like a feather on the Moise's flow.

But the Bear spirit came to me,
Spoke of my Grandmother, and the Moise,
And back I went to Grandmother's door,
And O the way my cares then ran!
And oh the way all care then ran!

There I remembered I was Innu again,
Not a Montainaise and not your Indian,
And O how good the Salmon was!
And O the way the white ways ran!
And O how the white ways ran!

Now you bring us your mines and dams.
You pollute our rivers. You destroy our land.
And now I can only ask:
Where can we Innu stand?
Where can we Innu stand?


Niout
Larry