From On the River
This edited version of Kathleen's "Owashtenong Song" was submitted to us via email by Bruce Ling, who fixed some of the technically inaccurate lyrics. Thank you Bruce! Stay posted for a recording of the song by Bruce Ling!
Owashtenong Song
They made mats from your shoreline reeds
for their shelters near the sacred mounds.
They washed their babies in your bayous as
The PowWow drums made heartfelt sounds.
They were the ancestors who sang, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
Red paddles and bark canoes brought men
Who traded iron pots for beaver pelts
They fished and hunted your Riverbanks
They steered through your treacherous ice melts.
They were the French men who sang, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
Steamers brought goods and settlers
to build towns in your embrace.
Lumbermen used your waterways
to get their logs to Lake Michigan in all haste.
The farmers and townspeople sang, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
Now dams have tamed our river.
Lovers stroll on the river board walk.
Past lighted bridges and buildings
they whisper their dreams in soft talk.
Today we are the ones who sing, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
Some day the weeping willows will remind us
of your bounteous sustenance.
How you took rains, refuse, and abuse
and kept beauty in your dance.
The future river people will sing, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
Refrain:
From a Jackson Wetland to Lake Michigan
our night-fires glow upon your banks.
You endlessly give so much
And for many gifts we give you thanks.
She’s the largest River in Michgan
called the Grand River as a white man’s name
But the First Nation called her Owashtenong
The Great Flowing Mother that’s never tamed
And in our hearts we sing, Owashtenong, Owashtenong
10.13.09 revisions by:
Bruce Ling
www.hawksandowls.com
