A Naraya Poetry-Song of the Wind River Shoshone Ghost
Dance
A religious song that the Wind River Shoshone of Wyoming sang
during Ghost Dance performances of the past. "They say when you sing those
songs it makes berries grow and make grass grow, make water run. Plenty of
berries for in the fall, fish, everything. Sing for them, our elk and deer
and all them. That's what it's for.... Well, some men, they dream that
something's going to be wrong or some kind of sickness or some kind of
storm. They know it. Well, we going to dance. It ain't going to happen when
we dance. Flu or measles or scarlet fever or a sickness that's some kind of
hard cough-one person knows when he's asleep, he knows it's coming. ... We
better be dancing, sending it back, sending it back. We just make it go
back. That's the way they dance it. It isn't just a dance. ... Well, it's a
song for health.... When you don't feel good, when you feel sick or
something, you dance with them. You feel good then. That's what it's for.
It ain't just songs. "
Emily Hill as transcribed and presented by Judith Vander
Sunlit showers on the mountains, sunlit showers on the
mountains ena*
Sunlit showers on the mountains, sunlit showers on the mountains ena
Pine needles in pools of mountainside gullies after sunlit showers on
the mountains ena
*ena is a sound used by the Wind River Shoshone
exclusively in Naraya songs as a cadance maker.
Also of interest:
Oral Tradition of the Dunne-za
Faith In Our Dreams - Thoreau
Havasupai Farewell Song
The Threefold Miracle
Scroll of Timothy
Worship
I Ching
Webs of Significance
Deeds
Hanukah - an interpretation
Satchel Paige
Experience
Speaking With God
Right Brain