In My Grandmothers Tongue

Hakatah Wuujo Nun Ha-Analah Siney Chigeh Woanley

(Creator the land you made is good, we are thankful)

I say these words

When I need to feel the presence of my ancestors

Valleys and mountains

Between my body and territory

I say these words.

One phrase out of five or so that I hold

in my Grandmothers language.

I know more in my dreams

Where language isn’t a barrier

I dream as my people have

Of future

Of the hunt

Of rivers and rapids

And warriors

I whisper my humble prayer

as if it could pull the moss floors

up and wrap them around me

like a blanket of protection, of knowing, of being

I can see the trees of home

Tall guardians of spruce

And they whisper to me,

This is where you belong

You carry who you are

Everywhere you go

And I know from deep in the place

Where I know things

I am the forest floors

The river beds

The gentle arched backs of the old mountains

The songs sang there for generations

The covered over trail ways

Hidden by growth

I am

Because

I am