 The Great Turning |
| ©Linda Allen 1989 "Turn, turn again," cried the prophet priest "Give thanks to the salmon who gives us life Thanks to the roots from our Mother Earth Do not plow her breast - she will feel the knife "Give thanks to the Sun and our Brother Moon Beat the drums for the rising of the Star in the North Turn from the ways of the white man's greed Honor Washat - true wisdom's source "Dance for the dead who'll return again Dance for the end of our sorrows here Dance for the turning soon to come When the Sacred Island disappears "Old men will dream dreams, and the young men dance The women sing songs, soon comes the Great Turning" In nineteen and seven the old priest died And some beat the drum for his return The Earth Keeper's people watch and pray That the ancient ways may still be learned In nineteen and sixty a dam arose And all came to pass as the prophet feared The waters soon covered Priest Rapid's rocks And the Sacred Island disappeared. Who'll sing the song of Smohalla now? Who'll dance the dance to appease the wind? Earth Keeper's fires by the water's edge Rise up to turn the world over again. CHORUS Smohalla, a Wanapum Indian, was the greatest of the Columbia River prophet priests. As David Buerge said in the book, Washingtonians, "Smohalla kept the flickering candle of an ancient heritage alive in a hurricane". He prophesied that the sacred island, Chalwash Chilni, would drown beneath Columbia's waters, and that when that happened, the Great Turning over of the world was at hand. As the song relates, the island was covered in 1960. Smohalla died in 1907, and is buried in Satus, Washington. |