Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LAST CHIEF, by DEAN IRE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAST CHIEF, by                    
First Line: Nani-bo-jou! Nani-bo-joi!
Last Line: Where is your secret place?
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


Nani-bo-jou represents the spirit of the vanishing Indian race. It means "the sleeping giant".
There is an island in Thunder Bay opposite Port Arthur, Canada, on Lake Superior, called
Nani-bo-jou.

Nani-bo-jou! Nani-bo-jou!
Where are you now?
Where is your secret hiding place?

I come, broken,
To make my peace before my feet shall trend
Unto the Great Trail.

Nani-bo-jou! Nani-bo-jou!
Heed me in my bitterness;
My braves have gone before the storms
Like angleworms beneath the rain.
My daughters weep and are defiled;
No longer do the great geese make their nests;
The wild rice no longer ripens on the stalk;
The caribou and moose have vanished utterly,
Forever from my sight.

Nani-bo-jou! Nani-bo-jou!
Where shall I seek your long deserted lodge?

The rains come, and the snows,
Yet neither Spring nor Winter
Finds my people happy in the sun;
No smoke rises from their cold, forgotten tepees;
Their bows and arrows lie half-buried in the sand.
We have followed after other Gods
And they have betrayed us --
Betrayed us to a sorry doom.
It were better had we left our scalps to dangle
Crimson from their hand.

Nani-bo-jou! Nani-bo-jou!
The darkness hovers!
The sweetness of the maple runs no more within my heart
And I am penitent.

Bo-jou! ...Bo-jou! ...Nani-bo-jou!
Where is your secret place?





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