Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
I'll live as a warrior
and die as a Crow.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!¹
It's a good day to go.
Death rides our back
from the time of our birth,
and nothing lives long
except mountains and earth.
Death I can face.
What I can't bear
is the look on my people
of pain and despair!
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
Ma-heo-o²...my prayer,
help me to lessen
my people's despair.
No food for your children,
the black, large-beaked birds³;
just skulls on the prairie.
All gone, the brown herds.
Killed off by skin hunters
and seekers who lust
for the Sioux Sacred Hills
and the bright yellow dust.
They crave the Black Hills
where the Great Spirits stay.
I will fight to the death.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
With sacred sweet root
sanctifying my skin
and paint on my face,
let the battle begin.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
Ma-heo-o, my cry,
"Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
It's a good day to die".
Bette Wolf Duncan
copyright©March1,2006
and die as a Crow.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!¹
It's a good day to go.
Death rides our back
from the time of our birth,
and nothing lives long
except mountains and earth.
Death I can face.
What I can't bear
is the look on my people
of pain and despair!
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
Ma-heo-o²...my prayer,
help me to lessen
my people's despair.
No food for your children,
the black, large-beaked birds³;
just skulls on the prairie.
All gone, the brown herds.
Killed off by skin hunters
and seekers who lust
for the Sioux Sacred Hills
and the bright yellow dust.
They crave the Black Hills
where the Great Spirits stay.
I will fight to the death.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
With sacred sweet root
sanctifying my skin
and paint on my face,
let the battle begin.
Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
Ma-heo-o, my cry,
"Hóka Hey! Hóka Hey!
It's a good day to die".
Bette Wolf Duncan
copyright©March1,2006
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