SURVIVING THROUGH THE DAYS "ss2.34"

for those interested in California Indian singing traditions. Cora Du Bois's “Wintu Ethnography” and Du Bois and Dorothy Demetracopoulou's “Wintu Myths” are both important sources of cultural information. Harvey Pitkin has published a Wintu Grammar and Wintu Dictionary. Alice Shepherd's Wintu Texts presents narratives in Wintu with English translations. Finally, there is the collection of McKibbin's singing and storytelling, In My Own Words: Stories, Songs, and Memories of Grace McKibbin, Wintu.

Three Love Songs and a Cry Song

1. Love Song: “Oh my Father,
what will you do?”

	A good-size girl, must have been about seventeen or eighteen,
	She fell in love with one of the guys
	and they had a Big Time
	and they belong some place up in Oregon, I guess,
	Oregon Indians it must have been.
	And she fell in love with one of them
	and she was going to foller them,
	go where they go with them.
	And she sing this song.
	Told her dad, she said,
	“Dad,” she said—
	“Name those guys's name,
	Indian name,”
	and she said, “I'm going too,”
	she said, “They're going up,” she says,
	“My Dad,” she say, “I don't know,” she say,
	“don't know what you're going to do,” she say.
	“I'm going to leave you.”
	And she sung this song:

	henini ninini
	henini ninini

― 225 ―

EX. 1. Musical transcription of first love song.

EX. 2. Musical transcription of second love song.

EX. 3. Musical transcription of third love song.

EX. 4. Musical transcription of cry song.

― 226 ―

	henini ninini
	henini ninini

	henini ninini
	henini ninini

	Oh my father, what will you do?
	Oh my father, what will you do?

	The younger Elc'o:dis danced, and I'm going north,
	The younger Elc'o:dis danced, and I'm going north.

	Oh my father, what will you do?
	Oh my father, what will you do?

	Heyano heyano. Oh my father,
	Oh my father, what will you do?

2. LOVE SONG: “THERE! THERE! HE'S COMING!”

	Well I'll sing that little girl's song again.
	One that's maybe a love song for the brother-in-law …

	hinini nini nini nini
	hinini nini nini nini

	hinini nini nini nini
	hinini nini nini nini

	There! There! He's coming!
	There! There! He's coming!

	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming,
	There! There! He's coming!

	Southwest upstream on the side of the hill,
	Southwest upstream on the side of the hill.

	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming,
	There! There! He's coming!

	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming,
	There! There! He's coming!

― 227 ―

	hinini nini nini nini
	hinini nini nini nini

	hinini nini nini nini
	hinini nini nini nini

	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming,
	There! There! He's coming!
	Southwest upstream on the side of the hill.

	Southwest upstream on the side of the hill,
	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming.

	There! There! He's coming!
	There! There! He's coming!

	hinini nini nini nini
	hinini nini nini nini

	My brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, he's coming,
	There! There! He's coming!

	Southwest upstream on the side of the hill,
	There! There! He's coming!

[Alice Shepherd: That's one of my favorite songs.]

[Laughter]

	That little girl she must have been about ten or twelve years old.
	Her sister told her her husband killed this big buck
	way up in the canyon
	And came home, said he wanted her to go [help him]
	pack that buck,
	And his wife had acorn soup,
	She was takin' the bitter out of it
	puttin' the water in it you know?
	So she left her little sister to stay home,
	says, “I'm gonna help him pack this big buck,”
	And she said to her,
	said, “You pour the water into the acorn soup,
	so it'll take all the bitter out.”

― 228 ―

	She said it'll be late when they get back.
	Meantime she said, “Try to get some wood,
	get some wood before it's dark.”
	So she's gatherin' the wood up
	and puttin' water in the acorn soup,
	And she start about this song,
	Make up this love song about her brother-in-law
	killin' that big buck, she's tickled. [Laughs]

	So that's where brother-in-law's comin',
	Around that hillside.
	West Canyon,
	She said he's comin' in,
	He killed that buck,
	That's where he's coming.
	She's sing away.
	And when they was comin' down close they could hear her sing,
	Just as loud as she could sing.

[Laughter]

3. LOVE SONG: “FLYING NORTH WITH THE GEESE”

	This is what old mother sing,
	Kind of a sad song, I guess,
	she felt bad 'cause her daughter went o and left her,
	Went to Klamath someplace.
	She's gonna leave,
	she's leaving, and this
	mother
	start to sing this song.

[Hums]

This song.

	hiní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

― 229 ―

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	Flying down north with the geese,
	Oh, my child, stop a while and look back at me!

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	Flying down north with the geese,
	Oh, my child, stop a while and look back at me!

	Oh, my child, stop a while and look back at me!
	Flying down north with the geese,

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	hiní ní niní niní ní niní
	hiní ní niní niní ní niní

	Flying down north with the geese,
	Oh, my child, stop a while and look back at me!

	Oh, my child, stop a while and look back at me!
	Flying down north with the geese.

hinini

[Laughs]

	It's 'cause she done the same thing the girl [in the first song] did.
	She had a boyfriend she's following and went down
	north someplace.
	Klamath Indian, I guess.

― 230 ―

	And this mother said,
	called them guys that,
	the way she sing called them guys that [were] there,
	GEESE.
	Geese, when the geese fly down,
	the geese fly down
	north, she said—
	she's follerin' them, you know,
	her daughter is follerin' them,
	she said,
	“Please look back before you go.”
	Said, “Please look back.”
	Yole means
	‘Look
	back a while.’

4. CRY SONG: “WHICH TRAIL SHOULD I TAKE TO
GO OVER THE HILL?”

	My grandpa's song that he
	lost his wife,
	And he had—
	my dad was about four years old I guess, four to five years old,
	and my uncle must have been just about,
	no, my aunt was about
	three,

	and my uncle was about,
	must have been going on two, he was a baby.
	So he was living on the Wildwood Road, then he sold his horses,
	most of them,
	And he sold his
	two cows he had;
	Then he loaded up,
	he couldn't do nothing you know with them three kids;
	while he had his brother-in-law with him he babysat,
	and he sold his horses and cows,

― 231 ―

	And he
	got ready, and he
	went to Shasta County with them
	where his sister was.
	Then they was going over the
	mountain,
	up towards East Fork, and he couldn't go up there,
	on Chilula Trail
	over to Harrison Gulch, Shasta County, you know?
	He went up the Wildwood, but,
	There was snow,
	four foot of snow;
	hard to see where the horse stepped.
	And he—
	he said,
	he telling me after I grew up, he said he didn't know what to do.
	And he said he just started thinking about this song,
	singing a song,
	going over the mountain.
	So he sing this song,
	about himself you know,
	which road,
	which trail would he go over,
	on the Hazelpatch Ridge or the
	Wildwood Road.

	South Trail,
	And,
	he said he think he'd better take the South Trail,
	that's the way this sounds,
	the word is.
	“I guess I'll take the South Trail and go over the hill.
	I wonder which trail shall I take?”
	So he took the Wildwood trail,
	the lower one you know,
	a little ways to go over the heavy snow.
	He had
	one of the oldest boys,

― 232 ―

	packed right into the
	pack horse, you know?
	Right in the middle, and had him tied down,
	bundled him up
	and tied him down.
	Then he had the littler one sitting in the front of him,
	all wrapped up;
	And one of them behind the saddle,
	all wrapped up.
	So that's the way he led them.
	He led the horses,
	the one the little boy is riding, my dad's riding.
	And then one of the pack horses packing, and he followed.
	So that's the way he went.
	And
	he sing this song …

	ní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	ní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	ní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	I guess I'll take the South Trail over the hill.

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	ní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	I guess I'll take the South Trail over the hill.

	aní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

― 233 ―

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	I guess I'll take the South Trail over the hill.

	ní:yo: aní:yo:
	aní:yo: aní:yo:

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	I guess I'll take the south trail over the hill.

	I guess I'll take the south trail over the hill.
	I guess I'll take the south trail over the hill.

	Which trail should I take to go over the hill?
	I guess I'll take the south trail over the hill.

Which trail should I take to go over the hill?

	He didn't know which way to go.
	Thinking about his little kids,
	little bitty ones.

He made it, though.

	Snow was deep.
	And he buried his wife in the deep snow, you know.
	And there someplace where the
	sun hit and thawed out,
	under the trees,
	and he buried my grandmother up there,
	Wildwood Road,
	up there at
	oh, Fox Farm,
	that's where he was staying.
	To this day—
	well, before I got blind,
	I tried to find that place, I couldn't find it.
	He said it was at the other tree.
	People lives there, I think they builded a shed on that grave.
	But the Forest Service asked me if I
	know where it was

― 234 ―

	they'd put a fence around it.
	Only way to do is dig 'em out, I guess,
	and find out.

	I don't know what she died from.
	Just
	died.
	Them days there used to be a lot of sickness you know.

FURTHER READING