(Chorus sung in Cree)
Grandfather I want to walk where you have walked Grandfather I want to see where you hunted Grandmother I want to sleep where you made a home Grandmother I want to know how to live my life
(Verse: Cree)
Grandfathers and Ancestors I will speak briefly so lend me your ear I will tell you of the talk about the Youth that isn't the truth That we don't care about the Cree culture
That we don't care about the hunt That we don't care about the Cree values And that we don't care about the Cree way of life We are sent down south to get an education With the expectance that we will help our communities And become fighters and protect the Cree land But it's being destroyed before we can come home Where will we be able to hunt so that we can be the true Cree that we were meant to be
(Verse: English)
Everything that we as a Cree people are today
Is in the hands of a generation that is passing away
All of our legends, our stories and traditional ways
Are threatened by the arrival of the modern day
What will we then become when we've lost touch with our roots
When the last of our great rivers has a fatal rendezvous
And the trees that once spoke are silenced once and for all When the spirits that led us here bear witness to our great fall
How will we define ourselves to our children and grandchildren If the legends of greatness become stories of loss and regrets If ceremonies become a thing of the past The dreams we try to hold onto will not last But the day will come for the drums to be played The songs of our elders will be sung and their memories will stay strong
And speak to us in dreams showing us the way to believe
So we will have a chance to be like them
As the descendants of the last great men
(Chorus Cree)
(Verse: English)
*Nuhkuu I thought I heard you say that the time has come For you to pack your things and make your way back home To the land of the Cree, journey back to the place where the heart runs free Where the sun sets on a pure horizon, where the rain falls on the land providing Where the trees talk to the children passing, where the spirits walk you'll be arriving And I'm left standing by a river once strong I can see its bones but the strength's all gone So I'm forced upon my own reflection But I can't see myself in the contamination Could this be what I've become, the still memory of a once proud grandson I want to go where you're going too but I'm stuck here trying to figure out the truth
*Nuumshu I now turn to you I can see the trail but I can't find you I can feel the tears but I refuse to cry, I can feel the fear but I'm going to keep trying To keep up with you and stay right behind, this just can't be where I'm meant to die If I could just remember everything that you spoke to me Then maybe I would have just a little more hope in me Eastbound, with the last of my faith I can see your spirit in the suns first grace
*N'danshkuushiimch I see you now when I look to the north, west, east and south I think I understand why you went back home now Making the trail that I'm going to find somehow And I know that we'll meet again because I'm the grandson of the last great men
(Chorus Cree)