Worksheet # 6 Home Questions Puzzle Links Next
TRIBES OF THE WOODLANDS
While in the thick wooded
lands, of birch and of pine,
Lived formidable tribes,
like the Iroquois kind.
Who were skilled at the hunt
and the trapping of furs,
And in steering canoes on Great Lakes and rivers.
Whose member nations were
several and strong
And were known for their
houses, sturdy and long,
Where the home-fires burned
and did gather a brood,
Ten families per roof, --
indeed, a tight neighborhood.
And with their rooms set in rows
for each family
To cook and to clean and to
live happily.
A life thick with friends
and so quick with assistance,
As help for each chore was
but three feet of distance.
Tribes shared space as they
could, so they might hunt in peace,
-- But it wasnÕt so easy
keeping members at ease.
Indeed, came the times they
would bicker and squawk,
And soon get to fighting,
those Oneida and Mohawk.
Until one holy high priest, Hiawatha his name,
Arranged for a conference
and everyone came.
A new council was formed and
to everyoneÕs joy
Disputes were then settled
by The League Iroquois.
And should the ways of this league seem oddly to echo,
Go glance at a paper that
every student should know,
As the words, ÒWe, the
people, to form a union,Ó
Were gladly borrowed for the
U.S. Constitution.
Superb athletes as well,
the Iroquois gathered to play
Fierce games of lacrosse, which would last through the day.
As they played with high fury, with great passion and love,
And with hopes it brought joy to
gods watching above.
And thus stirred the land when
the land was wild
And our proud native
cousins, its only child,
Who first tamed these shores
and tended its soils
In its bravest beginnings
and its earliest toils.