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                   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.