Omaha Tribal Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Wakonda dhedhu Wapadin atonhe (x2)." Or "Wakantanka, Wakantanka, Dé Doo, Aton-Hé, Wapatain, Aton-Hé. The singer prays to "the Father" (God? The Great Spirit?) that he is "needy" and stands before the Father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Ernest Thompson Seton, The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore)
KEYWORDS: religious foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 144-145, "Omaha Tribal Prayer" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 59, "Omaha Tribal Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ernest Thompson Seton, _The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore_, Doubleday Page & Company, 1912, 1921(available on Google Books), p. 61, "The Omaha Tribal Prayer" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [67 words]: It looks to me as if all widely-known versions of this derive from Seton's book, and it appears that Seton's version has been Christianized. But that is only a guess.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 145, seems to imply that the scout anthem by Helen Gerrish Hughes which begins "We come, we come to our council fire" is derived from this. But the only real evidence is that both use the word "Wakonda." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF144O

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