Cherokee Hymn (I Have a Father in the Prog Ni Lo)

DESCRIPTION: "I have a father in the prog ni lo, And you have a father in the prog ni lo, We all have a father in the prog ni lo." "Nee I ravy, Nee-shi, nee-shi ni-go, Three I three-by an shee prog no lo." "I have a (brother/mother/sister) in the prog ni lo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 658, "Cherokee Hymn" (1 text, supposedly partly in Cherokee; "Prog Ni Lo" is said to be Cherokee for "Promised Land")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 658, notes only
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 51-52, "Nishi" (1 short text, 1 tune, with different words but it appears to be a much-distorted version of the same idea)
Roud #4213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Way Over in the Promised Land (I)" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Roud lumps Brown's version with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)" (and does not index the Riddle version). I don't see it. Abrahams notes that several American collections regard this as a Native American song, which he notes "defies explanation unless it was used by missionaries."
To me, it looks like an adaption of "Way Over in the Promised Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Br3658

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