Prayers In A Song

I feel the latent effects of assimilation

Inner city Native raised by bright lights, sky scrapers

Born with dim prospects, little peace in living

As a child, hot headed about the fact I wasn't wild

Like they called my ancestors, imagined what it'd be

To live nomadic off the land and free

Instead I was full of heat like a furnace cause I wasn't furnished

With language and traditional ways of my peeps

Yeah I used to feel like I wasn't truly indigenous

Now I say miigwech gichi-manidoo

For showing me my true roots, definitely Native

Take responsibility for being educated

My people and customs originating from early phases

Of history it's, deeper than frybread and contest pow-wows

Tears shed in the sweat lodge, prayers go out to all those I've wronged

And who have wronged me, gotta treat 'em like family

Gichi-manido wiidookawishin

Ji-mashkawiziyaan mii dash bami'idiziyaan

Miizhishinaam zaagi'iiwewin

Ganoozh ishinaam, bizindaw ishinaam

Mii-wenji nagamoyaan

Nimishomis wiidookawishinaam

Ji-aabajitooyaang anishinaabe izhitwaawin

Mii-ji-bi-gikendamaan keyaa anishinaabe bimaadiziwin

Becoming aware of a heart beats fragility

So I, pray for my creator's will and humility

It seems my prayer's weak I can't speak, not a linguist

Does he hear my English when I vent I fear the answer to the question

This is symbolic of anguish I feel regarding language

And the obligation of revitalizing something sacred

Failure to carry through is disgracing a nation

My first tongue's in need of a face lift but

Deciphering conjugation's like trying to find

My way through a maze in the matrix, complex

Hard to start without an end aside from being fluent

I gotta push the limit if I'm gonna keep pursuing

So I, use it in a way that relates to my life and vocab

Bring some entertainment to it, spit it on a track

And I take it out the class, can't let what I lack

Become a self-defeating habit that'll make me want to quit