Winner of the Ninth Annual Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest and Festival, where it was performed November 14, 1987 in Ford Auditorium at Ithaca College by the Horseheads High School Choir, conducted by Chuck Griffeth.

Text

Oh ye Sun, Moon, Stars, all ye that move in the heavens, I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life. Consent ye, I implore.
Make its path smooth that it may reach the brow of the first hill!

Oh ye Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all ye that move in the air, I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life. Consent ye I implore.
Make its path smooth that it may reach the brow of the second hill!

Oh ye Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes, Trees, Grasses, all ye of the earth, I bid you
hear me! Into your midst has come a new life. Consent ye I implore.
Make its path smooth that it may reach the brow of the third hill!

Oh all ye of the heavens, Oh all ye of the air, oh all ye of the earth; I bid you all
to hear me! Into your midst has come a new life. Consent ye all I implore.
Make its path smooth that it may travel beyond the four hills!

Source:

This text appeared in the Bureau of American Ethnology’s 27th Annual Report, a ethnography entitled The Omaha Tribe, published in 1911, and authored by “Alice C. Fletcher, Holder of the Thaw Fellowship, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and Francis La Flesche, A Member of the Omaha Tribe.”