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Wais​-​ke​-​Shaw

from Land of Promise by Jacob Mau

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lyrics

Come Kankakeeland hear the tale of a woman who once did dwell in the river valley you also call your home. Her hair was black. Her skin was brown. Her people no longer are around. They were sent away by the government in '36.

You’ve heard her father’s name a time or a few, driven past the sign on route 102. Shaw-naw-See the man at the village of Little Rock. He fought with the Brits in 1812, hunted the Sauk with the Americans, and traded furs with two French men from Michigan. 

For one of those men she became a bride, handed from her father's side to secure good trade relations and they bore a son. Her boy's half-Anglo blood could not measure enough to gain the favor of her husband's hungry clan.

Wais-ke-shaw, from where did you come? I came from a strong, proud tribe of the Green Bay peninsula. For I was born, my family came south. In search of better game we came to the Illinois prairie.

David was her husband's name, down from the upper lakes he came to make his wage from a fur company based in Chicago. Shaw-naw-see placed his trust in him. They struck a deal, they became kin. Even joined in war to fight a brother tribe led by Black Hawk.

But for their tainted vows the end was near, a means to an end it soon was clear. New migrant farmers needed land to plant their crops. So David reserved land for his wife before smallpox took his life, and when her father followed she was left alone with her mixed-blood kids.

With Shaw-naw-see in his grave, David left her from his will, and the land passed into the hands of his uncle who with a grin said to her, “Tippecanoe and Tyler too, they signed the papers, what can I do? This land was sold and subdivided on the day you wed.”

Wais-ke-shaw, where did you go? I headed south on an autumn day with 700 others. Wais-ke-shaw where are you now? I am buried neath a small, smooth stone outside Topeka.

credits

from Land of Promise, released July 4, 2013

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Jacob Mau Chicago, Illinois

Jacob Mau spins compelling stories of misfit people and misplaced landscapes oft overlooked by others, and ignored by history. As this year's winner of Chicago's longest-running open mic competition, hosted annually by Uncommon Ground, he is clearly a standout among the city's best singer-songwriters. Good things await this young musician."

-Scott Schaefer
Label Manager
Bloodshot Records ... more

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