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Potato Song​/​Moccasin Song​/​Shi'naasha'​/​K'adnikini'ya'

from Navajo Songs From Canyon De Chelly by New World Records

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Potato Song: Sung strictly for enjoyment, a free translation is: "A White man planted some big potatoes. When he saw the white blossoms he said 'Hallo, Jaani"' (Huenemann, p.46). It means that he thought of Navajos (Ja'ani') as seasonal agricultural workers. The form for this and many other social songs is a short introduction, followed by AA (repeated refrain in vocables) and BB (verses in Navajo), ending with A (refrain with cadential marker).

Moccasin Song: A Squaw Dance song for the Face to Face Dance (form: introduction, AABA), this again has translatable words only in the B section. They speak of a husband making pretty moccasins for his wife to go walking.

Shi'naasha': Probably the most famous of all Navajo songs, and of historical value because it was composed when the Navajos were released in 1868 from four years of internment at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The text expresses the joy of the people to be returning to their homeland. Unlike the case in many other Navajo songs, almost every syllable is translatable. The Navajo word ho'zho'ni' ("beauty"), which occurs several times, is heard frequently in the texts of longer ceremonial songs.

K'adnikini'ya': A ceremonial song used to close the last night of the Squaw Dance, and also composed during the time of the Navajo exile at Fort Sumner. Although the song is in the familiar form (introduction, AABA'), the word k'adnikini'ya' ("I'm leaving") from A and the phrase hozhon'go ("beautiful" or "holy") k'adnikini'ya' are a litany in B, the verse section.

credits

from Navajo Songs From Canyon De Chelly, released January 1, 1990
Singer: Kee Chee Jake; Chorus: Frank Jishie Jr., Raymond K.Yazzie, Sam Yazzie Jr. (rattle), Sam Yazzie Sr. (leader and drummer).

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New World Records Brooklyn, New York

Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., which records under the label New World Records, was founded in 1975.

We are dedicated to the documentation of American music that is largely ignored by the commercial recording companies.

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