Terry Wildman
Exactly. So, when you come to selah, we put an honor beat on the drum as the written form. And I’m hoping that when we actually speak this, and a lot of our native people will, they will actually hit the drum in those places.
David Capes
So, the Lumbee people get together, they’ll read the Psalms, and they’ll have somebody ready on the drum. What would that be like? What would that sound like? Is there a Psalm you could read for us with that emphasis?
Terry Wildman
We do have a psalm that has the honor beat on the drum. Unfortunately, I don’t have the drum with me, for you to hear it. I’ll read Psalm 84 up into that point. What’s interesting too is some Psalms have an introduction to them like this one. But we say
“For the head ceremonial singer. Then on this one we say, on a hand drum, a clan song.”
Which is the Hebrew word maskil of the descendants of bald-headed man, Korah.
Terry Wildman
I’ll read this up into the point of the honor beat to give us a feeling of it.
Grandfather, Chief of Spirit Warriors, your sacred places are filled with much love and beauty. With my dying breath, my whole being longs to gather in the village gathering place of grandfather. With my whole heart and body, I dance and sing for joy before the living Great Spirit. For near your sacred altars, the winged ones of the air make their home and the swallow builds a nest for her young. For you are Grandfather, Chief of Spirit Warriors, my honored chief and creator. Harmony and balance belong to those who make your longhouse their home again and again. They gave praise to you.
Honor beat on the drum.
David Capes
Fantastic. That’s really an interesting way of thinking about that Psalm. Let me just ask a few questions. I noticed that you addressed the Great Spirit. In Hebrew that’s Elohim, and it’s often translated as simply “God”. And then there were times that you talked about the Great Chief, and another time, Grandfather. How did you come up with those particular references, those addresses to God?
Terry Wildman
It’s the same as the New Testament. We didn’t feel constricted that whenever the general word for deity
was used. In the Greek, it’s kyrios, in the Hebrew, it’s El or Elohim. But we felt that when you come to that word, that’s a general word that’s used for other deities. Also, sometimes we felt like it would be good to use the way different tribes of our native people refer to the Great Spirit, to God. So, we use Great Spirit. We use Creator, Elohim. And when you come to Adonai, which is “Lord” in the English translations, that’s where we come into our “Honored Chief.”
David Capes
So Adonai becomes Honored Chief.
Terry Wildman
We tried to capture as close to the Hebrew as we could when we come to the sacred Hebrew name for the Creator, YHWH. Some scholars say it could be pronounced “Yahweh.” We did something the Jewish people do. They don’t say that name traditionally, right?
David Capes
Right. In English translations, usually it’s LORD in all capital letters, to distinguish it from Adonai.
Terry Wildman
Yes, the LORD is a title of honor, respect and dignity. But it’s not used by native people. And the reason they don’t is because the way the gospel came by way of European settlers. The way “lord” and “kings” were used, became for us a takeover, an oppression. We were oppressed under lords. And so that’s why, in this translation, we stayed away from the title Lord for God.
But we looked for this unique name. We wanted people to know this is very unique. We wanted to use something in the Old Testament for that name to replace it, like the Hebrew people do, but with something that would relate to our Native people. A title that carries honor, respect, dignity and intimacy. Many of our tribes, my own tribe, use grandfather. In my language, it’s “Mishoomis”, Grandfather. And many times when we pray, before we’d say our prayers, we would welcome grandfather from all the directions. It’s honoring, that he’s everywhere, you know. So we chose “Grandfather.” We had a lot of discussion about this, but we finally settled on it for the term Yahweh, or YHWH, the divine name.
David Capes
The divine name, exactly. So Grandfather represents that to you, and it’s a term that you are already familiar with. A Catholic priest friend of mine says a word like “God” is a box that people put things into. A Muslim can refer to God, and a Christian and a Jew, and they all mean something a little different by that very word. But what I hear you doing in this translation, is taking the categories of honor and dignity and, in a sense, intimacy, and making that relationally with one who is close to you. That’s really an
interesting choice.
Terry Wildman
Black Elk is a Lakota man, a holy man, and became a follower of Jesus in his later years. He actually said that “Grandfather” was an intimate way to refer to the Creator, to the Supreme Being.
David Capes
In the New Testament, Jesus references and Paul does as well, “Abba. Abba, Father,” which carries a sense of intimacy. Some have said it’s like Daddy. One who’s close, not dad or father, but daddy, kind of closeness. I think that’s probably going a little too far, but I do think there’s a sense of intimacy to that fascinating translation. There’s a lot of interest in it, both among native people and non-native people, in churches and academicians as well. When do you think this translation might be out?
Terry Wildman
We finished the work on the translation and turned it over to InterVarsity Press, our publisher. They are in the process that they go through to get it published, which means they’re going to have it read it over and over again. They’re going to ask us more questions and finally, they’re anticipating perhaps summer of 2025 summer.
David Capes
That’ll be great. I am so happy to meet you and Darlene face to face. Now you guys are also musicians. Darlene plays the Native flute, and you play guitar. You guys are on Bandcamp and you’ve got CDs. So everyone look on Bandcamp for “Rain Song.” That’s the name of your group.
Terry Wildman
Yes, Darlene and I are a musical duel called “Rain Song,” and you can find it on rainsongmusic.com. On our website you can find all of our music and it will point you to Bandcamp. Or you can go to firstnationsversion.com. It’s the same website.
David Capes
It’s a delight to meet you. Thanks for being here and being a part of our conversation today about the upcoming Psalms and Proverbs, Translation from the First Nation Version. Terry Wildman, thanks so much.
Terry Wildman
Terry speaks Ojibwe and translates, “Thank you for listening.”
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
