Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Watch Songs that Speak: Catawba Indian Nation Songs, Context and Colonization: youtu.be/Er715P5L63E
Learn to sing “Tαnakɛ Kučin:” and the Catawba Counting Song: youtu.be/eT6MN2HTBjc

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*WHERE ELSE YOU CAN FIND ME*
TikTok: @songspeaksaro
Instagram: @songspeaksaro
Website: sarosings.com/​​
Facebook: facebook.com/sarosings​​

*Credits*
Producer and Editor: Saro Lynch-Thomason
Videography & Editing: Jennifer Bennett, jenbenmedia.com
Special guest: Roo/DeLesslin George-Warren, delesslin.com

Find out the names of the Indigenous peoples on whose traditional territory you live: native-land.ca
Catawba Indian Nation- catawba.com
Learn the Catawba Language- catawbalanguage.org
A message from Roo: “Catawba language, for the most part, is one where we are very sharing of it. My sense is if you are on Catawba land, you should learn how to speak Catawba. Learn some Catawba so you can talk to me next time!”

*LYRICS*
I Am Going to the West

In this fair land I’ll stay no more
Here labor is in vain
I’ll leave the mountains of my birth
And seek the fertile plain

CHORUS
I am going to the west
You say you will not go with me
You turn your eyes away
You say you will not follow me
No matter what I say
I’m going to the west

Three years have passed since we first met
Since you became my bride
Now I must journey far away
Without you by my side

CHORUS

I’ll leave you here in this land you love
Mid scenes so bright and fair
Where there is singing, there is laughter
And music fills the air

CHORUS