Songs of Humankind #1: Love Letters to God

Every revolution needs songs of justice, joy, and friendship.

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To accompany our Humankind book salon, we will share seven songs by Nahko and Medicine for the People over the course of seven weeks, along with my commentary and lyrics for each song. If you want to contribute to our Songs of Humankind Spotify playlist, please share your song with us!

Hello friends,

Nahko first crashed into my consciousness in the spring of 2017. I was attending with friends the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, the world’s largest Native American “powwow”. I loved the costumes, the dancing, the pageantry. I didn’t love the music. So when we returned to the arena partway through the event and found a band playing gorgeous, soaring folk-pop, the contrast was electric—and delightful.

“What is this??”, we all asked. The answer was “Nahko and Medicine for the People” and wow, what a revelation. I instantly became a fan—and then quickly an evangelist. The Nahko catalog was my Resistance music during Trump 1.0, and now, alas, it is being called on again for emotional sustenance, under even more dire circumstances.

Eight years on, I’m still shamelessly peddling this amazing musical medicine. Nahko’s story is a tragic, yet triumphant one. His mother was raped at 14 and she gave him up for adoption. His Apache-Puerto Rican-Filipino heritage was heavily diluted in the suburban Portland community his white, evangelical family raised him in. But a reconnection with his mother—and then his Apache grandmother—reactivated his Native American roots to richly influence his burgeoning musicianship.

His adoptive father died early, and before he could meet his natural father, that parent was murdered. One of his songs, which I shall later introduce, is called “San Quentin” and tells the story of Nahko visiting the fabled prison to meet his father’s murderer—and to forgive him.

Nahko has recorded four albums with the full band, along with one solo album. I will introduce you to one favorite song each week for the next seven weeks to supplement our reading and conversations in the book salon for Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.

The first is, fittingly, the song that filled Tingley Coliseum with fascination and wonder eight springs ago, “Love Letters to God”:

Love Letters to God

Nakho & Medicine for the People (2016)

[Verse 1]

Give, always give what you can

Even if your allies draw lines in the sand

And dig, always dig a little deeper

Sometimes it’s hard to be my brother’s keeper

Love. So you let love in

Baby, I am home in the weight of your skin, and it’s crazy

How we wear our ceremony

Always be open to your path and your journey

Yes, she cradles my loneliness

A home in a forest nest

Universal test, feel the weight of my love

Put your hand on my chest

And rest, in the cradle of my arms

The battle that we face is the place where our scars come from

And to pick up the gun

My love, we are destined to teach these ones to be brave

And never run away

Courage is birthed from the womb at the first light of day

Yeah, the day you were born, you came out perfect

Never meant to be torn

In silence, never been so loud in the violence

Never been so proud of a people

When we’re fighting for a change

Not afraid to lose it all despite all the rage

We are animals

And we cannot be caged

Provoke us to fight

So we burn a little sage and write poetry

Wiser than the enemy will ever be

The minority

And authority

Are you here to protect or arrest me?

I can’t tolerate the hate, and I'm losing sleep

Can’t breathe, cuz they’re choking out a war in me

Immorality

[Chorus]

Love letters to God

Wonder if she reads them or if they get lost

In the stars, the stars, in the starsSo many parts to a heavy heart

If there’s no beginning, then where would you start?

Start, start, where would you start?

[Verse 2]

Human souls, so we carve them into totem poles

Because we’re always searching for a certain goal

A pattern of physics, a role

Don’t believe all you’re told

And open

Open up your fist

A misconception you can fight like this

In praise, with the power of prayer

If God’s on our side, we can take the stairs

To the heavens

Flipping through my Chapter Seven

I live with the snakes in the great deception

No court in this country for me

Who steal from their Mother on paper with pen

And we’re tripping

Down a red dirt road

And we’re asking

Is this the way we should go?

Kissing, soft-topped feet of my goddess

We walk the earth, baby, yeah we got this

Focus, and it’s redirected

Grateful, and I’m resurrected

Stubborn, but I know the way

You’re the skin of my drum

To your rhythm I will sway

Take my hand

I won’t lead you astray

We will not go gently into the darkest of days

Grandma’s here, and she says persevere

Take a walk in her moccs, taste the Trail of Tears

And our fears, are the same as they ever were

Beers, numb the pain of a holocaust

Gears, always marvel in motion

Maybe, baby, be an island or an ocean

Your arches, how they bend and contract on my conscience

Never slipped through the grip of my thesis

And my theory is I shine in your presence

A deliverance

[Chorus]

Love letters to God

Wonder if she reads them or if they get lost

In the stars, the stars, in the stars

So many parts to a heavy heart

If there’s no beginning, then where would you start?

Start, start, where would you start?