"Red River Valley": Edith Fowke's Text

Edith Fowke is the Canadian folklorist whose research has established that the venerable Great Plains folksong, "Red River Valley," originated not along the river that forms the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma but rather along the one that forms the boundary between North Dakota and Minnesota and, of course, empties into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. The song is associated with the Métis rebellion of 1869, commonly known as the Red River Rebellion.

The text here provided is one published in the Calgary Herald and discovered by Hugh Dempsey of the Glenbow Museum in the papers of Col. Gilbert E. Sanders, a former Mountie. Fowke published it in Western Folklore in 1964 and considered it "typical of various other early versions."

This is not a very politically correct text, but I trust you understand that this is an Anglo-Canadian document lifted from historical context.

O consider awhile ere you leave me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
But remember the Red River Valley,
And the half-breed that loved you so true.

It's a long time, you know, I've been waiting
For the words that you never did say,
But alas! all my fond hopes have vanished,
For they say you are going away.

From this valley they say you are going,
I shall miss your blue eyes and sweet smile,
And you take with you all of the sunshine
That has brightened my pathway awhile.

So remember the valley you're leaving,
How lonely and dreary 'twill be;
Remember the heart you are breaking
And be true to your promise to me.

As you go to your home by the ocean
May you never forget those sweet hours
That we spent in the Red River valley
And the love we exchanged 'mid its bowers.

There could never be such a longing
In the heart of a pale maiden's breast
As dwells in the heart you are breaking
With love for the boy who came west.

And the dark maiden's prayer for her lover
To the Spirit that rules all this world
Is that sunshine his pathway may cover
And the grief of the Red River Girl.

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