Few figures in 17^th century New England were more polarizing than Roger Williams (1603-83); religious leader, founder of Rhode Island, and general troublemaker. In 1643 his book A Key to the Language of America was published in England. This work, a sort of thematically organized word list, was the first to publish elements of a North American Indigenous language. An interesting feature of the Key is the short English poems that conclude each section. Certainly, Williams was not a major poet, but his verses have a characteristic home-spun charm that can resonate today. All are religious, in a perfectly orthodox way, but are remarkable for their constant conceit of comparing the “English” with the“Indian”, invariably to the advantage of the Indigenous. Williams’s respect and engagement with Indigenous people is a remarkable aspect of his life and work, and though happening within the context of an early modern  colonial world-view, it deserves recognition as both empathetic, and convinced of the innate worth of his Native American neighbors.

When Emmanuel Music commissioned an “Emmanuel Motet” in summer of 2025 I wanted to celebrate the Boston-based organization’s historic commitment the Bach Cantatas by setting a text both Christian and Baroque, and yet in some way related to local Indigenous populations. This was not without its challenges, but as a composer who is Oklahoma Choctaw, it felt important.Williams’s little poems provided the key—literally given the title of his book, and Rev. Pamela Werntz suggested that the Poem, “Parts of the Body”would work well liturgically. I have taken the liberty of renaming the poem, and have called the motet, Of One Blood.

Of One Blood is a relatively short setting of a relatively short poem, just a pair of quatrains, and that structure is easily heard in the motet.  Bach-like choral style music is juxtaposed with a passage of imitative polyphony. The harmony of the motet is quite triadic, but those familiar chords are used in a slightly unhinged way at mirrors the intensity of Williams’s poem.

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