Robbie Robertson

Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit
If I thought you were sent by the creator
I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me
Do not misunderstand me
But understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land
I never said the land was mine to do with as I choose
The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who has created it

I claim a right to live on my land
And accord you the privilege to return to yours
Brother we have listened to your talk
Coming from our father the great White Chief at Washington
And my people have called upon me to reply to you
And in the winds which pass through these aged pines
We hear the moanings of their departed ghosts

And if the voice of our people could have been heard
That act would never have been done
But alas though they stood around they could neither be seen or heard
Their tears fell like drops of rain
I hear my voice in the depths of the forest
But no answering voice comes back to me
All is silent around me
My words must therefore be few
I can now say no more

He is silent for he has nothing to answer when the sun goes down

With eyes of fire No one can see The smoke from the sweet grass Covers me I am drawn I am drawn to her Like a moth to flame She leads me down Unbound I am lost I am lost Has anybody seen me I am lost Oh nothing is forgotten Only left behind Wherever I am She leads me down Unbound No borders No fences No walls No borders No fences Unbound Oh, listen for the night chant Oh, listen for the night chant Like a moth to flame She leads me down Unbound No borders No fences Unbound No borders No fences Unbound Unbound

Welcome to my country
Welcome to my home
You could stay forever
You won't leave it alone

Welcome to the bush
Take what you may need
When shove comes to push
You want me to leave

[CHORUS:]
I can't let go of the painted desert
I can't let go of the old way
I can't let go of the homeland
It's in the blood I can't let go

I can stand up through your destruction
My voice will tremble
My hands will shake
Yes I can stand up through your destruction
I won't break
I won't break

I could hear the voices
I could hear the voices
I could hear the voices
Coming through the night

[CHORUS]

Sweat it out, sweat it out
Let it out, let it out
Sweat it out
Let it out
Get it outta my head

[CHORUS:]
I can't let go of the painted desert
I can't let go of the old way
I can't let go of the ancient ways
It's in the blood I can't let go
It's in the blood
It's in the blood I can't let go

These are the people of the longhouse
These are the people that you tried to break
These are the people of the pines
Who follow the code of Handsome Lake

He drank your poison, swallowed your fire
And lay with fever four long years
He received a vision so inspired
Three messengers with painted faces appeared

On the Allegheny river at a place called Burnt House
The code was shared for the very first time
By a Seneca chief, they call Handsome Lake
With a wounded heart and a sober mind

These are the people of the longhouse
These are the people that you tried to break
These are the people of the pines
Who follow the code of Handsome Lake

We are the people of the longhouse
We are the people that you couldn't break
We are the people of the sacred pipe
Who Follow the code of Handsome Lake

When the Dark Moon had come to live in your soul
Get in touch with your creator, you are not alone
These are the words that he had spoken two hundred years ago
And today they still ring true, like they're carved in stone
When Native life was hurled into the pit by way of the Canon, Rum, and Greed
Oh a great fire was burned, to let the smoke rise
And show the Six Nations the code was still alive

Way down deep in the bush
We Oh hi ne oh he oh we oh we we

These are the people of the longhouse
These are the people that you tried to break
These are the people of the pines
Who follow the code of Handsome Lake

We are the people of the longhouse
We are the people that you couldn't break
We are the people of the sacred pipe
Who Follow the code of Handsome Lake

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoonieah wajitse

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse

Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoonieah wajitse

Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse..

You know we have a million stories to tell
I'm just one of a million or more stories that could be told

Sacrifice your freedom
Sacrifice your prayer
Take away your language
Cut off all your hair
Sacrifice the loved ones
Who always stood by me
Stranded in the wasteland
Set my spirit free

My name is Leonard Peltier
I am a Lakota and Anishnabe
And I am living in the United States penitentiary
Which is the swiftest growing
Indian reservations in the country

I have been in prison since 1976
For an incident that took place on the Oglala-Lakota Nation
There was a shoot-out between members of the American Indian Movement
And The F-B-I and the local Sheriffs State Troopers
Two agents were killed and one Indian was murdered

Three of us were charged with the deaths of the F-B-I agents
My co-defendants were found not-guilty by reasons of self-defense
My case was separated and I was found guilty before a jury of non-Indian people
The prosecutor stated that they did not know who killed their agents
Nor did he know what participation Leonard Peltier may have played in it
But someone has to pay for the crime

There's a lot of nights that I lay in my cell
And I can't understand why this hell this hell and this terror
That I have been going through for twenty-one years hasn't ended

Sacrifice your freedom
Sacrifice your prayer
Take away your language
Cut off all your hair
Sacrifice the loved ones
Who always stood by me
Stranded in the wasteland
Set my spirit free

But yet I know in my heart that someone has to pay sacrifice
To make things better for our people
The sacrifice I have made when I really sit down to think about it
Is nothing compared to what our people a couple hundred years ago
Or fifty years ago or twenty-five years ago have made
Some gave their lives
Some had to stand there and watch their children die in their arms
So the sacrifice I have made is nothing compared to those

I've gone too far now to start backing down
I don't give up
Not 'til my people are free will I give up
And if I have to sacrifice some more
Then I sacrifice some more

Golden Feather
Robbie Robertson
I think I'm going back to Shenandoah
she said that she'd meet me by the fork in the road
I jump start my old Ford
I'm heading for the pow-wow
follow red path that leads to you.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

Should I paint my face
should I pierce my skin
does this make me a pagan
sweating out my sins
we ate the sacred mushroom
and waded in the water
howling like coyotes
at the naked moon.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

In the autumn night
when there's no wind blowin'
I could hear the stars falling in the dark
when you find what's worth keeping
with a breath of kindness
blow the rest away.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoonieah wajitse

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse

Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse

Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi
Mahk jchi tahm buooi yahmpi gidi
Mahk jchi taum buooi kan spewa ebi

Mahmpi wah hoka yee monk
Tahond tani kiyee tiyee
Gee we-me eetiyee
Nanka yaht yamoonieah wajitse

Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse
Nanka yaht yamoomieah wajitse..

The general rode for sixteen days
The horses were thirsty and tired
On the trail of a renegade chief
One he'd come to admire
The soldiers hid behind the hills
That surrounded the village
And he rode down to warn the chief
They'd come to conquer and pillage
Lay down your arms
Lay down your spear
The chief's eyes were sad
But showed no sign of fear

[Chorus:]
It is a good day to die
Oh my children dry your eyes
It is a good day to die

He spoke of the days before the white man came
With his guns and whisky
He told of a time a long time ago
Before what you call history
The general couldn't believe his words
Nor the look on his face
But he knew these people would rather die
Then have to live in this disgrace
What law have I broken
What wrong have I done
That makes you want to bury me
Upon this trail of blood

[Chorus:]

We cared for the land and the land cared for us
And that's the way it's always been
Never asked for more never asked too much
And now you tell me this is the end
I laid down my weapon
Laid down my bow
Now you want to drive me out
With no place left to go

[Chorus:]

And he turned to his people and said dry your eyes
We've been blessed and we are thankful
Raise your voices to the sky
It is a good day to die

Golden Feather
Robbie Robertson
I think I'm going back to Shenandoah
she said that she'd meet me by the fork in the road
I jump start my old Ford
I'm heading for the pow-wow
follow red path that leads to you.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

Should I paint my face
should I pierce my skin
does this make me a pagan
sweating out my sins
we ate the sacred mushroom
and waded in the water
howling like coyotes
at the naked moon.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

In the autumn night
when there's no wind blowin'
I could hear the stars falling in the dark
when you find what's worth keeping
with a breath of kindness
blow the rest away.

I gave my love a golden feather
I gave my love a heart of stone
and when you find a golden feather
it means you'll never lose your way back home.

She broke down, on a highway
Miles from nowhere, it had no number
She was lost, a long way from home

She was fed up with the routine
She got trouble with her man
She blew town with a vengeance

Painted desert, peyote rain
Lord, don't let me go insane
Skinwalker, skinwalker
Who am I, who are you
I was only passing through
Skinwalker, skinwalker

A strange encounter to be sure
He was wicked he was pure
Hear him calling, he's calling for you

Come with me into the mystic
Come with me into the night
We can live, live forever

Painted desert, peyote rain
Lord, don't let me go insane
Skinwalker, skinwalker
Through your eyes I can see
You have left your mark on me
Skinwalker, skinwalker

(Jimmy Crack Corn, come blow your horn)
(Jimmy Crack Corn, come blow your horn)

Painted desert, peyote rain
Lord, don't let me go insane
Skinwalker, skinwalker
He takes you to a sacred place
And drinks a tear off your face
Skinwalker, skinwalker
Talk to the spirits
Talk to the wind
Skinwalker, skinwalker

Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People
Ceremony of the Cloud People