In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Even in the initial stages of contact between European Christians and Native Indians people the stage was set for ethnocentrism, and the attitude towards the Indians was that of Christian superiority. The Indians were read a proclomation in Spanish which they had no hope of understanding. They had no hope of understanding the death sentence they were being read, and it went something like this.
"We ask and require you to acknowledge the church as the ruler and superior of the whole world and the high priest called pope and in his name the king of Spain as lords of this land. If you submit we shall receive you in all love and charity and shall leave you, your wives and children free without servitude, but if you do not submit we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you, we shall take you and your wives and your children and shall make slaves of them and we shall take away your goods and do you all the harm and damage we can."
2000 years ago we were all tribal.
Then came the missionaries with their fucking bible.
1492 began the termination.
The holocaust of our Indian nation.
Yeah with Chrstian love and a moral authority,
they killed our medicine men and stole our country.
I never claimed this shit was poetry,
it's just the fucking lies of Christianity.
You will pray to the lord and get down on your knees.
Here's a cross for your back and the coughing disease.
Though you helped us survive we will laugh while you bleed,
then deny what we did, write our own history.
We will kidnap your children and cut off their hair.
Silence their language and outlaw their prayers.
Beat them blind until they believe
in the blood of Jesus Christ our king.
Christians murdered Indians.
Columbus murdered children and now we have a holiday.
Still you want to deny your history?
Look to the sky for your god to justify,
as you commit cultural genocide.
Christians came and the natives they did hang
13 at a time for Jesus and his gang.
We are the ones you had to dehumanize,
so your murder and greed could be justified.
The belly of the church is full
with the blood of all those heathen fools.
Who would not receive the gift of Christ?
So we burned them as a sacrifice.
To our baby killing god above,
to our mother church and all her love,
we will steal their gods and subjugate.
Those who don't believe we'll annihilate.
"The Spaniards made bets as to who could slit a man in two or cut off his head with one blow. They tore babies from their mother's breast by their feet and dashed their head against the rocks. They hanged Indians by thirteen in honor and reverance for their redeemer and their twelve apostles. They put wood underneath and with fire burned the Indians alive."
Christians murdered Indians.
We believe in the earth, the sky and dreams.
The universe and the creator who gave us these.
The sacred gift of life and human beings.
That makes you perpetrate the hate to annihilate.
So here I am the savage civilized.
Voice of the dead and my ancestor's cries.
And like the ghosts of this land you can't erase,
I see blood on the hand's of the master race.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of resistance to the enemy.
You have faith in the rivers, the mountains, the trees.
We've a murdering god to replace all of these.
With the blood of forgiveness you too can be free.
Or the wrath of Jehovah you're sure to receive.
We will baptize you with the blood of the lamb.
With the sword and the gospel we will conquer your land.
You will join our church and be glad to be saved.
Or we'll slaughter your children and your women we'll rape.
Christians murdred Indians.
I see blood on the hands of the master race...
"We ask and require you to acknowledge the church as the ruler and superior of the whole world and the high priest called pope and in his name the king of Spain as lords of this land. If you submit we shall receive you in all love and charity and shall leave you, your wives and children free without servitude, but if you do not submit we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you, we shall take you and your wives and your children and shall make slaves of them and we shall take away your goods and do you all the harm and damage we can."
2000 years ago we were all tribal.
Then came the missionaries with their fucking bible.
1492 began the termination.
The holocaust of our Indian nation.
Yeah with Chrstian love and a moral authority,
they killed our medicine men and stole our country.
I never claimed this shit was poetry,
it's just the fucking lies of Christianity.
You will pray to the lord and get down on your knees.
Here's a cross for your back and the coughing disease.
Though you helped us survive we will laugh while you bleed,
then deny what we did, write our own history.
We will kidnap your children and cut off their hair.
Silence their language and outlaw their prayers.
Beat them blind until they believe
in the blood of Jesus Christ our king.
Christians murdered Indians.
Columbus murdered children and now we have a holiday.
Still you want to deny your history?
Look to the sky for your god to justify,
as you commit cultural genocide.
Christians came and the natives they did hang
13 at a time for Jesus and his gang.
We are the ones you had to dehumanize,
so your murder and greed could be justified.
The belly of the church is full
with the blood of all those heathen fools.
Who would not receive the gift of Christ?
So we burned them as a sacrifice.
To our baby killing god above,
to our mother church and all her love,
we will steal their gods and subjugate.
Those who don't believe we'll annihilate.
"The Spaniards made bets as to who could slit a man in two or cut off his head with one blow. They tore babies from their mother's breast by their feet and dashed their head against the rocks. They hanged Indians by thirteen in honor and reverance for their redeemer and their twelve apostles. They put wood underneath and with fire burned the Indians alive."
Christians murdered Indians.
We believe in the earth, the sky and dreams.
The universe and the creator who gave us these.
The sacred gift of life and human beings.
That makes you perpetrate the hate to annihilate.
So here I am the savage civilized.
Voice of the dead and my ancestor's cries.
And like the ghosts of this land you can't erase,
I see blood on the hand's of the master race.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of manifest destiny.
500 years of resistance to the enemy.
You have faith in the rivers, the mountains, the trees.
We've a murdering god to replace all of these.
With the blood of forgiveness you too can be free.
Or the wrath of Jehovah you're sure to receive.
We will baptize you with the blood of the lamb.
With the sword and the gospel we will conquer your land.
You will join our church and be glad to be saved.
Or we'll slaughter your children and your women we'll rape.
Christians murdred Indians.
I see blood on the hands of the master race...
Lyrics submitted by justanotheremokid
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