this song really expresses the hardship of the Lakota Sioux...and since i have been to their reservations, i saw it firsthand...but really this echoes the same situation across the board for most native tribes, who were pushed into containment areas that pale to the lands they once roamed freely to hunt, fish and live...their spirituality, and balance are being renewed slowly, but the damage is already done...
"You think we're sleeping--but
Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars
We have seen the trampled rainbows
In the smoke of cars"
tells us they are ever watchful, quietly...not aggressively striking, but on the defensive...many native tribes are closed and wary of outsiders even now...
"I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Standing on sacred land
We never sold these Black Hills
To the missile-heads,
To the power plants
We want the land!
The bullet and the fence, broke Lakota
The black coats and the booze, broke Lakota
Courts that circumvent, trip Lakota
Nothing left to lose
Tell me grandfather
You spoke the fur and feather tongues,
Do you hear the whimpering waters
When the tractors come?"
the land is sacred, not just property, and this is why there was always enmity between the federal govt who saw land as a commodity, and the Lakota...who did not see land as a commodity, but as something they belonged to... it was sold off to the industrial machine for weapons and gold production, instead of being nurtured...and the inefficient practices of greed have ravaged the once pristine landscape, rendering it useless in many cases...
grandfather speaking the furred and feathered tongues, is how close the elders were and still are to nature...there is a true relationship between them and their wild neighbors, a respect, not just hunting in greed, or for sport, but for need and not more than they need...but also nurturing the wildlife, and recognizing that healthy animals mean a healthy tribe...
this song really expresses the hardship of the Lakota Sioux...and since i have been to their reservations, i saw it firsthand...but really this echoes the same situation across the board for most native tribes, who were pushed into containment areas that pale to the lands they once roamed freely to hunt, fish and live...their spirituality, and balance are being renewed slowly, but the damage is already done...
"You think we're sleeping--but Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars We have seen the trampled rainbows In the smoke of cars"
tells us they are ever watchful, quietly...not aggressively striking, but on the defensive...many native tribes are closed and wary of outsiders even now...
"I am Lakota! Lakota! Standing on sacred land We never sold these Black Hills To the missile-heads, To the power plants We want the land! The bullet and the fence, broke Lakota The black coats and the booze, broke Lakota Courts that circumvent, trip Lakota Nothing left to lose Tell me grandfather You spoke the fur and feather tongues, Do you hear the whimpering waters When the tractors come?"
the land is sacred, not just property, and this is why there was always enmity between the federal govt who saw land as a commodity, and the Lakota...who did not see land as a commodity, but as something they belonged to... it was sold off to the industrial machine for weapons and gold production, instead of being nurtured...and the inefficient practices of greed have ravaged the once pristine landscape, rendering it useless in many cases...
grandfather speaking the furred and feathered tongues, is how close the elders were and still are to nature...there is a true relationship between them and their wild neighbors, a respect, not just hunting in greed, or for sport, but for need and not more than they need...but also nurturing the wildlife, and recognizing that healthy animals mean a healthy tribe...