Does anyone remember when this land of ours was red?
Red
Billy Shaw
Blue Coat, cheap whiskey
His pony and a gun
An open fire was his hearth
A saddlebag his home
He never got a ribbon
No medals would he wear
Companions on his prairie
Was a rifle and a prayer
Kiowa Commanche
Feathers in their hair
They roamed the open prairie
And they rode their horses bare
They didn’t live in houses
Ground they didn’t tear
Companions on their prairie
Were the spirits and a prayer
Red voice prayed to Father
White voice praised the Son
But every voice rose to the sky
And ended up as one
Red man wanted freedom
White man wanted lands
Their prayers were always answered
When they took it with their hands
Endless years of freedom
A hundred years of pain
Two hundred years went back and forth
A thousand different claims
The white men shot the red ones
The red ones shot the whites
They’d wage a bloody war by day
And say their prayers at night
The white men took the prairie
The buffalo were dead
The red man’s reservation
Was their final place instead
Their spirits, their creator
The feathers on their head
Does anyone remember when
This land of ours was red?