I’m a modern Native American
Recalling with pride
Our mighty Indian Nations
Before the attempted Genocide.
The tide of invaders that
Washed across these lands
With conquest in their hearts
And guns in their hands.
They said we were savages
They just didn’t understand
We lived in harmony with nature
Loved and respected our land.
They came to our campfires
Took the Pipe of Peace to smoke
Gave us their worthless treaties
Which they just as casually broke..
They killed us with their weapons
Gave us their strange diseases
Gave our warriors firewater
Behaved just as they pleased,
Then they took the remnants
Of our once proud nations
And herded them to the misery of
The confines of the reservations.
Thinking of the degradation
Of those many wasted years,
Thinking of the shame,
The millions of unshed tears.
Somehow we few survived
Against all the many odds
Perhaps blessed by Manitou
Our life force God of all Gods.
I’m a modern Native American
And we’re regaining our pride
Proud of those once mighty nations
Before the attempted Genocide.
Our town's old fire chief Ron's a real lunkhead
When the alarm rings, he lingers in bed
He yawns, then he stretches
And, of course, he k'vetches*
If you wait for Ron, you'll surely be dead
After protests got rid of the police
They went after old Ron like angry geese
They announced they'd attack
That roused Ron from the sack
The fool grinned, "Hey, let's smoke the pipe of peace!"
*'k'vetches' is Yiddish for 'complains'
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