Lakota - Joni Mitchell

I am Lakota!

Lakota!

Looking at money man--

Diggin' the deadly quotas--

Out of balance--

Out of hand

We want the land!

Lay down the reeking ore!

Don’t you hear the shrieking in the trees?

Everywhere you touch the earth--she's sore

Every time you skin her all things weep

Your money mocks us--

Restitution--what good can it do?--

Kennelled in metered boxes

Red dogs in debt to you

I am Lakota!

Lakota!

Fighting among ourselves

All we can say with one whole heart

Is we won’t sell--

No we’ll never sell

We want the land!

The lonely coyote calls

In the woodlands--footprints of the deer

In the barrooms--poor drunk bastard falls

In the courtrooms--deaf ears--sixty years

You think we’re sleeping--but

Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars

We have seen the trampled rainbows

In the smoke of cars

I am Lakota

Brave

Sun pity me

I am Lakota

Broken

Moon pity me

I am Lakota

Grave

Shadows stretching

Lakota

Oh pity me

I am Lakota

Weak

Grass pity me

I am Lakota

Faithful

Rocks pity me

I am Lakota

Meek

Standing water

Lakota

Oh pity me

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--choke 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?

Repeat Chorus

Sun pity me

Mother earth

Mother

Moon pity me

Father sky

Father

Shadows

Stretching on the forest floor

Mother earth

Oh pity me

Father sky

Father

Grass pity me

Mother earth

Mother

Rocks pity me

Father sky

Father

Water

Standing in a wakan manner

Mother earth

Oh pity me