Wounded Knee

Johnny Cash

Tom: G

But the land was already claimed by a people when the cowboy came and when the soldiers came.
The story of the American Indian is in a lot of ways a story of tragedy like that day at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
      G                                                    C
    Bigfoot was an Indian Chief of the Miniconjou band,
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    a band of Miniconjou Sioux from South Dakota land.
                                           C
    Bigfoot said to Custer, stay away from Crazy Horse,
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    but Custer crossed into Sioux land, and he never came back across.
                                                          C
    Then Bigfoot led his people to a place called Wounded Knee,
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    and they found themselves surrounded by the Seventh Cavalry.
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    Big Chief Bigfoot, rise up from your bed,
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    Miniconjou babies cry for their mothers lyin' dead.

      G                                                      C
    Bigfoot was down with a fever when he reached Wounded Knee,
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    and his people all were prisoners of the Seventh Cavalry.
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    Two hundred women and children and another hundred men
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    raised up a white flag of peace, but peace did not begin.
                                                  C
    An accidental gunshot, and Bigfoot was first to die,
            D                                                         C                      G
    and over the noise of the rifles you could hear the babies cry.
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    Big Chief Bigfoot, it' s good that you can't see,
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    revenge is being wrought by Custer's Seventh Cavalry.

                  G                                                     C
    Then smoke hung over the canyon on that cold December day,
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    all was death and dying around where Bigfoot lay.
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    Farther on up the canyon some had tried to run and hide,
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    but death showed no favourites, women, men and children died.
                                                             C
    One side called it a massacre, the other a victory,
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    but the white flag is still waving today at Wounded Knee.
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    Big Chief Bigfoot, your Miniconjou band
           C                     G                            C                   G
    is more 'n than remembered here in South Dakota land.
C                   G                   D               G
    Big Chief Bigfoot, your Miniconjou band
           C                     G                           C                    G
    is more 'n than remembered here in South Dakota land.