Joni Mitchell: Lakota

(Joni Mitchell/Larry Klein)

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

[Chorus:]
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?

[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