Wounded Knee

 

Spoken : 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

1. Bigfoot was an Indian Chief of the Miniconjou band,

D                                                         C                  G

    a band of Miniconjou Sioux from South Dakota land.

                                           C

    Bigfoot said to Custer, stay away from Crazy Horse,

             D                                                           C                             G

    but Custer crossed into Sioux land, and he never came back across.

                                                          C

    Then Bigfoot led his people to a place called Wounded Knee,

                     D                                                         C                  G

    and they found themselves surrounded by the Seventh Cavalry.

C                   G          D                         G

    Big Chief Bigfoot, rise up from your bed,

C                     G                     C                          G

    Miniconjou babies cry for their mothers lyin' dead.

 

      G                                                      C

2. Bigfoot was down with a fever when he reached Wounded Knee,

                   D                                                C                  G

    and his people all were prisoners of the Seventh Cavalry.

                                                                      C

    Two hundred women and children and another hundred men

D                                                             C                       G

    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.

C                   G                 D                            G

    Big Chief Bigfoot, it' s good that you can't see,

         C                        G                            C                  G

    revenge is being wrought by Custer's Seventh Cavalry.

 

                  G                                                     C

3. Then smoke hung over the canyon on that cold December day,

D                                            C                              G

    all was death and dying around where Bigfoot lay.

                                                                C

    Farther on up the canyon some had tried to run and hide,

D                                                        C                                       G

    but death showed no favourites, women, men and children died.

                                                             C

    One side called it a massacre, the other a victory,

                    D                                     C                           G

    but the white flag is still waving today at Wounded Knee.

C                    G                  D               G

    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.

 

(orig. = capo 3rd)    (Johnny Cash)