GORDON LIGHTFOOT - Cherokee Bend lyrics

rate me

His father was a man who could never understand<br>The shame on a red man's face<br>So they lived in the hills and they never came down<br>But to trade in the white man's place<br>It was early in the spring when the snow had disappeared<br>They came down with a bag of skins<br>In the fall of the year of 1910<br>Daddy died by the rope down in cherokee bend.<br><br>Daddy didn't like what the white man said<br>'bout the dirty little kid at his side<br>Daddy didn't like what the white man did<br>Nor the deal or the way that he lied<br>There was blood on the floor of the government store<br>When the men took his daddy away<br>But the boy stayed back till he come to his end<br>And he run like the wind from cherokee bend.<br><br>Now the mother was alone and the winter was at hand<br>And she prayed to her spirit kin<br>It was warm in the lodge in the kentucky hills<br>On the day when the boy came in<br><br>Then a blizzard came down and it covered up the door<br>Till they thought that it never would end<br>And he told her the tale of the terrible affair<br>In the government store down in cherokee bend<br><br>Daddy didn't like what the white man said<br>'bout the dirty little kid at his side<br>Daddy didn't like what the white man did<br>Nor the deal or the way that he lied<br><br>For three long days and three long nights<br>They wept and they mourned and then<br>She returned to her work and her weavin'<br>And they tried to forget about cherokee bend<br><br>Now the boy wasn't big but he hunted what he could<br>And they lived for a time that way<br>But the food run low and the meat went bad<br>And she said to the boy one day<br><br>I'm leaving tonight and I never will return<br>From the land of my spirit kin<br>You must take what you need and trade what you can<br>For a red man's grave down in cherokee bend<br><br>It wasn't very long till she closed her eyes<br>And he wrapped her in a robe<br>He found her a place on the side of the hill<br>And he buried her in the snow<br><br>Early in the spring he was seen in the town<br>With his load looking ragged and thin<br>Not a year had gone by till he stood once again<br>In the government store down in cherokee bend<br><br>He was ten years tall and a redskin too<br>So he hadn't much face to save<br>And the men sat around and they laughed and they clowned<br>At the talk of a criminal's grave<br><br>Then the man from the east didn't smile when he said<br>You're the son of that indian scum<br>If you value your hide then you better abide<br>By the white man's rules here in cherokee bend.<br><br>Daddy didn't like what the white man said<br>'bout the dirty little kid at his side<br>Daddy didn't like what the white man did<br>Nor the deal or the way that he lied<br><br>And he spit on the floor of the government store<br>And it served him to no good end<br>At the close of the day they had taken him away<br>To the white man's school down at cherokee bend<br><br>It's been 21 years since the boy disappeared<br>Where he run to, nobody knows<br>But they say he fell in with a man named jim<br>And he rides in the rodeos<br><br>And they say he returns all alone to a place<br>Hidden deep in the kentucky glen<br>And it's pretty well known who hauled up the stone<br>To the grave on the hill above cherokee bend<br><br>Daddy didn't like what the white man said<br>'bout the dirty little kid at his side<br>Daddy didn't like what the white man did<br>Nor the deal or the way that he lied<br><br>There was blood on the floor of the government store<br>When the men took his daddy away<br>It was 1910 and they never had a friend<br>When he died by the rope down at cherokee bend<br>It was 1910 and they never had a friend<br>When he died by the rope down at cherokee bend