Buffy Sainte Maire - "My country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying"

Now that your big eyes have finally opened,
Now that you're wondering how must they feel,
Meaning them that you've chased across America's movie screens.
Now that you're wondering how can it be real
That the ones you've called colorful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda
They starve in their splendor?
You've asked for my comment I simply will render:
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the longhouses breed superstition
You force us to send our toddlers away
To your schools where they're taught to despise their traditions.
You forbid them their languages, then further say
That American history really began
When Columbus set sail out of Europe, then stress
That the nation of leeches that conquered this land
Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best.
And yet where in your history books is the tale
Of the genocide basic to this country's birth,
Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed,
How a nation of patriots returned to their earth?
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
As it rang with a thud
O'er Kinzua mud,
And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year?

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Hear how the bargain was made for the West:
With her shivering children in zero degrees,
Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest,
Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed,
And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day.
And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored,
A hundred years of your statesmen have felt it's better this way.
And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived,
Their blood runs the redder though genes have paled.
From the Gran Canyon's caverns to craven sad hills
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale.
From Los Angeles County to upstate New York
The white nation fattens while others grow lean;
Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens;
Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks.
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands
And surprise in your eyes that we're lacking in thanks
For the blessings of civilization you've brought us,
The lessons you've taught us, the ruin you've wrought us --
Oh see what our trust in America's brought us.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity,
Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws,
Now that my life's to be known as your "heritage,"
Now that even the graves have been robbed,
Now that our own chosen way is a novelty --
Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory,
Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy
Pitying the blindness that you've never seen
That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory
They were never no more than carrion crows,
Pushed the wrens from their nest, stole their eggs, changed their story;
The mockingbird sings it, it's all that he knows.
"Ah what can I do?" say a powerless few
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye --
Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Buffy
• Sainte
• Marie
• My
• country
• 'Tis
• Of
• Thy
• People
• You're
• Dying
• Native
• American
• Music
• singer

[MyMoppet52]

I thank you for this. I listened while I was 16 and am now 58. I was the top student and got kicked out of History in 1968 for arguing with the teacher over the Native American history I learned through Buffy. When I came back just a few years ago...since 1968 remember...my teacher saw me at a game. He ran up to me and the first words out of his mouth were "I am sorry Barb. You were right. How did you know?" I didn't even have to ask what he was talking about. Thank you Buffy. Thanks for posting

[dang9669]

I've loved this song for a few decades now, thank you so much for posting. I honestly think the lyrics of this song should be printed in every history book written for educational purposes.

[zanaelf]

Very good video so much truth and philosphy and feeling and consciousness

[Lisalikesclassic]

Buffy should come to my school and teach American history.

[TWD66]

Buffy ! Love abides by your side.

[tedzodd]

This song has been banned in Arizona public schools recently.

[klockan23och09]

This years song and the next years also - In Sha Allah.

...comment down under in Swedish.

Årets låt och nästa års också - In Sha Allah.

Den amerikanska imperialismen av idag började med att man skövlade och rensade och stal indianernas land, eller ibland friköpte det för en spottstyver, marken som sedan kom att kallas Amerika. Den parallellt pågående utrotningen av urbefolkningen inte att förglömma. Känns det igen? Marken de stal då var tydligen inte nog...inte morden heller...

[5chakie]

thank you for the song.it means to me that the indians are dead.im sad about that because the people that killed them which is americans like the people in l.a. and all the other people in the americans. she did not touch me cus she didnt come out of the screen. i do not love her because i dont know what shes saying

[twigdrawings]

1967...how important this song was then and how few know it now. Witness the number of viewings above. I agree, it should be in every history book. This voice is real--the rage, the loss, the damage, the lies. Nothing can make up for it. Recently, Diane Sawyer had a 20/20 special on the Sioux on the Rosebud Reservation, in utter poverty, there are no jobs, most of the elders and adults are alcoholics. This damage.  Steal the land, pride, religion, culture, treasure. What's left?

[doUcare4music]

i cry... for all.

[TheRedhead1954]

thank you for this song!!