Bruce Cockburn Indian Wars Lyrics

Indian Wars Lyrics

Out in the desert where the wind never stops

A few simple people try to
grow a few crops

Trying to maintain a life and a home

On land that
was theirs before the Romans thought of Rome 



A few dozen
survivors, ragged but proud

With a few woolly sheep, under gathering
cloud

It's never been easy, or free from strife

But the pulse of
the land is the pulse of their life 



You thought it was over but
it's just like before

Will there never be an end to the Indian wars? 



It's not breech-loading rifles and wholesale slaughter

It's
kickbacks and thugs and diverted water

Treaties get signed and the papers
change hands

But they might as well draft these agreements in sand 



Noble Savage on the cinema screen

An Indian's good when he
cannot be seen

And the so-called white so-called race

Digs for
itself a pit of disgrace 



You thought it was over but it's just
like before

Will there never be an end to the Indian wars?