Cherokee Bend Lyrics

Cherokee Bend lyrics

His father was a man who could never understand

 The shame on a red man's face

 So they lived in the hills and they never came down

 But to trade in the white man's place

 

 It was early in the spring when the snow had disappeared

 They came down with a bag of skins

 In the fall of the year of 1910

 Daddy died by the rope down in Cherokee Bend. 

 

 Daddy didn't like what the white man said

 'Bout the dirty little kid at his side

 Daddy didn't like what the white man did 

 Nor the deal or the way that he lied

 There was blood on the floor of the government store

 When the men took his daddy away

 But the boy stayed back till he come to his end

 And he run like the wind from Cherokee Bend. 

 

 Now the mother was alone and the winter was at hand

 And she prayed to her spirit kin

 It was warm in the lodge in the Kentucky hills

 On the day when the boy came in

 

 Then a blizzard came down and it covered up the door 

 

 Till they thought that it never would end

 And he told her the tale of the terrible affair

 In the government store down in Cherokee Bend

 

 Daddy didn't like what the white man said

 'Bout the dirty little kid at his side

 Daddy didn't like what the white man did

 Nor the deal or the way that he lied

 

 For three long days and three long nights

 They wept and they mourned and then

 She returned to her work and her weavin'

 And they tried to forget about Cherokee Bend

 

 Now the boy wasn't big but he hunted what he could

 And they lived for a time that way

 But the food run low and the meat went bad 

 And she said to the boy one day

 

 I'm leaving tonight and I never will return 

 >From the land of my Spirit Kin

 You must take what you need and trade what you can 

 For a Red Man's grave down in Cherokee Bend

 

 It wasn't very long till she closed her eyes

 And he wrapped her in a robe

 He found her a place on the side of the hill 

 And he buried her in the snow

 

 Early in the spring he was seen in the town 

 With his load looking ragged and thin

 Not a year had gone by till he stood once again 

 In the government store down in Cherokee Bend

 

 He was ten years tall and a Redskin too

 So he hadn't much face to save

 And the men sat around and they laughed and they clowned

 At the talk of a criminal's grave

 

 Then the man from the east didn't smile when he said 

 You're the son of that Indian scum

 If you value your hide then you better abide 

 By the white man's rules here in Cherokee Bend. 

 

 Daddy didn't like what the white man said

 'Bout the dirty little kid at his side

 Daddy didn't like what the white man did

 Nor the deal or the way that he lied

 

 And he spit on the floor of the government store

 And it served him to no good end

 At the close of the day they had taken him away 

 To the white man's school down at Cherokee Bend

 

 It's been 21 years since the boy disappeared

 Where he run to, nobody knows

 But they say he fell in with a man named Jim

 And he rides in the rodeos

 

 And they say he returns all alone to a place 

 Hidden deep in the Kentucky glen

 And it's pretty well known who hauled up the stone 

 To the grave on the hill above Cherokee Bend

 

 Daddy didn't like what the white man said

 'Bout the dirty little kid at his side

 Daddy didn't like what the white man did 

 Nor the deal or the way that he lied

 

 There was blood on the floor of the government store

 When the men took his daddy away

 It was 1910 and they never had a friend

 When he died by the rope down at Cherokee Bend

 It was 1910 and they never had a friend

 When he died by the rope down at Cherokee Bend