Cherokee Bend - Gordon Lightfoot

    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

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