Indian Wars

Out in the desert
Where the wind never stops
A few simple people
Try to grow a few crops
Try to maintain their life and their home
On a land that was theirs before the Romans started Rome.

A few simple survivors, ragged but proud
With a few woolly sheep under gathering clouds
It's never been easy or free from strife
But the pulse of the land is the pulse of their life.

Chorus
You thought it was over but it's just like before
Will there never be an end to the Indian wars?
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 or wholesale slaughter
It's kickbacks and thugs and diverted waters
Treaties got signed and the papers changed hands
But they may as well draft those agreements in sand.

Noble Savage on the cinema screen
An Indian's good when he cannot be seen
But the so-called White
So-called Race
Digs for themselves a pit of disgrace.

Tasks:

• Give a summary of the stanzas of the song Indian Wars.
• In what way does this song reflect the history of the Navajos? Give examples for your answer.
• Do you know films about Whites and Native Americans?
• What role do the Native Americans play? Compare their fate to what their way of life was really like.