This summer the Native American been walking across this land
Been trying to let the people know because they all got to understand
How their lands are being stolen by cruel and greedy band
Of men who care for nothing but the dollars in their hand
From the West Coast to the Capital of these United States
They been telling us of genocide of the white man’s path of hate
How their lands are being stolen people I’m telling you now it’s not too late
To get behind the lovers of this earth
Cause I swear we all share the same fate
We got to love life enough to struggle
The choice is one we each must make alone
Open up now make the circle stronger
And we can lay this death trip down
We can lay the death trip down
Lay it down lay it down
You will not read it in your papers
Ain’t going to see it on your TV screen
But there is war on the reservation
People are dying to be free
The FBI is doing the killing and they’re paid by you and me my friend
To make it safe for a few rich men to come and rape the earth again
They have not honored the treaties
They got control of native lands
Been sterilizing Indian women to complete the deadly plan
They got the coal that’s in the mountain
They got the oil to feed their greed
They want to dig out more uranium ore to feed a nuclear insanity
And we got to love life enough to struggle
The choice is one we each must make alone
Open up now make the circle stronger
And we can lay this death trip down
We can lay the death trip down
Lay it down, let’s lay it down
In the Black Hills of South Dakota
Native and White Folk have been joining hands
Where big companies try to tear hills away
In the heart of the sacred lands.
Way down in New Mexico in streams
Where the Navajo children play
The poison from a nuclear spill
Threatens to steal their lives away.
And we got to love life enough to struggle
The choice is one we each must make alone
Oh you know it is now
Open up now take the circle higher, take it higher
We can lay this death trip down
We can lay the death trip down
Lay it down, lay it down
Oh lay it down
Lay the death trip down
We can lay the death trip down
This song was originally written, recorded, and performed by Charlie Murphy – a musician, earth-lover, activist, and youth worker who passed away last summer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Charlie originally wrote and recorded this song back in the 1980’s. Thirty years later, its words still ring true.
Godspeed, Charlie. What is remembered, lives.
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
