My Country 'tis Of Thy People You're Dying Lyrics - Buffy Sainte-marie

Now that your big eyes have finally opened 

Now that you're wondering how must they feel 

Meaning them that you've chased across 

America's movie screens 

Now that you're wondering how can it be real 

That the ones you've called colorful, noble and proud 

In your school propaganda, they starve in their splendor 

You've asked for my comment, I simply will render 

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying 

Now that the long houses breed superstition 

You force us to send our toddlers away 

To your schools where they're taught 

To despise their traditions 

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You forbid them their languages, then further say 

That American history really began 

When Columbus set sail out of Europe 

Then stress that the nation of leeches that conquered this land 

Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best 

And yet where in your history books is the tale 

Of the genocide basic to this country's birth 

Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed 

How a nation of patriots returned to their earth 

And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell 

As it rang with a thud o'er Kinzua mud 

And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year 

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying 

Hear how the bargain was made for the West 

With her shivering children in zero degrees 

Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest 

Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed 

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And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected 

From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day 

And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored 

A hundred years of your statesmen have felt 

It's better this way 

And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived 

Their blood runs the redder though genes have paled 

From the Gran Canyon's caverns to craven sad hills 

The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale 

From Los Angeles County to upstate New York 

The white nation fattens while others grow lean 

Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean 

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying 

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens 

Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks 

And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands 

And surprise in your eyes that we're lacking in thanks 

For the blessings of civilization you've brought us 

The lessons you've taught us, the ruin you've wrought us 

Oh see what our trust in America's brought us 

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying 

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity 

Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws 

Now that my life's to be known as your 'Heritage' 

Now that even the graves have been robbed 

Now that our own chosen way is a novelty 

Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory 

Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy 

Pitying the blindness that you've never seen 

That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory 

They were never no more than carrion crows 

Pushed the wrens from their nest 

Stole their eggs, changed their story 

The mockingbird sings it, it's all that he knows 

"Ah, what can I do?", say a powerless few 

With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye 

Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you? 

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying