Cherokee Bend Lyrics - 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