Cherokee Tears
copyright 1993 Mary Bertke
Old Hickory, General Jackson, do you care what you have done?
Murdered fathers and their daughters, killed old women and their sons.
You robbed them and you slew them leaving prejudice for years...
hear the echo of their crying sound along the trail of tears.
Refrain:
False leader and deceiver and a tyrant to the end.
Unbound by laws you swore to follow, swore you would defend
Untouched by truth and justice you forced people off their land,
You turned a once-great nation to a homeless alien band.
Many promises were given to the Indians about land,
all were broken in a moment at your honorless command.
You say they only give to steal, make promises to break–
look at yourself, old hypocrite, your honor is at stake!
For all that you would crush them, roots sank deep into the ground,
a new life, a new existence and a government they found.
Were you jealous of their fortune? Did it show your world's decay?
You sent your soldiers out and took their government away.
This song was written in the spring of 1993, during a speech given by Wilma Mankiller, then-Chief of the Cherokee Nations