music: Robert Buck & Dennis Drew/lyric: Natalie Merchant ]







dance to the sun

a kiss to the earth

embrace a stone



come the small black book

come the brandy cask

one strange disease

the well worded paper

signed by the drunken

hands of thieves



and suddenly

they were told to leave



as the snake uncoiled on a road

the length was eighty miles

wagons' weary horses

lead the feverish exiles

barefoot in the early snow

on a ridge

where they beheld their home

coarse and barren

not the haven

promised by the Father



Jaksa Chula Harjo

Jaksa Chula Harjo

Jaksa Chula Harjo **



the Red Sticks first and

the Dancing Ghosts were

pierced with arms of fire

and the weeping widows

left could not avenge

so the Western Star manifest its will

drove them clear into the Pacific O



gone the way of flesh

turned pale and died

by your god's decree



for he hated me



** Cherokee name for Andrew Jackson

the 7th president of the U.S.A