But the land was already claimed by a people when the cowboy came and when the soldiers came.
The story of the American Indian is in a lot of ways a story of tragedy like that day at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
     G                                  C
    Bigfoot was an Indian Chief of the Miniconjou band,
D                                    C            G
    a band of Miniconjou Sioux from South Dakota land.
                              C
    Bigfoot said to Custer, stay away from Crazy Horse,
         D                                      C                 G
    but Custer crossed into Sioux land, and he never came back across.
                                       C
    Then Bigfoot led his people to a place called Wounded Knee,
               D                                 C           G
    and they found themselves surrounded by the Seventh Cavalry.
C              G        D                 G
    Big Chief Bigfoot, rise up from your bed,
C               G               C                  G
    Miniconjou babies cry for their mothers lyin' dead.

     G                                 C
    Bigfoot was down with a fever when he reached Wounded Knee,
             D                                C          G
    and his people all were prisoners of the Seventh Cavalry.
                                         C
    Two hundred women and children and another hundred men
D                                         C               G
    raised up a white flag of peace, but peace did not begin.
                                C
    An accidental gunshot, and Bigfoot was first to die,
        D                                       C              G
    and over the noise of the rifles you could hear the babies cry.
C              G              D                   G
    Big Chief Bigfoot, it' s good that you can't see,
       C               G                  C          G
    revenge is being wrought by Custer's Seventh Cavalry.

           G                                 C
    Then smoke hung over the canyon on that cold December day,
D                             C                   G
    all was death and dying around where Bigfoot lay.
                                        C
    Farther on up the canyon some had tried to run and hide,
D                                    C                       G
    but death showed no favourites, women, men and children died.
                                        C
    One side called it a massacre, the other a victory,
              D                           C               G
    but the white flag is still waving today at Wounded Knee.
C               G            D          G
    Big Chief Bigfoot, your Miniconjou band
        C              G                 C            G
    is more 'n than remembered here in South Dakota land.
C              G             D          G
    Big Chief Bigfoot, your Miniconjou band
        C              G                C             G
    is more 'n than remembered here in South Dakota land.