The Only Good Injun, Is A Dead Injun Poem by Jim David Morris

Set sail across the unknown waters searching for another land
White man was his name and his discovery was unplanned
His find in iron grip, discovered a red man
Both not knowing what, knowing who, mistaken for India
You met this red man; you call him savage, Injun
You tell him the only good Injun, is a dead Injun
You take his land, his home, his family, his way of life
You crush his spirit; make him feel lesser than an empty heart, cut with a knife
You kill buffalo for fur and hide, leave blood to soak the soil, mountain of skulls and bones
The sacred lands our ancestors once walked freely on
You corrupt with greed and murder of the innocent
With no defense against your warfare tactics, carried out with wickedness
No matter what, red man must die for a so called promised land to be built

White man saw that red man had established their own way of life before dawn
Women did the work, men provided safety and food, what is a tax, what is a debt
Why did you think you could improve their quality of life like that?
You kill red man for being a true patriot; you have the nerve to call him savage
You kill innocent women, the givers of life! Children, the future of our people, left to scavenge
But still after everything you throw at red man, you still call him savage
You may kill us but you won't kill our spirit, no matter how far they travel
You may damage our spirits, strong we are, our spirits won't be broken, we challenge
You run them to the hills, you organize other tribes to kill off each other alongside you, ravage
You force them into a designated part of land that they must reside, called the reservation

Money is what you throw at red man, hoping he'd take it so he can bring on an addiction, left crying
Possessed by greed, headless chickens running, while white man is behind the curtain laughing
You made red man touch pen which engraved the treaties on paper, only left them with broken promises
You go behind these treaties to deplete resources on reservations and such lands left to them, too hungry for a piece of paper that has no substance
You drain earth for oil, yet you spill it in our waters, you spill it on the lands, ruining communities

You give them blankets to comfort, deceived to receive white man's disease, a smallpox ticket
You introduce red man to fire water; the taste burns the pureness from the spirit
State of mind lost to the sorrows, addiction with no limit
You start giving rations of food, the hunger sets in, dependent on your system
How did you feel the need to improve on red man's system?
Red man became dependent on your way of life, too blind to see the victims
You introduce religion, something irrelevant, the creator is our wisdom
You bring books filled with nonsense, red man opens book, told to pick a white man's name
Your name is now James, "why was I given this name - what was wrong with my previous name? "
Head no longer held high, identity lost, something he's not, you cut his braid
You kill his thoughts, his senses, who he was, a red man, now in white man's costume

You introduce him to a school, to get educated, because red man is a savage after all
Tame the wild is how you felt; to fit your standards for the future promised land, but overshadowed
You starve them, sit at this table, your meal for the day, and eat
White teacher sits at her own table, food for everyone, but just for her, repeat
Red man spoke his language, you beat it out of him to adapt to yours, it vanished
You raped her, you killed him, you beat them, with heavy abuse some weaker than those who managed
Hanging from their rooms, you aren't forgotten, I don't blame you for vanishing
For the survivors, I appreciate your will to fight forward and tell your stories with courage and passion
Past generations corrupted, future generations wander without a voice, it's disgraceful
One thinking they're better than the next, it's too painful, it's betrayal

Red man claims pride, but where is the pride when red man does nothing about what happened
Red man stripped from everything that he once was, left behind
North America what it is now, born onto the burial grounds of our ancestors
Born on the genocide of the red man, and the enslavement of the black man
White man still see's nothing wrong with what they did, swept under the rug, what a disaster
Told to forget about it, nothing will heal the scars, not death, not time, not money, not words, nothing

What will happen when the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught
Will you realize money cannot be eaten or repeat history given no thought?
You breed with red man to thin the blood line for future generations
Even after five hundred years of resistance, we shall remain after all the corruption and frustration
One day there will be a new cycle, with nothing to block the winds from blowing freely, water thee earth with rain, nothing to hide the sun,

We still stand here today, a strong nation, nothing can stop us if we unite as one.