Drums lyrics

From the Indian reservation to the governmental school

Well they're goin' to educate me

To the white men's Golden Rule

And I'm learning very quickly for I've learned to be ashamed

And I come when they call Billy

Though I've got an Indian name

And there are drums beyond the mountain Indian drums

That you can't hear

There are drums beyond the mountain

And they're getting mighty near

And when they think that they'd changed me

Cut my hair to meet their needs

Will they think I'm white or Indian quarter blood

Or just half breed

Let me tell you Mr. teacher

When you say you'll make me right

In five hundred years of fighting

Not one Indian turned white

And there are drums...

Well you thought that I knew nothing

When you brought me here to school

Just another empty Indian just America's first fool

But now I can tell you stories

That are burnt and dried and old

But in the shadow of their telling walks the thunder proud and bold

And there are drums...

Long Pine and Sequoia Handsome Lake and Sitting Bull

There's Magnus Colorado with his sleeves so red and full

Crazy Horse the legend those who bit off Custer's soul

They are dead yet they are living with the great Geronimo

And there are drums...

Well you may teach me this land's history

But we taught it to you first

We broke your hearts and bent your journeys

Broken treaties left us cursed

Even now you have to cheat us

Even though you think us tame

In our losing we found proudness in your winning you found shame

And there are drums...

• Artist:Johnny Cash
• Album:Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian