Give Back This Stolen Land

They came for the pride and the glory of the Western Man,
With swords and guns and bibles waving in their hands.
Seeking gold and riches and roads to the Orient;
In the service of the powers of the European Continent.
Like a wave of locust crossing the sea,
On battleships of manifest destiny,
Under cover of religion each incursion blessed with sacraments.
Dreams of riches, fountains of youth;
Twisted wishes, perversions of truth;
Whole indigenous nations vaporized;
Displaced and colonized,
Erased by genocide.

Four-hundred broken treaties with more than five-hundred tribes,
Bison slaughter, cannon fodder, poisoned water and bribes.
They called ‘em savages to justify
All the ravages they couldn’t deny;
The history of their crimes and theft left buried in lies.
Conquistadors of white supremacy,
Might makes right their ideology.
A mortal stain on our history,
Atonement must be made,
Restitution will be paid.

[Chorus] Give it back, give back this stolen land,
Restore the rights of the Native inhabitants.
There will be no recovery, or new ghost dance prophesy.
Until there’s an epiphany, we stand – on Stolen Land.

On display in museums, you can see em’ ‘neath the Saint Louis Arch;
The early innings, the beginnings of a very long imperialist march.
From the lost healing arts, buried hearts up at Wounded Knee,
To disasters and massacres from sea to polluted sea.
Trails of blood and tears, mountains of wrongs,
Blankets with diseases as deadly as bombs,
Milking mother earth for all she’s worth, and it’s still going on.
We’ll never rectify the sins of the past,
Until justice is the die we cast.
This culture of conquest will never last.
A day of reckoning will see,
Indigenous Peoples free.

[Chorus] Give it back, give back this stolen land,
Restore the rights of the Native inhabitants.
Give it back, give back this stolen land.
Give Mother Earth a rebirth just as fast as we can.
There will be no recovery, or new ghost dance prophesy.
Until there’s a real epiphany, we stand – on Stolen Land.