I saw you lying there, dead in the snow In a picture that was taken so many years ago And it hung on the wall, like some big old head A trophy to the men who shot you all dead
In a picture before, men were drinking a toast They were probably boasting over who shot the most As they held up their chins and they stuck out their chests As they posed for their photographs in their Sunday best
Chorus: And all of you heroes are now dead and gone You're only remembered in stories and songs Yesterday's people on yesterday's plains Everything's different now, but nothing has changed
You were doing the ghost dance; that's how it read You were calling the spirits of your warrior dead And the shirts that you got from your medicine man Were said to stop bullets, but only God can
I was led to believe that when I was young That the good guy was the cowboy with the big shiny gun And if you had red skin, well you had to die It was only a game, but we never knew why
Chorus
Well they sold their movies, and we bought their lies But our heroes were the ones that we grew to despise When the great white father had blood on his hands And he broke all his treaties; and took all your lands
Then they buried you all in a mighty big hole Without any respect for your body or soul When their great carbine guns rained down misery And you died in the snow that day at Wounded Knee
And all of you heroes are now dead and gone You're only remembered in stories and songs Yesterday's people on yesterday's plains Everything's different now, but nothing has changed Nothing has changed, no nothing has changed Nothing has changed, nothing has changed Nothing has changed
Source: transcription from Billy O'Dwyer 'The Time Has Come'