Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 15 - 07:31 PM

Nine/ Seven time

O ah
La a too Ah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: cetmst
Date: 08 Jun 15 - 10:48 AM

There is much I cannot make out from the recording. I hope someone can fill in place names and other blanks.

Soar like the eagle,
Dive like the hawk,
Hear the drums of the Nez Perce People,
Listen to the mountains talk.

In the lush Wallawa Valley
The Nez Perce people lived,
______________ of the Chinroot
And they ____ with the seasons
___________________________
And they fought when they had to
For they knew the ways of was.

Then the white men came, Lewis and Clark
And the missionaries too,
Followed the hungry miners
And the scoundrels selling booze.
And the troubles they were bound to come
As they had come before
But the Nez Perce said they'd never shed
The white men's blood in war.

The settlere come from over the hills
For a place to call their own
____ Joseph from the borders of his home
And the treaty rights of the Nez Perce
They simply did ignore
____ Young Joseph said
We want peace not war.

Soar like the eagle,
Dive like the hawk,
Hear the drums of the Nez Perce people,
Listen to the mountains talk.

For ten long years the settlers came,
Despite the Nez Perce pleas.
They came and went and they grazed their flocks
Just where they pleased.
Until a young warrior was shot down -
They said he stole a horse.
Young Joseph calmed his men -
We don't want a war.

Although the Nez Perce never signed that treaty
That robbed them of their land
The Army came and ordered them
Their campsites(?) to disband
And with _____ ___ and rivers
They had thirty days, no more
And Joseph said they would comply,
They did not want a war.

Soar like the eagle,
Dive like the dove,
Hear the drums of the Nez Perce people,
Listen to the mountains talk.

Young warriors rode in the night
_____ at the white man's ____
In the Salmon River settlements
They left the white's to bleed
And now there was no turning back,
They'd passed through a one way door
And with the army in pursuit
The Nez Perce geared for war.

At White Bird and Clearwater
They turned the cavalry back
And other bands joined the fight,
The rebellion did enlarge
____ and Lolo Pass
To the Bitterroot Valley Floor
With their women and their children
The Nez Perce fought this was.

In the early dawn at Big Hole
Soldiers surprised them in their sleep
They fought back in desperation
But they had more cause to weep
For many braves were lost that day
And the Nez Perce ____ ___
For in their ___ they won the fight
But they could not win the war.

So on they fled to Yellowstone,
The country of the Crow,
A people who had once been friends
But now scouted for the foe.
Then north across Montana
For Canada's peaceful shore
For only in that northern land
Could they escape this war.

They were one day's ride from safety
In that Great Queen Mother's land,
At lonely Bear Claw Mountain
They made their final stand.
They were caught in a closing jaw
Of armies of a hundred score.
Joseph said, holding high his head
"We will fight no more, forever".

Soar like the eagle,
Dive like the hawk,
Hear the drums of the Nez Perce people,
Listen to the mountains talk.

Now promises were made that day
A hundred years ago,
That the Nez Perce could return again
To their lands in Idaho
But still ____ exiled ____
_______________________
Victims of our forefather's genocidal war.

Song ends with drumming and chanting.

Visiting websites Nez Perce Battles and Wars and of the National Park Service's Nez Perce Trail gets more of the history and maps of the campaign and Fred Small's "Heart of the Appaloosa" is a great supplement. There is also a documentary film on YouTube entitled "Horse People"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: Louie Roy
Date: 06 Jun 15 - 03:41 PM

I was born on the Nez Perce Indian reservation in 1925 in a tent and the people I owe my existence to are a full blooded Nez Perce Indian and His Lovely wife also a full blood Nez Perce Lady Louie Roy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Jun 15 - 02:48 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Joseph

There's a brief account of Chief Joseph at that wiki link above.

The song mg mentioned is the live link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBo80i3Md-c

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Jun 15 - 11:54 AM

i think heart of the appaloosa is also about them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: cetmst
Date: 06 Jun 15 - 09:33 AM

I have the song on a cassette I transcribed from a radio program, probably Mary Cliff's Traditions. I have indexed it as The Nez Perce People which may not be it's real title and have Peter Lafarge typed on the card. When I can find the time I will send what I can Make out of the Transcription. The chorus is Soar like the eagle,, Flu like the hawk, Hear the drums of the Nez Perce people, Listen to the mountain talk - Charles

Subject: Lyr Req: Looking for Song about the Nez Perce
From: GUEST,CrispyDruid
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 06:03 PM

Good afternoon folks,

I was talking at work about the Native Americans and I remembered the chorus of a song on a cassette tape my Dad used to play in the car on road trips about the rout of the Nez Perce, but can't find any mention of the song online using it. From memory, it was similar to:

Fly like the eagle
Dive like the hawk
Hear the drums of the Nez Perce people
Listen to the mountains talk

For what I remember; it was a moderately quick, folk-rock-ish tune played over a stereotypical Da-dum dum dum Da-dum dum dum 'Indian' drum rhythm.

Any help finding info on the song would be much appreciated.

Thanks!