This one was special and hard fought. Everything had to fall in line. Thank you to the Luff brothers for their insight and musical acumen.
STOLEN SOIL
Intro)
Mist rose above an ancient land,
Shadows stretched where rivers ran.
(Verse 1)
First light spilling on Chesapeake’s shore,
Pale sails drifting, footsteps of more.
Prayers clutched in trembling hands,
Muskets heavy, they claimed the sand.
Pequot voices hushed by fire,
Wampanoag hearts tangle in wire.
Hope shimmered in the morning dew,
Stories were old, but the cost was new.
(Pre-Chorus)
Whispers through the pine and stone,
Echo tales of lives unknown.
(Chorus)
This earth remembers every name,
Wounds carried, never the same.
Mountains echo songs of loss and grace,
A broken nation wears a stranger’s face.
The river weeps but does not forget,
Stolen soil bears the debts.
(Verse 2)
Cherokee roads now paved in pain,
Promises shifting like summer rain.
Stars fell in the Trail of Tears,
Chickasaw silence, haunted by years.
Sitting Bull stood strong and clear,
Lakota thunder, proud and near.
Seminole spirit runs wild and free,
Yet treaties were brambles on a poisoned tree.
(Pre-Chorus)
Broken statues on the hill,
Empty songs, memories still.
(Chorus)
This earth remembers every name,
Wounds carried, never the same.
Mountains echo songs of loss and grace,
A broken nation wears a stranger’s face.
The river weeps but does not forget,
Stolen soil bears the debts.
(Verse 3)
In the golden hills of California where the rivers ran with ore,
Miners swarmed like locusts and the killings came in scores.
Missions turned to graveyards, tribes were hunted night and day,
Bounties paid for scalps while the children were led away.
Further east in Colorado where the sand creek waters flow,
Peace flags flew above the camp but the soldiers still brought woe.
Women, children, elders fell beneath the winter sky,
While the land kept silent witness to the blood that would not dry.
(Instrumental lead into lyrics)
(Bridge)
Ghosts gather where stories fade,
Echoes drifting in tallgrass shade.
Diné prayers sweep through the dust,
Osage voices remember the trust.
In fields where the wild wind bends,
Strength in sorrow never ends.
The drumbeat lingers under the skin,
Broken histories rising again.
(Pre-Chorus)
Broken statues on the hill,
Empty songs, memories still.
(Chorus)
This earth remembers every name,
Wounds carried, never the same.
Mountains echo songs of loss and grace,
A broken nation wears a stranger’s face.
The river weeps but does not forget,
Stolen soil bears the debts.
(Verse 4)
On the frozen ground at Wounded Knee the guns fell silent at last,
The dance of hope was shattered and the future faded fast.
From the Black Hills to the deserts the pattern carved its name,
Treaties signed in morning light then buried in the flame.
Yet the mountains hold the stories and the rivers know the cost,
Every highway, every city built on ground that can’t be lost.
The wind still carries voices from the ones who came before,
And the soil remembers every tear that fell upon its shore.
(Pre-Chorus)
Whispers through the pine and stone,
Echo tales of lives unknown.
(Chorus)
This earth remembers every name,
Wounds carried, never the same.
Mountains echo songs of loss and grace,
A broken nation wears a stranger’s face.
The river weeps but does not forget,
Stolen soil bears the debts.
(Outro)
Moon climbs over silent pines,
Old voices blend with shifting tides.
Names carried by wind and flame,
Here, all memories remain.
