Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes He won't answer anymore Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian Nor the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
> From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down the ditches for a thousand years The water grew Ira's peoples' crops 'Till the white man stole the water rights And the sparklin' water stopped Now Ira's folks were hungry And their land grew crops of weeds When war came, Ira volunteered And forgot the white man's greed
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes He won't answer anymore Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill, Two hundred and fifty men But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again And when the fight was over And when Old Glory raised Among the men who held it high Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes He won't answer anymore Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira returned a hero Celebrated through the land He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand But he was just a Pima Indian No water, no crops, no chance At home nobody cared what Ira'd done And when did the Indians dance
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes He won't answer anymore Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian Nor the Marine that went to war
Then Ira started drinkin' hard; Jail was often his home They'd let him raise the flag and lower it like you'd throw a dog a bone! He died drunk one mornin' Alone in the land he fought to save Two inches of water in a lonely ditch Was a grave for Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes He won't answer anymore Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes But his land is just as dry And his ghost is lyin' thirsty In the ditch where Ira died
and here is an interesting comment someone put on my site:
Johnny Cash (who describes himself as being nearly half Cherokee-Mohawk) took out a full-page ad in Billboard in '64 or thereabouts to chastise the radio DJs & station managers who refused to play "The Ballad of Ira Hayes". In the early '70s an LP came out on the (German) Bear Family label called 'Bitter Tears - Ballads Of The American Indian', compiling related songs Cash recorded during the same period as "Ira", such as "Apache Tears", "Custer", "White Girl", "The Talking Leaves", "The Vanishing Race", etc. The Billboard ad is reprinted on the back of the LP.