words by Joni Mitchell music by Larry Klein and Joni Mitchell I am Lakota! Lakota! Looking at money man-- Diggin' the deadly quotas-- Out of balance-- Out of hand We want the land! Lay down the reeking ore! Don't you hear the shrieking in the trees? Everywhere you touch the earth--she's sore Every time you skin her all things weep Your money mocks us-- Restitution--what good can it do?-- Kennelled in metered boxes Red dogs in debt to you I am Lakota! Lakota! Fighting among ourselves All we can say with one whole heart Is we won't sell-- No we'll never sell We want the land! The lonely coyote calls In the woodlands--footprints of the deer In the barrooms--poor drunk bastard falls In the courtrooms--deaf ears--sixty years You think we're sleeping--but Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars We have seen the trampled rainbows In the smoke of cars I am Lakota Brave Sun pity me I am Lakota Broken Moon pity me I am Lakota Grave Shadows stretching Lakota Oh pity me I am Lakota Weak Grass pity me I am Lakota Faithful Rocks pity me I am Lakota Meek Standing water Lakota Oh pity me I am Lakota! Lakota! Standing on sacred land We never sold these Black Hills To the missile-heads-- To the power plants We want the land! The bullet and the fence--broke Lakota The black coats and the booze--broke Lakota Courts that circumvent--choke Lakota Nothing left to lose Tell me grandfather You spoke the fur and feather tongues-- Do you hear the whimpering waters When the tractors come? Repeat Chorus Sun pity me Mother earth Mother Moon pity me Father sky Father Shadows Stretching on the forest floor Mother earth Oh pity me Father sky Father Grass pity me Mother earth Mother Rocks pity me Father sky Father Water Standing in a wakan manner Mother earth Oh pity me