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Brave

by K L Dennis

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about

My Dad's family were part of the great westward migration of pioneers; they lived in a sod and timber house with no electricity or running water until the 50's. Somehow they survived winters and sickness and the Depression to raise a family out on a cattle ranch in eastern Montana. I grew up mainly hearing about this ranch because it was sold when I was still young. And then I traveled far away from all of it. Only much later did I learn about the early efforts by the U.S. Gov't. to clear that land of the Native Americans - the North Cheyenne - to allow for settlers like my grandparents. So this song is about that bittersweet, painful, messy, remarkable history - my history, in part - though I'm only lately learning that.

lyrics

The Brave © 2011/18 KL Dennis

Out West in the Powder watershed
Among the long forgotten dead;
Runs a river called the Tongue
Witness to what was lost and won;
Young Irish cowboy and his bride
Whose hopeful eyes had not yet cried
Built a house of wood and mud
Learned the lessons between bone and blood

This is a song about the brave
Both Indians and cowboys in their graves
They did battle with the winter
Beaten down by the killing sun
A life so hard we can’t remember
Are we forgetting what they’ve done?
Are we forgetting what they’ve done?

Under orders from the government
The soldiers moved the North Cheyenne;
Drove them like cattle wild with fear
And cleared the way for the pioneers
Everyone has dreams to fill
And people rarely plan to kill
The natives weren’t the enemies
But bankers, hunger and disease

Bridge:
Out mending fences many years later
The rancher’s heart gave way and burst
His friend Old Yellow Hair found him there
And could tell his widow to have no fear:
“He did not struggle or suffer pain - for I would have read those signs", he said, "written in the dust.”

I long ago lost that promised land
Burning bridges to my own past
In later years, though, I’ve come to see
I am still part of that history
Of all the blood and tears that spilled
Of that great human patchwork quilt
I’m in those stitches that were sewn
I’m in the dark threads and the gold

This is a song about the brave
Both Indians and cowboys in their graves
They did battle with the winter
Beaten down by the killing sun
A life so hard we can’t remember
Are we forgetting what they’ve done?
Are we forgetting what they’ve done?

credits

released March 28, 2018

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K L Dennis Los Angeles, California

I'm a rebel against the way things are going. I'm a Christian who didn't vote the same way as many of my brothers and sisters. I write songs about things that matter to a man who wakes up in an increasingly strange world, and then turns that into songs. I started with five chords and the truth; now I have a few more chords. Still going for truth. ... more

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