Buffy Sainte-Marie - My Country Tis Of Thy People Youre Dying Chords

[Verse 1]
G                 E7        D       G
Now that your big eyes have finally opened
Am              F          Am            F
Now that you're wondering "how must they feel?"
D       G                E7             D               G
Meaning them that you've chased across America's movie screens
Am              F              Am        F
Now that you're wondering "how can it be real?"
D        G                  E7        D         G
That the ones you've called colorful, noble and proud
         Am         F            Am              F
In your school propaganda, they starve in their splendor
D      G            E7         D           G
You've asked for my comment, I simply will render
G      D        G      C  G   F      D  G
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying
 
 
[Verse 2]
G            E7         D           G
Now that the longhouses breed superstition
    Am          F        Am        F
You force us to send our toddlers away
   D     G                    E7           D             G
To your schools where they're taught to despise their traditions
   Am             F          Am           F
Forbid them their languages, then further say
D     G       E7      D        G
That American history really began
       Am         F           Am          F
When Columbus set sail out of Europe and stress
D        G         E7           D              G
That the nation of leeches that conquered this land
        Am          F           Am          F
Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best
    D   G             E7      D            G
And yet where in your history books is the tale
       Am       F        Am             F
Of the genocide basic to this country's birth
D      G             E7            D              G
Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed
      Am        F          Am              F
How a nation of patriots returned to their earth?
D   G             E7          D       G
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
      Am          F         Am     F
As it rang with a thud over Kinzua mud
D      G           E7      D          G
And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year?
G      D        G      C  G   F      D  G
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying
 
 
[Verse 3]
G            E7          D            G
Hear how the bargain was made for the West
         Am        F           Am     F
With her shivering children in zero degrees
D  G                 E7           D          G
   Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest
         Am           F         Am        F
Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed
D       G             E7          D          G
And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
      Am        F            Am            F
From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day
D       G                 E7          D             G
And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored
          Am             F                       Am          F
A hundred years of your statesmen have felt it's better this way
    D     G          E7             D          G
And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived
      Am             F              Am         F
Their blood runs the redder, though genes have paled
D        G              E7         D          G
From the Grand Canyon's caverns to craven sad hills
    Am           F           Am                F
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale
D        G       E7        D           G
From Los Angeles County to upstate New York
    Am           F             Am          F
The white nation fattens while others grow lean
D       G            E7           D           G
Oh, the tricked and evicted, they know what I mean
G      D        G      C  G   F      D  G
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying
 
 
[Verse 4]
    G            E7            D           G
The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens
    Am              F          Am       F
Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks
D   G            E7            D            G
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands
       Am            F               Am         F
And surprise in your eyes that we're lacking in thanks
D       G            E7    D             G
For the blessings of civilization you've brought us
    Am             F              Am          F
The lessons you've taught us, the ruin you've wrought us
D  G            E7        D        G
Oh see what our trust in America's brought us
G      D        G      C  G   F      D  G
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying
 
 
[Verse 5]
G            E7           D              G
Now that the pride of the sires receives charity
Am             F            Am          F
Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws
D  G           E7           D             G
   Now that my life's to be known as your heritage
Am       F        Am               F
Now that even the graves have been robbed
D  G            E7         D        G
   Now that our own chosen way is a novelty
Am           F           Am            F
Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory
D  G             E7              D        G
   Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy
Am          F              Am           F
Pitying the blindness that you've never seen
D        G         E7        D              G
That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory
          Am       F         Am      F
They were never no more than carrion crows
D          G                E7                D                    G
Pushed the wrens from their nest, stole their eggs, changed their story
    Am          F              Am           F
The mockingbird sings it, it's all that she knows
 D  G          E7         D         G
"Ah what can I do?" say a powerless few
       Am           F            Am           F
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye
      D   G              E7        D         G
Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you
G      D        G      C  G   F      D  G
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying