Steve Coffee, Songwriter

Indian Joe

©2013 Stephen R Coffee

During the Dust Bowl, there would have been a few Native Americans who still remembered the nomadic life on the Plains. What would they have thought of white man's ways? From Rain Follows the Plow, here performed by Kevin Dudley.

"Outsanding Achievement In Songwriting," Great American Song Contest

Honorable Mention, Woody Guthrie Song Contest

Did you hunt the buffalo?
Can you still see buffalo
steaming in the morning glow
smell their blood, hear ‘em low
when the sun spoke Arapaho
Indian Joe

You wear your hat pulled over your eyes
you don’t look no one in the eyes
little children run and hide
women cross to the other side
but the cowboys say no one can ride like
Indian Joe, mm hmmm

you ride the old Comanche trail
what’s left of the Comanche trail
you ride through snow and wind and hail
you’d rather face the coffin nail
than the reservation or the jail
Indian Joe, oh where are your people?

You watched the grassland disappear
the wolf and wildcat disappear
everything that you held dear
thunderbird, pronghorn deer,
bow and arrow, and the spear
Indian Joe, where are your people?

Did you dance to bring the rain?
hey, you could dance to bring the rain?
you warrior of the wind’s domain
lightening on the open plain
running like an open vein
Indian Joe, where are your people
Indian Joe, where are your people?

More songs for your listening pleasure:

Alice

Soundtrack of one man's journey through the Australian Outback

The Impossible Sky

Ruth finds beauty in a harsh environment. From Rain Follows the Plow

Maria

A lonely voice from the borderlands

Deepwater Requiem

Epic folk tale treatment of the Horizon disaster

To the Light

Close encounters with the past--and the inevitable future

Castle of Thorns

The distance between here and there

Going to the Ukraine

Those Ukraine girls make me scream and holler.

Praise the Drugs and Pass the Ammunition

Regarding the War on Sanity

Mert's Mix

An appetizing Okie Rap

The Writing on the Wall

Song and video about visiting my dad's old home place.

The Foundation

a momentary detour on the way into town

Guantanamo

Still relevant, eighteen years later