JTMP: Paul Revere & the Raiders - "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Indian Reservation)"
Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2014, 09:29 AM - Edit history (1)
OCT 6, 2014 – Paul Revere who led the 1960s rock group Paul Revere and the Raiders passed away at his home in Idaho yesterday. Paul Revere played the keyboards, and especially the electronic organ, and it was the driving force on their huge 1971 hit song, “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)”, where his organ holds the melody line and makes the song. The song was actually written by the great American songwriter John D. Loudermilk and was covered by 2 groups prior to Paul Revere and the Raiders recording it. The first time I heard that song I loved it. The song sang about the plight of the Native People of North America, and especially the Cherokee Nation, who were forcefully relocated under pointed guns by the US Federal government to march hundreds of miles on the “Trail of Tears” all the way to an Oklahoman reservation. Hundreds of Cherokee perished on the forced march, even children. The song talks about how the Native culture of making beads and their language were being systematically wiped out by Europeans.
Not many people know, but Native children in the early 1900s and up until the 1940s were forced to go to Native American Boarding Schools that forbid them to speak their tongue and forced Christianity down their throats. The movie “The Education of Little Tree” portrays a young Cherokee boy who had to go through this horrible practice. I highly recommend watching that movie.
Watch Paul Revere and the Raiders perform…okay lip sync…”Indian Reservation” below.
http://www.jtmp.org/2014/10/06/1960s-rocker-paul-revere-passes/
= new reply since forum marked as read
she was self conscious about the scars on her shoulders & back from the beatings she took as a little girl from the Indian school she was forced to attend. My mom was born in 1924. The school she attended was run by the Catholic Church--needless to say, Christianity wasn't practiced in our home. In fact, my mom always said "Poop Paul". Actually, the last BIA boarding school in Michigan didn't close down until the mid-1970's. A friend of mine was one of the last kids forced to attend.
That is a VERY dark chapter in both the history of the Catholic Church and the United States government.
R.I.P., sir! 
it - the truth - doesn't serve the myth created to uphold the illusion of exceptionalism for the dominant culture.
I have taken classes in federal Indian Law which confirmed my personal speculations.
Point in fact is that for Native Americans most often our federal laws - some of which still stand from the 1800s - are the manner in which we, as a country, interact with Native Americans and their lives including foisting our form of governing upon them which they must embrace and put into practice in order for them to be recognized as a "tribe" who has the "right" to function as a sovereign (albeit a moving goalpost of definitions). When crime is committed on a reservation, for example, the FBI are the investigating agency - that is if/when they actually show up. When any law is formulated or a change in one of our laws regarding Native Americans is addressed, it requires one of three federal motions and those are: an Act of Congress; a SCOTUS decision/decree; an Executive Order from the president... that's it.
I know many Native Americans, have very close relationships with some and I completely sympathize with 99% of their grievances.
