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The American Chief's Song of Defiance

from Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) by John Collie (1834-1893)

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I SCORN to stoop ' neath a foreign yoke , Or crouch at a tyrant's nod ; For my home is the mountain and rock , And my bed is the grassy sod . And all is mine in my flowery West , From the hill to the ocean blue ; And I love to skim o'er the ocean's breast In my rough but swift canoe . I ask no aid from a foreign arm My legal rights to guard ; With my faithful tribe I fear no harm , And the forests me food afford . For me the trees which deck my plains , With their luscious burdens bend ; And the streams which roll through my wild domains , For me o'er their crags descend . Could I be so base as resign my right To the gold - enamoured slave ; Or shrink from the front of the bloody fight , My worthless life to save ? No , no ; the ghosts of departed worth Would rise and round me howl ; And fearful forms would spring into birth , To crush my guilty soul . But I will be free as the flower that breathes , And free as the balmy gale , As it rides o'er the Andes snowy wreaths , And plays in my flowery vale .

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from Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856), released May 24, 2022
John Collie (1834-1893) - lyrics

Dave Edwards - ukulele, vocal

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fiffdimension Featherston, New Zealand

Outsider music from Aotearoa NZ and beyond, by Dave Edwards and collaborators (from 1856 to 2024).

Spans acoustic & electric noise, rock, folk, spoken word, postpunk, free jazz, gamelan, lo fi, electronica, & ethnomusicology.

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