Before This Country Poem by Randy McClave

Before this country was blue
This land was Cherokee, Pawnee, Blackfoot and Sioux,
The Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho also lived here
Then they walked the trail of tears.
We didn't arrive in this land to help or heal,
We arrived in their land to rape, murder and take and steal.

Before this country was colored white
For their land the Native Americans did proudly fight,
We drove them away from their ancestral home
Now, they will forever roam.
We forced upon them our heritage and way of life,
Now they took on our greed and strife.

Before this country was colored red
We killed the native Americans dead,
We then destroyed their life and beliefs and land
With the wave of money and weapons in the hand.
This was home to the native Americans proud and true,
But, now we call it the home of the red, white and blue.

Randy L. McClave