A Handful Of Pearls

These sacred hills contain the heart of everything
They came to dig for Gold and they're still digging for another seam
The ghost dancers sing to bring back the vanquished
A century older and mourners still wipe away tears
Peoples dreams died here
Well so it goes
This was how the west was won
Drunken Navajos at the end of John Wayne's gun
Earning a pittance in monument valley
A history re written over and over again
An irony not lost on them
For a handful of pearls we could have bought Manhattan
And we could be living there still
Four Hundred promises that crumbled into nothing
And dignity all but distilled
For a Handful of pearls
In the mobile homes where the prefabs and the debris stand
Lies the empty shell of a people and a tired land
The dust in the bars of the Sioux reservation
Are a million miles from civilisation and you
And more statistic that we never knew
For a handful of pearls we could have bought Manhattan
And we could be living there still
Four Hundred promises that crumbled into nothing
We could have stayed there until
Just a handful of pearls could have bought us nothing
Only the motive to kill
And we choke on the words
When every four hours someone is footing the bill
For a handful of pearls