His father was a man who could never understand   The shame on a red man's face   So they lived in the hills and they never came down   But to trade in the white man's place      It was early in the spring when the snow had disappeared   They came down with a bag of skins   In the fall of the year of 1910   Daddy died by the rope down in Cherokee Bend      Daddy didn't like what the white man said   'Bout the dirty little kid at his side   Daddy didn't like what the white man did   Nor the deal or the way that he lied      There was blood on the floor of the government store   When the men took his daddy away   But the boy stayed back till he come to his end   And he run like the wind from Cherokee Bend      Now the mother was alone and the winter was at hand   And she prayed to her spirit kin   It was warm in the lodge in the Kentucky hills   On the day when the boy came in      Then a blizzard came down and it covered up the door   Till they thought that it never would end   And he told her the tale of the terrible affair   In the government store down in Cherokee Bend      Daddy didn't like what the white man said   'Bout the dirty little kid at his side   Daddy didn't like what the white man did   Nor the deal or the way that he lied      For three long days and three long nights   They wept and they mourned and then   She returned to her work and her weavin'   And they tried to forget about Cherokee Bend      Now the boy wasn't big but he hunted what he could   And they lived for a time that way   But the food run low and the meat went bad   And she said to the boy one day      I'm leaving tonight and I never will return   From the land of my Spirit Kin   You must take what you need and trade what you can   For a Red Man's grave down in Cherokee Bend      It wasn't very long till she closed her eyes   And he wrapped her in a robe   He found her a place on the side of the hill   And he buried her in the snow      Early in the spring he was seen in the town   With his load looking ragged and thin   Not a year had gone by till he stood once again   In the government store down in Cherokee Bend      He was ten years tall and a Redskin too   So he hadn't much face to save   And the men sat around and they laughed and they clowned   At the talk of a criminal's grave      Then the man from the east didn't smile when he said   You're the son of that Indian scum   If you value your hide then you better abide   By the white man's rules here in Cherokee Bend      Daddy didn't like what the white man said   'Bout the dirty little kid at his side   Daddy didn't like what the white man did   Nor the deal or the way that he lied      And he spit on the floor of the government store   And it served him to no good end   At the close of the day they had taken him away   To the white man's school down at Cherokee Bend      It's been 21 years since the boy disappeared   Where he run to, nobody knows   But they say he fell in with a man named Jim   And he rides in the rodeos      And they say he returns all alone to a place   Hidden deep in the Kentucky glen   And it's pretty well known who hauled up the stone   To the grave on the hill above Cherokee Bend      Daddy didn't like what the white man said   'Bout the dirty little kid at his side   Daddy didn't like what the white man did   Nor the deal or the way that he lied      There was blood on the floor of the government store   When the men took his daddy away   It was 1910 and they never had a friend   When he died by the rope down at Cherokee Bend      It was 1910 and they never had a friend   When he died by the rope down at Cherokee Bend