Ira Hayes   Ira Hayes      Call him drunken Ira Hayes   He won't answer anymore   Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian   Nor the Marine that went to war      Gather round me people there's a story I would tell   About a brave young Indian you should remember well   From the land of the Pima Indian a proud and noble band   Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land      Down the ditches for a thousand years   The water grew Ira's peoples' crops   'Till the white man stole the water rights   And the sparklin' water stopped      Now Ira's folks were hungry   And their land grew crops of weeds   When war came, Ira volunteered   And forgot the white man's greed      Call him drunken Ira Hayes   He won't answer anymore   Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian   Nor the Marine that went to war      There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill   Two hundred and fifty men   But only twenty-seven   Lived to walk back down again      And when the fight was over   And when Old Glory raised   Among the men who held it high   Was the Indian, Ira Hayes      Call him drunken Ira Hayes   He won't answer anymore   Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian   Nor the Marine that went to war      Ira returned a hero   Celebrated through the land   He was wined and speeched and honored   Everybody shook his hand      But he was just a Pima Indian   No water, no crops, no chance   At home nobody cared what Ira'd done   And when did the Indians dance      Call him drunken Ira Hayes   He won't answer anymore   Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian   Nor the Marine that went to war      Then Ira started drinkin' hard   Jail was often his home   They'd let him raise the flag and lower it   Like you'd throw a dog a bone      He died drunk one mornin'   Alone in the land he fought to save   Two inches of water in a lonely ditch   Was a grave for Ira Hayes      Call him drunken Ira Hayes   He won't answer anymore   Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian   Nor the Marine that went to war      Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes   But his land is just as dry   And his ghost is lyin' thirsty   In the ditch where Ira died