Текст песни The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Live) - Johnny Cash

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather around me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian that we should remember well
From the tribe of the Pima Indian, a proud and peaceful 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 fight back down again

And when that fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men to hold 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 Hayes returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored
And 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

Then Ira started drinkin' hard
Jail was often his home
There they'd let him raise the flag and lower it
Like you'd throw a dog a bone

He died drunk early one mornin'
Born in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
It 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

(Thank you very much we've honored the American Indian as a sad song)