The Talking Leaves

A            D            A
Sequoia's winters were sixteen 
                           D
Silent tongue spirit clean
           A
He walked at his father's side 
Across the smoking battle ground
           D                 A
Where red and white men lay all 
around
So many here had died The wind had 
scattered around
                    D        A    
Snow white leaves upon the ground 
                   D
Not leaves like leaves from trees
 A                               
Sequoia said, "What can this be?" 
    D                  A
"What's the strange thing here I 
see?"
             D                 A  
"From where come leaves like 
these? "Sequoia turned to his 
     D
father's eyes
         A
And he said, "Father you're wise 
From where come such snow white 
leaves

With such strange marks upon these 
squares
A               D                
Not even the wise owl could put 
      A                         
them there So strange these snow 
        D
white leaves"
               A
His father shielding his concern 
Resenting the knowledge Sequoia 
yearned
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              D                  
Crumbled the snow white leaves He 
         A
said, "When I explain then it's done
These are talking leaves, my son The
 white men's talking leaves"
           D            A         
The white man takes a berry of 
        D
black and red
A                 D          
And an eagle's feather from the 
            A
eagle's bed
A                                 
And he makes bird track marks And 
      D                   A
the marks on the leaves they say
D
Carry messages to his brother far 
away
A                                 
And his brother knows what's in 
    D
his heart
They see these marks and they 
     A
understand
                   D             
The truth in the heart of the far 
      A                           D
off man The enemies can't hear them
       A
Said Sequoia's father, "Son
They weave bad medicine on these 
talking leaves Leave such things to 
them"
A                          
Then Sequoia walking lightly 
     D                  A
Followed his father quietly

But so amazed was he
    D                       A     
If the white man talks on leaves 
               D
Why not the Cherokee?
   A                           
Vanished from his father's face 
   D                          A
Sequoia went from place to place
         D                         
But he could not forget Year after 
  A                   D
year he worked on and on
 A                         D      
Till finally he cut into stone The
             A
 Cherokee alphabet

  A
Sequoia's hair by now was white
His eyes began to lose their light 
But he taught all who would believe
      D                      A    
That the Indian's thoughts could 
            D
be written down
 A                        D       
Just as the white men's there on 
     A
the ground
                 D             A
And he left us these talking leaves