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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


RED BUCK BILL by HENRY T. CHAMBERS

First Line: RED BUCK BILL WAS A TONKAWA
Last Line: YOU CAN SEE HIS GRAVE.
Subject(s): NATIVE AMERICANS; INDIANS OF AMERICA; AMERICAN INDIANS; INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA;

Red Buck Bill was a Tonkawa.
He was in his prime
And roamed the brown prairie
Before the white man's time.

He was chief in his old age
And watched with clouded stare
How hordes of bearded white men
Were crowding everywhere.
So Red Buck made a prophecy
To frighten his despair.

@3The white man is soft man
He will surely die
When there is naught to cover him
From the fierce sky.
The white man is fool man
To kill the buffalo,
The antelope and prairie grass.
He will starve slow.
The white man came quickly,
And quickly he will go.@1

Thus spoke Red Buck,
Old, bitter brave.
From U. S. Highway 66
You can see his grave.



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