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This is the story of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act — which paved the way for post-Colonial America’s long-wished for heave-ho of all Indians to lands west of the Mississippi river. “What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our spacious Republic…filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?” asked Jackson — a famous racist — in his very introductory address to Congress as president just one year earlier. And he wasted no time in forcing through the disputable Act — in the end passed by Congress after bitter debate by a narrow margin of just 15 votes. All former treaties were voided. Resettlement was in theory “voluntary,” but those who resisted could be forcibly removed. Even a Supreme Court ruling in favour of the land rights of the Cherokee was overturned at Jackson’s behest.
The crucial victims of remotion were the so-called Five Civilised Tribes — the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole — but some littler tribes were also targeted. The infamously brutal westward journeys of these Native Americans have been well documented; the Cherokees, force-marched by military escort along the so-called Trail of Tears from Georgia and North Carolina to the Indian Territory, lost one-fourth of their people. Those who pulled through the ordeal to reach their destination faced a host of new difficulties. They speedily came into conflict with hostile indigenous groups, and the territory set apart for them was alien, harsh and oftentimes untenable. The United States, meanwhile, acquired millions and millions of acres of fertile Southern lands, which it sold at little or no earnings to speculators and settlers, in effect subsidising the elaboration of the cotton industry and the slave system.
White Americans, believing that the United States would never ever ever exaggerate beyond the Mississippi, accepted Jackson’s disingenuous argument that remotion was in the interest of the Indians; once resettled, they could govern themselves in peace. And so, for seemingly ending the long-running conflict with the Indians, Jackson was hailed as a hero. But it wasn’t long before the next land-grab began. With the outstanding migration westward after the 1840s, white settlers clashed with the Indian inhabitants. Ignoring earlier treaties, including those consorted in Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States once again forcibly got rid of Indians from their land and sent them to reservations that became ever littler in size. The Indian Removal Act, in the first place thought of as a final solution to the Indian problem, was therefore just another step in the long procedure of illegitimately removing closely all Indian claims to land desired by the United States.
As the mastermind of the Indian Removal Act, President Andrew Jackson was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Indians. Historian Bettina Drew asserts that: “More than any one other individual, Jackson banished Native Americans from our visual realm, our culture and our gene pool, and this must be recognized as his legacy.” Instead, his memory and effigy is commemorated on the American twenty-dollar bill. The only thing he must be ‘noted’ for is genocide!
Bitter Tears Ballads American Indian
Johnny sings eight songs from the point of view of the Native American on this moving 1964 album. Features the hit Ballad of Ira Hayes .
With his highly personal early 1960s work, Johnny Cash had been attempting the longanimity of the Columbia brass, who were less than thrilled with his mercantile performance. When “Ring of Fire” topped the country charts in 1963, it permitted him to carry on the a lot of ambitious conception albums-history lessons close to his heart. The eight songs on 1964′s Bitter Tears are sung from the point of view of the American Indian (still the accepted term in 1964), and together they form a potent work that is both deeply real and highly spiritual. With assistance from co-composer Peter LaFarge, Cash offers an earnest, solemn portrait of Native Americans that examines a potpourri of issues through a range of viewpoints and contained in unadorned musical settings. Cash actually took out full-page ads daring radio programmers to play “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” but all of the material hits home, from LaFarge’s defiant “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow” to Johnny Horton’s mournful, spooky “The Vanishing Race.” –Marc Greilsamer
Bitter Tears Ballads American Indian Picture
Bitter Tears Ballads American Indian Picture
Bitter Tears Ballads American Indian Pic
Bitter Tears Ballads American Indian Picture
Most helpful client reviews
61 of 61 people found the following review helpful.
 One of Cash’s shortest but best albums…
By ewomack
Johnny Cash had Cherokee blood in him. That fact, along with a strong sense of justice, provides rocket fuel for the passion that pervades “Bitter Tears”. At his 1969 Madison Square Garden concert, Cash said “…the ballad of the American Indian is a sad song…” The mood of this entire CD fits that statement. The musical arrangements lean toward the stark and minimal, supplying an apt backdrop to the bitter, defeated, and at times defiant lyrics.
Most of the songs on “Bitter Tears” come from the songbook of a Pima-Indian, Peter LaFarge. LaFarge served in the Korean War, worked with Cisco Houston, made a lot of recordings for Folkways and Columbia, and passed away in 1964 (of either suicide or stroke). That same year Columbia freed “Bitter Tears”. This CD now stands as an unplanned tribute to LaFarge (the initial liner notes refer to LaFarge in the present tense, so hopefully he lived to listen Cash’s interpretations of his songs).
Johnny Cash wrote “Apache Tears” and “The Talking Leaves”. LaFarge wrote the remaining songs except J.Horton’s “The Vanishing Race”. The CD holds not one thing but great songs, a good deal of of which refer to real historic persons or events.
“As Long as The Grass Shall Grow” sums up the history of broken treaties. After the American Revolution, the United States found itself very weak. To placate the American Indians (many of who fought on the side of the British), the US government offered numerous peace treaties promising land “as long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow”. US Courts later interpreted such phrases as pure metaphor, and refused claims to land that the treaties promised. LaFarge uses the real life example of the damming of Allegheny River, and the consequent dislocation of a great deal of Native Americans, near Pittsburgh as proof of these broken treaties.
“The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is a unfeigned story. Ira Hayes actually helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, returned home a broken man, turned to drinking, and passed from physical life far too young. The song stands as Hayes’ all too precise poetic biography. Pete LaFarge’s bleak lyrics apparently offended some, but no one may deny their raw power. In the context of “Bitter Tears” they fetch out the paradox of the patriotic Pima Indian who helped defend the country that treated his humans as second-class citizens. The song hit number 3 on the charts. Not a typical hit for any artist.
“Custer” is a real eyebrow-raiser. It celebrates the ruination of Custer, finish with chuckles and sarcasm: “Well, Custer split his men/well he won’t do that again/And the popular he don’t ride well anymore”; “It’s not called an Indian Victory, but a bloody massacre”; “There might have been more enthusin’ if us Indian’s had been losin’”. As the liner notes say: “The contents of this album is the Indian’s side of the story.”
Other topics on the CD include: Native Americans dating white women (and the difficulties that may result); the creation of the Cherokee alphabet through the invention of ‘talking leaves’; the ‘re-education’ of Native Americans by the United States goverment.
“Bitter Tears” gushes with sadness, bitterness, and lost hopes. It may offend, inspire, enlighten, depress, anger, or confuse, depending upon one’s viewpoint. But without question, a reasonable listen to this CD will arouse a lot of response, and that’s one of the main reasons it will stay one of Johnny Cash’s greatest works.
22 of 22 persons found the following review helpful.
Johnny Cash’s tribute to his Native American roots
By David Kenner
Johnny Cash is one of those performers who may sing anything and make it work. Recent albums containing covers ranging from Hank Snow to Soundgarden bear witness to this. But there are assorted albums in his catalog that are even more special than the intermediate Cash collection. Bitter Tears is one of these particular experiences. 8 classic cuts in regards to the history, the tryouts and the pride of the American Indian. Rarely has an artisan recorded more in an emotional manner moving material. There are various great Johnny Cash best-of’s out there, but this is an necessary CD to own in addition to the greatest hits collections. Especially remarkable are Cash’s performances of songs by the late Native American singer-songwriter Peter LaFarge, who composed 5 of the 8 tracks on this disc. After listening to this, I would commend purchasing LaFarge’s discs, presently available from the Bear Family label in Germany.
19 of 19 persons found the following review helpful.
What’s an Indian, anyway?
By Johnny Heering
This is an outstanding, politically concious “concept album”. Johnny Cash had great empathy for the downtrodden, and who has been more downtrodden than the American Natives? Nobody. So, this is a very heartfelt album. Here is what Cash wrote in regards to this album is his autobiography: “Bitter Tears, in which I was inspired by the Native American songwriter Peter LeFarge, was an intense exploration project. I dove into essential and secondary sources, immersing myself in the tragic stories of the Cherokee and the Apache, amid others, until I was almost as raw as Peter. By the time I in truth recorded the album I carried a heavy load of sadness and outrage; I felt each word of these songs, specially “Apache Tears” and “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”. I meant each word, too. I was long past the point of pulling my punches.”
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