Ballad Of Yvonne Johnson

Eliza Gilkyson/Yvonne Johnson
 My name is Yvonne Johnson, my native blood is Cree
 I'm here to tell the story of the life stolen from me
 My grandfather's grandfather was the great war chief Big Bear
 And Flora my grandmother worked with medicine and prayer
 My mother's from Saskatchewan, my dad's U.S. marine
 And I was just a half-breed falling somewhere in between
 Raised up in a reckless world of drugs and alcohol
 The police killed my brother Earl, the only one who cared at all
 Cleft palate split my face in two, my words came soft and spare
 I lived in shame and ridicule, foundations of despair
 Daniel let the kids all watch when I was oly three
 He threw me on the table, forced himself inside me
 My brother Leon learned from him what I learned not to tell
 Cause when my daddy found him then he had his way as well, boys,
 He took me down as well
 I didn't have a language for the pain I suffered through
 Escaping into marriage, but your past just catches up with you
 Until I had three children and a ragged family
 A desperate urge to keep them from the wolves that got to me, boys,
 Wolves that got to me
 I wish I could forget that night, the way the cards all fell
 The deck was stacked against me and I played my part so well
 Three days on the party in a drunken revelry
 Shirley Ann said Chuck had plans to lure my kids from me
 I wrapped the cord around him there, they beat him round the head
 They threw him down the cellar stairs and pulled the cord til he was dead
 Courts set me up to take the fall, I went down silently
 I'm doing life in prison now for murder first degree,
 While they got leniency
 Grandmother, grandmother, send your prayers to me
 Protect me and my children, for I love them endlessly
 Creator, creator, I have come alive
 Medicine bear woman, doing life at 35, life at 35
 I pray
 Help me to make my amends to those that I have harmed
 Grant them love and peace so they may understand I'm sorry
 Help me share my shame and pain so others they might do the same
 And so awaken to themselves and to all people of this world
 Hai hai
 Hai hai
 Aho