https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Pass 🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦 I came in peace to Apache Pass, my wife and children near My brother and my nephews too, no reason here for fear A boy was taken, cattle stolen, not by my hand or my band But the lieutenant in his canvas tent had already judged the land He called it talk, he meant a trap, the soldiers closed the ring I cut the canvas with my knife and ran beneath their gunfire's sting They call me Cochise, hardwood, unbending in the fire I left my family in that tent - that's a debt that has no end Treat my people well, I said, and I'll do the same for yours But the answer came in nooses swinging slow against the stars Sixteen days of mayhem, hostage traded for a hostage's life My brother hanging from a tree where I'd brought him my own wife I sent three white men to their deaths the moment I saw him swing And the quarter-century of war began with just that one cruel string They call me Cochise, hardwood, unbending in the fire I left my family in that tent - that's a debt that has no end Treat my people well, I said, and I'll do the same for yours But the answer came in nooses swinging slow against the stars 1862, the soldiers came back through my door California rifles marching east to fight a different war But the spring at Apache Pass is mine, has been since before their map ("before their map") Mangas at my side, we held the high ground in that gap ("held the gap") We are Cochise and Mangas, and the mountain is our wall ("OUR WALL!") Two days we held the cannon's fire 'til the big guns broke it all ("BROKE IT ALL!") "You should not have thrown your wagons" - that's the only thing I'd say ("ONLY THING!") The fight was lost but not the war, and the war was lost that day Ten more years of raid and ambush, ten more years I couldn't rest 'Til a soldier came unarmed to me and called himself my guest Jeffords trusted me with no gun in his hand, no lie behind his eyes ("no lie, no lies") I gave my word to him alone, and a Chiricahua never lies They call me Cochise, hardwood, but the hardwood learns to bend I made my peace before I died, my own way, my own end Treat my people well, I said - that promise traveled far Buried in the rocks I love, beneath the same old desert stars
