About the Song
Cut off from our youth we lost sight of the truth
And we poisoned our water without knowing what we had done
But now, somehow the shiny-plated God
That we had prayed to & obeyed was melting in the sun
And we looked around, found each other, we did not see the other
Only sister & brother & we knew then we were one
Protectors, still standing, no weapons in our hands
And with only scarred land to hear somehow we sang
We live under the same sun
We drink the same water in water we are one
We live under the same sun
We are of the water, to the water we return
In that song I heard something I remember
Something from a long time ago, a gathering of Ancestors
Red, white, black, yellow, brown
Standing in a circle, a light rain coming down
Like ancient wisdom, falling from the stars
Telling us a story of who & what we are
And each one held a cup & each one held it up
And every cup was filled & not a drop was spilled
Lyrics & music by John Sheldon. © author. All right reserved. Used by permission.
This song is dedicated to the water protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota and to all of the people in the world who work to keep our water clean. Water is more than a resource. It is the source of all life on this planet.
John took part in the nonviolent efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline across the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Access_Pipeline_protests