The Ballad of Ira Hayes

"The Ballad of Ira Hayes" is the most famous of Peter La Farge's compositions. The verses are sung as a "talking blues". 

The song tells the true story of Ira Hayes, a Native American who fought in World War II in the Pacific theater. He was one of the marines who raised the flag in the iconic photograph on Iwo Jima.

Call him drunken Ira Hayes, he won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian nor the Marine that went to war
C - F - / G - - C

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian, a proud & noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years, the water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights & the sparklin' water stopped
Now Ira's folks were hungry & their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered & forgot the white man's greed 

There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill, 250 men
But only 27 lived to walk back down again
And when the fight was over & when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high was the Indian, Ira Hayes

Ira returned a hero celebrated thru the land
He was wined and speeched and honored, everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian -n no water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done & when did the Indians dance

Then Ira started drinkin' hard, jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it like you'd throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk one mornin' alone in the land he fought to save
2 inches of water in a lonely ditch was a grave for Ira Hayes

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes, but his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty in the ditch where Ira died