Friday Music: "Run to the Hills" - Iron Maiden

Here is the classic heavy metal song, "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden:



Maiden here hint at several concepts that are worthy of discussion in an intro-level sociology course all the way up to an upper-level race and ethnicity seminar. These topics include Manifest Destiny, the historic (and ongoing) treatment of Native Americans, the actions of the pioneers of European ancestry, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The video is intercut with footage from an old Western silent movie. Note for example early on the actor applying "redface."


Lyrics:

White man came across the sea
He brought us pain and misery
He killed our tribes, he killed our creed
He took our game for his own need
We fought him hard, we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came, too much for Cree
Oh will we ever be set free

Riding through dustclouds and barren wastes
Galloping hard on the plains
Chasing the redskins back to their holes
Fighting them at their own game
Murder for freedom the stab in the back
Woman and children, a coward's attack

Run to the hills - run for your lives

Soldier blue in the barren wastes
Hunting and killing's a game
Raping the woman and wasting the man
"The only good injins are tame"
Selling them whiskey and taking their gold
Enslaving the young and destroying the old