One Tin Soldier*

This song never fails to give me goose bumps. It is definitely one of my all-time favourite songs. The song has powerful meaning on many fronts too, which I will get to soon.

I can still remember hearing this song as the opening sequence of the movie, "Billy Jack" is happening. There are beautiful wild stallions running in slow motion through a canyon. The horses are running for their lives. They are being chased by a wealthy banker ("Posner") and his police deputy friend. They are going to shoot them and sell the meat to dog food companies. They cross over onto an Indian Reservation. As they raise their rifles, ready to shoot, the deputy senses something in the air and hesitates. Through the woods we see the legs of a white horse slowly making its way out. On top of the horse is my all-time hero, "Billy Jack", complete with a 'Wovoka' hat (A hat worn by the Paiute Messiah, Wovoka. Wovoka was the visionary of the Ghost Dance). Billy says, "You're illegally on Indian land". Posner replies, "Sorry about that. I guess we got caught up in the chase and crossed over". Billy says, "You're a liar". Billy Jack-the 'One Tin Soldier'-all by himself with his convictions, stands up against several men and defends the innocent horses against slaughter.

The song is much more than just the theme from the movie, to me. It is so powerful. What does it mean to me? It means many things. First, what the song is talking about is what happened historically to Native Americans. The 'mountain people' are, no doubt, Native Americans. The 'valley people' are white and black 'Christians'. I put 'Christians’' in quotes because they sure did not act like it. I include blacks because they were not innocent in the near genocide of the Native Americans, either. As a matter of fact, an all-black infantry referred to as 'the buffalo soldiers' were used specifically as 'Indian fighters'. They contributed to many massacres of defenceless women, children and old people.

The song, not only is general in what it is saying, but also specific. The treasure, buried beneath the stone, on the mountain, refers to the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota. Analogous to the Black Hills would be Mecca to a Muslim, Rome to a Catholic or Jerusalem to Jews, Christians and Muslims. The 'treasure' can be viewed two different ways. From the Native American (The Sioux aka 'Lakota', in this case) perspective as is seen in the song, the 'treasure' is not some concrete, material thing. The 'treasure' is spiritual. To the white settlers, protected by George Armstrong Custer, the 'treasure' was gold in 'them there hills'.

So, the 'people of the valley' went into the Black Hills under the protection of the US Army. They did it to take gold from the sacred Black Hills. At this time there was a very real idea of what was known as 'manifest destiny'. 'Manifest destiny' is a protestant Christian idea that God wanted capitalism and Christianity to spread and anything in its way was to be overcome. So, now think of the lyrics: "Go ahead and hate your neighbour. Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven. You can justify it in the end". To me, the lyrics are talking about how 'Christians' (I put Christians in quotation marks because I differentiate pseudo-Christians from true Christians) thought they were rightfully entitled to steal. The lyrics "Came an answer from the kingdom, "With our brothers we will share. All the secrets of our mountain. All the riches buried there", shows the Sioux were willing to share if asked. They referred to not only themselves as 'brothers', but everyone. Isn't that, in fact, how Jesus Christ wanted all people to consider each other? So, who were the Christians and who were the savages here?

The part of the song that really makes me get goose bumps and tear up is: "Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain dark and red. Turned the stone and looked beneath it, 'Peace on Earth was all it said". The materialistic 'valley people' had no capacity to understand the difference between the material and the spiritual. They thought that one led to the other (Material wealth meant that one was in God's favour. That is the basis for what is known as "The Protestant Ethic"). The 'treasure' was "Peace on Earth'! The treasure was sharing.

Only one person understood, in the end, how wrong it all was (in the song). "On the bloody morning after...One Tin Soldier rides away". There is that theme again. It’s “The solitary individual who has a mind of their own and goes against the grain. They do it because it is right. They do it because they have a conscience.” So much wrong happens because it is human nature to follow the crowd-that is, to want to fit in. It takes extraordinary courage to not follow the crowd. By virtue of not following the crowd, one is not going to be popular. But, 'popular' is not necessarily what is right or just.

In the movie, "Billy Jack" stands up to the townspeople because he has a conscience. My way of thinking, does not make me popular. But, I choose to have a conscience and not to follow the crowd.

*From another website. I liked what he had to say.

--The Wizard