White Clay

from Troubadour by Mark Schirmacher

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about

I wrote this song after a visit to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, on the border of South Dakota and Nebraska, USA. We spent some time in people's homes, eating together, learning about reservation life, and seeing a part of American Present that often is cast as American History.

We drove to the border town of White Clay, Nebraska, 2 minutes south of the South Dakota border, where the reservation of Pine Ridge is located. Alcohol is prohibited on Pine Ridge, but across the border in White Clay, liquor stores unethically serve the most down and out citizens of Pine Ridge with impunity, continuing the destructive spiral of alcoholism and oppression the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota residents have borne since their relegation to these gov't plots in 1889.

White Clay solely exists to profit from the already bankrupt individuals who are lives are destroyed (generationally and currently) by alcohol.

Learn more about White Clay here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteclay,_Nebraska

and about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation

lyrics

White Clay

Border town I saw it, men without a home
wet leaves pressed underneath a hundred years of heavy snow

A people robbed of purpose, drinking from the barrel of a gun
Who’s gonna shine a light on them, stand alone with me in the hot, hot sun

I pray, I pray for White Clay (3x)

I’ve seen a million ways to keep a good man down
40 hours and brand new showers
and fancy parades that take the edge off the days
and clog up the streets downtown

But in this border country the struggle is for real
The liquor’s cheap and DIGNITY is buried deep inside the spinning wheel
And as I lay my head inside my stolen bed
I hear the children wailing for their daddies’ love all spent on border’s bread

I pray, I pray for White Clay (4x)

As I send this song up into the starry night
all my relatives surround me - red and yellow, black and white

I aim to change one heart, that would be enough
‘cuz somewhere in Nebraska life is just too tough

I pray, I pray for White Clay (4x)

credits

from Troubadour, released March 15, 2024
Music & Lyrics by Mark Schirmacher.

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Mark Schirmacher Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mark Schirmacher is an American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. For information on bookings or collaborations, visit www.markschirmacher.com.

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