The last song on the CD River Of Tears explores one of Hunter's interests and that is Native American lore and this song is similar to what he expressed on Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse). The Agouras is a reference to the Chumash who settled in Agoura Hills, California about 10,000 years ago.
Realistically, Ian points out Native Americans fought each but he points out one tribe that was different; they were artisans. The song tells a story of a lost daughter who hides in a tree but when the village tears turn into a river:
the river flowed like an arrow to the foot of a hollow treeThe legend grew about this startling event of healing. This is quite a unique take on a Native American story.
Ian was at a hotel and when the lift took a long time he read about the legend and wrote this song about the story.
Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
The area was first settled by the Chumash Native Americans around 10,000 years ago.[11] The Alta California (Upper California) coast was settled by Spanish Franciscan missionaries in the late 18th century.
In about 1800, Miguel Ortega was granted a Spanish grazing concession called Rancho Las Virgenes or El Rancho de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Las Virgenes. The grant was abandoned after Ortega's death in 1810, and José Maria Dominguez was given Rancho Las Virgenes as a Mexican land grant in 1834. Maria Antonia Machado de Reyes purchased the rancho from Dominguez in 1845. (The "Reyes Adobe" ranch headquarters sits today in central Agoura Hills, where it is part of the Reyes Adobe Museum built around 2004 and owned by the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department.[12])
- Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse)
The River of Tears
(Ian Hunter)
Waiting on an elevator - in a hotel out in California
The smog clouds up the windows - but there is a plaque up on the wall
That tells of the Agouras - people who were here long before us
Before the covered wagons - before they lost it all
They were hunters, they were fisherman and they often fought each other
But one small tribe was different, their leader was a peaceful man
They were weavers, they were painters, trading pelts for pretty colours
Protected by the warriors for the beauty in their hands
Roll back the years, roll back the years, to the river of tears
The chief he had a daughter, she was young and she was beautiful
He said "Go into the forest, get some berries for the dye
But make you way back quickly, for the old bear's getting hungry
I don't want you out there, when the sun falls from the sky"
Her basket filled with berries, she headed back toward the village
When a mighty roar erupted, she ran and hid inside a hollow tree
And shadows were getting longer, and the forest was getting colder
And the chief began to panic, where could his daughter be?
Lost in the years, lost in the years, on the river of tears
In the camp the fires were dying when the old chief started crying
Soon all the tribe were crying, and the ground grew wet beneath their feet
And the tears they turned to water and the water became a river
And the river flowed like an arrow to the foot of a hollow tree
And the girl looked out in wonder as she saw the water falling
She knew it was her father and she swam to his canoe
And all the tribe stopped crying and the river started subsiding
Into the hill of the Agouras, and so the legend grew
Roll back the years, roll back the years
Roll back the years, roll back the years
To the river of tears
(I wish all the world was healing)
(I wish all the world was healing)
(I wish all the world was healing)
(I wish all the world was healing)| River Of Tears | 5:35 | Originally issued on Man Overboard. |
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