[Intro: Tanaya Winder]
Always start with you
Alive and well, and not me
I’d gladly give up every poem I have spoken
Have my mouth call back each and every one of them
From your ears
Back into my pen’s failed attempts at trying to put back
The splintered pieces of our hearts
Our hearts
Our hearts
Staring at a blank page
Wishing we could begin again

[Verse 1: Frank Waln]
Thousands of warriors will come rushing in
Our ancestors waged war with the government
In the spirit of Spotted Tail and John Trudell
This is spiritual awakening
They feed us lies but we won’t take them in

Let us ride on the lands where our ancestors died
Breathing life into our cultures they said were petrified
They tell a history that our peoples don’t recognize
The US government should be charged with genocide

Spitting rhymes in a time of blood quantum and suicide
We survived staying strong all those times we should’ve died
I confess, I’m depressed
Sometimes I can’t take the stress
Living is a test, distressed up in the wild west

My fam suffers
The land suffers
I hate the silence
I hate statistics
I hate the prisons
I hate the violence

I hate these politicians making the wrong decisions
I hate these men that inflict this violence upon our women
They hate to see us rise
We’re on their TVs man
Remind these settlers that they’re up on treaty land
I did this with my music
A CD in my hand
A microphone in the other now watch me take a stand

[Chorus]
This is sound of a Nation rising
A generation with a vision
We’re tired of our people dying
7th generation we have risen, we have risen yeah

This is sound of a Nation rising
A generation with a vision
We hear our Mother Earth crying
7th generation we have risen, we have risen yeah

[Bridge]
This system try to hold us down, it hold us down
You forced our cultures underground, underground
But you ain’t stopping no one now, no one now
We’re stronger and we know it now, we know it now

[Verse 2]
I ghost dance over drums
My music speaks to the young
I give my heart for the people
The revolution’s begun

We’re standing stronger than ever when history weighs a ton
I’m giving thanks to Creator and suffering with the sun
My mother says I’m her son
My people say I’m the one
My microphone
It inspire
I fire it like a gun

Higher into you privilege conspiring with the spirits
My environment require my lyrics
Be the exhibit of genius that has a plan
My allegiance is with the land my people agreed to care for
Therefore I’m gonna make a stand
My freedom is nonexistent convenient to uncle sam
They’re colonizing our minds
We’re compromising their plans

Our knowledge lives in the land
The answers live in our youth
The cancers live in our elders
I’m trying to see the truth
My brothers and sister suffer while people silence our voices
You hold our mouths shut then tell us that we are voiceless
Fuck that you don’t listen

Privilege is your tradition
Our people in your prisons
Our sisters end up missing
I petition my position to live in conditions that kill my people
Now feel my vision

[Chorus]
This is sound of a Nation rising
A generation with a vision
We’re tired of our people dying
7th generation we have risen, we have risen yeah

This is sound of a Nation rising
A generation with a vision
We hear our Mother Earth crying
7th generation we have risen, we have risen yeah

[Outro: Tanaya Winder]
Battles wouldn’t end in bloodshed
But instead a ride off into a sun rising
With warriors always returning from war
Warriors always returning from war

[Bridge: Frank Waln 3x]
This system try to hold us down, it hold us down
You forced our cultures underground, underground
But you ain’t stopping no one now, no one now
We’re stronger and we know it now, we know it now