Trail Of Tears

[Verse 1]
We were a smaller nation who stood the test of time,
And what they took beneath us was nothing short of crime.
They claimed the earth was empty, though our roots ran deep and wide, 
And marched us from our homeland where ancestors proudly died.

[Chorus]
They can take away our homeland, they can take us from the plains
But they’ll never steal the heartbeat running through our veins,
For a nation isn’t soil, it’s the memories, we keep,
And the ones who walked before us while the world was fast asleep.

[Verse 2]
The winter winds were bitter, and the nights were long and cold,
We carried what we could, of the stories we were told,
Each step a silent promise that our spirit wouldn’t break,
Though every mile behind us left heartaches in its wake.

[Chorus]
They can take away our homeland, they can take us from the plains
But they’ll never steal the heartbeat running through our veins,
For a nation isn’t soil, it’s the memories, we keep,
And the ones who walked before us while the world was fast asleep.

[Verse 3]
They reached the distant border, to a place they didn't know,                                    
A land that wasn't chosen, just a place they're forced to go                              
With fewer hearts to greet it and too many left behind,
Yet still they built a future no injustice could unwind.

 (Bridge – keep the same tempo, rhythm, and instrumentation as the rest of the song. Do NOT slow down. Maintain the same acoustic guitar pattern and drumbeat.)
[Bridge]
Empires rise on promises, then fall on their deceit,
And those who suffer know the price — those lies must not repeat.
From the long Trail of Tears to the judgment still to come,
In the stories that survive from every father to his son

[Outro]
And though the miles behind us fade beneath a setting sun,
The story of our people is a journey never done.
They scattered us like shadows, but our spirits never sleep,
For a nation livs forever in the memories that they keep