Black Mesa Coal
Channel: Neil Dale Songs
Date: 2016-06-27

Although it may sound like the 19th century, this epic "battle" happened in the mid 1960's. It is relevant today because huge coal mines here still disfigure and rip off he Navajo/Hopi territory of Black Mesa - and provide dirty power for much of the Southwest. 
The Battle For Black Mesa

1 - Let me tell you all a story about how the West was won:
They didn’t call the cavalry, they didn’t fire a gun;
The Natives weren’t restless, in fact they didn’t even know,
When Peabody hired Boyden, to get the coal that lay below.

REFRAIN:
They don’t care about your landscape,
They don’t care about your soul:
All they want’s your water,
And that old Black Mesa coal.

2- Now Boyden was a clever man, a man of many parts;
The Hopi knew him well: he was their lawyer from the start.
How could two lawyers fight it out, when he worked for both sides?
Then Boyden had a clever thought: he’d have to subdivide.
(no refrain)
3 – Peabody got his gut and brain, and all his moving parts;
The Natives just got half his mouth, and his oh-so-meager heart.
The contract lay amid the spread, as at breakfast he indulged:
Up against his gut, it was the Battle of the Bulge.

REFRAIN
4 – The Natives made a valiant push to try to take that hill,
Amid the eggs and bacon and the coffee that he swilled.
Then came the reinforcements, as in the flood they tossed:
French toast washed down with syrup, and they knew that they were lost.
(no refrain)
5- They sold their coal for peanuts, and the water ‘neath the sand –
And to sweeten up the deal, they pushed twelve thousand from their land.
And Boyden made his money, whichever way he turned;
And he rode off in the sunset, as the coal began to burn.

REFRAIN

6- Well the Hopi say the Earth’s alive. The Navajo are sure
That coal beds are Her liver: they keep the water pure.
But the Earth keeps getting hotter, as these coal mines take their toll,
And the lights stay on in Vegas, ‘cause of old Black Mesa coal.

REFRAIN