The song title comes from Oglala Lakota author and activist Vine Deloria Jr.'s book,  Custer Died For Your Sins, which was published the same years as the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island, before it became a NPS sites and prison tourist spectacle. 
Much like the Plains of Nebrasky-O, this song makes the history of the Homestead Act and settler colonial relevant to today. Custer's death and defeat at Little Bighorn by the Lakota and other Native people. It offers a kind of alternate history. The fact that we still think of this battle shows its relevance. What we forget is that the U.S. had dedicated soldiers whose only job was to hunt down Native people. At the same time, settler colonists homesteaders occupied land and exhausted resources that Native people depended on. Yet, despite this double invasion, Native people persisted. The U.S. did not achieve though boarding schools its "Kill the Indian to Save the Man" policy. Vine Deloria Jr. and Floyd Red Crow Westerman remained as dissenting voices to remind all of the history of Little Bighorn and the consistent fight by Native people for land, resources and cultural sovereignty.

Floyd Red Crow Westerman - Custer Died For Your Sins (Cover)

Johnny's Loaf & Stein was a restaurant in the mall in the town where I grew up. It always seemed to attract a cast of real characters. I imagine these songs playing as background music there. 
Having moved recently from the Great Plains to the Cascades and now to Lower Michigan, I try to release a track every few weeks of my own brand of instrumental music that mixes a hefty dose of 60's pop and rock with accents of blues, jazz and classical music.
I hope listeners will indulge me and take the attitude towards my music as listening to a crazed radio that will randomly change stations and never linger too long a single musical style.
I don't use samples or premade loops. I figure if it doesn't come from me it's not really my song.
Contact me at johnnylofenstein@gmail.com.
.

New tracks tagged #FloydRedCrowWesterman