Ira Hayes
De Viquipèdia
Ira Hayes (Sacaton, Arizona, 1923 - Bapchule, Arizona, 1955) era un indi pima, fill d’agricultors pobres, que es va allistar a la marina durant la Segona Guerra Mundial. El 23 de febrer del 1945 fou un dels que alçà la bandera americana a Iwo Jima, fet immortalitzat en una fotografia de Joe Rosenthal. Però aconvertir-se en heroi, cosa que no comprenia, ja que fou un dels pocs supervivents, l’aconvertí en una mena d'atracció de fira i el va er caure en l'alcoholisme. Va morir ofegat en una tanca després del memorial d’Iwo Jima davant del president Dwight D. Eisenhower del 1955. La seva tràgica vida va inspirar el film The Outsider (1961), protagonitzat per Tony Curtis, i la cançó "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," de Peter LaFarge popularitzada per Johnny Cash i Bob Dylan:
- Chorus:
- Call him drunken Ira Hayes
- He won't answer anymore
- Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
- Nor the Marine that went to war
- Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
- About a brave young Indian you should remember well
- From the land of the Pima Indian
- A proud and noble band
- Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
- Down the ditches for a thousand years
- The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
- 'Till the white man stole the water rights
- And the sparklin' water stopped
- Now Ira's folks were hungry
- And their land grew crops of weeds
- When war came, Ira volunteered
- And forgot the white man's greed
- Chorus
- There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
- Two hundred and fifty men
- But only twenty-seven lived
- To walk back down again
- And when the fight was over
- And when Old Glory raised
- Among the men who held it high
- Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
- Chorus
- Ira returned a hero
- Celebrated through the land
- He was wined and speeched and honored;
- Everybody shook his hand
- But he was just a Pima Indian
- No water, no home, no chance
- At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
- And when did the Indians dance
- Chorus
- Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
- Jail was often his home
- They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
- like you'd throw a dog a bone!
- He died drunk one mornin'
- Alone in the land he fought to save
- Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
- Was a grave for Ira Hayes
- Chorus
- Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
- But his land is just as dry
- And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
- In the ditch where Ira died
