Jenny Wind

Her father was a man who knew no fences Her mother was a woman of the trail But Jenny Wind was born into a new world When the white man came Jenny was taught the old ways And she learned to speak her father's tongue When she died she was one of the last ones And the earth covered up her bones Jenny Wind was born a wild thing A sister to coyote and the sun But they gave her a dress of calico And they named her Jenny Wind But the white man's ways they followed her She was buried 'neath a marker made of stone And on her grave they carved her pretty name "Here lies the Indian Jenny Wind" But they say her soul flies free Caring for the weary and the lost In the forest deep and quiet All around the grave of Jenny Wind I met Jenny on a summer night Walking in the Placer County I stumbled on her grave in the forest there So all alone and still I wondered if she cared that I found her Lying so hidden and alone I wondered who she was before they named her "The Indian Jenny Wind" The silence grew till it touched me And held me like the words upon the stone And for the first time I was afraid I would not find my way home I ran from her as the night grew darker I dropped my glasses and I took a fall Lost and blind somehow I found them Lying folded on her grave so small And I believe that her soul flies free And it cares for the weary and the lost In the forest deep and quiet All around the grave of Jenny Wind