Cidiera

These mountains tell on greedy dead old Byrd men

(Note, the Byrd men are James, Jessie, and Robert Byrd, 3 generations that helped to burn Tsalagi (Cherokee) villages, assist in the Trail of Tears as Sherriff, then set up a plantation on stolen land, taking over Bazeltown and enslaving Africans brought over in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade) Set the record straight Felson Bazel was a good man (Felson Bazel is who Bazeltown was named for)

These mountains tell the legacy of a black man's dreams

(His dream of a town where Black, Indigenous and White people lived together harmoniously and in peace, secluding themselves. They didn't let anyone live in Bazeltown unless they came in by marriage. They were very protective of their land)

stolen, rolled over and tilled into the soil
of a plantation owner's
and an okiedoke that made
these mountains cry
all the way to Oklahoma

(This refers to the Treaty of Kingston that led to the land where Bazeltown was located being ceded to America. The deal was that they would cede the land if the capitol of Tennessee would be moved to nearby Kingston. Once the Treaty was made, Kingston was made capitol...for one day)

These mountains call me
Whispering in dreams
across the centuries
as history repeats
nd repeats

The milkman watches
the river of life
poisoned with time
His story forgotten

(The Milkman refers to a ghostly figure that is supposed to haunt the Bazeltown cemetery. The river of life poisoned with time refers to how the Oak Ridge nuclear facility, which was one of three nuclear facilities built as part of Project Manhattan,leaked Mercury and other toxic waste into the Clinch River over the decades it was in operation. A major cleanup operation has been, and is currently, underway in the area)

Felson Bazel was a man
whom they judged to be bad
while the Byrd Men crept over the ridge

Like a swarm of locusts
they stripped, plundered and fed
off 12,000 years of native heritage

where they loved and lived together
within nature, not above it

Felson Bazel was a man whom they judged to be bad
for daring to steal back from trains
the iron they raped these mountains for

(Felson and his son Samuel were arrested for stealing iron from trains that were coming from the mines in what would become Harrington, which Bazeltown is a part of. One of the main reasons for the colonies moving Eastward was to mine the gold and other minerals from the mountains.)

And for daring to say
A free black man
won't snitch on the enslaved

(Felson was active in the early abolitionist efforts and hellped to create a law that said a free man would not be made to snitch on an enslaved man)

Felson Bazel was a good man (He was)