Even twenty-two years after his death, Johnny Cash is still one of the biggest names in country music. His legacy is huge, and songs like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line” are arguably some of the greatest of all time. What is a bit lesser known about him was his hard fight and advocacy for Native Americans. Using his economic status and popularity, he wrote songs with the goal of confronting the United States government over their mistreatment of Native Americans and raising awareness about their struggles.
Cash explained the start to his activism on Pete Seeger’s show in 1965, stating “In ‘57 I wrote a song called “Old Apache Squaw” and then forgot the so-called Indian protest for a while, but nobody else seemed to speak up with any volume of voice.” His label at the time, Colombia Music, refused to put the song on his next album deeming it too radical for the general public. It was also a bit against the traditional country image which was seen as a brave cowboy who takes native land for himself.
In 1964, following the success of his album “I Walk the Line,” his seven year hiatus from Native American activism came to an end. The album was called “Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian” and featured indigenous people highlighting the oppression they faced from white settlers. Cash wrote three of these songs, co-wrote one, and covered songs by folk singer Peter La Farge, whom he met in the early 1960s and always admired for his bold activism. The album’s lead single, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” received very little radio play. Furthermore, Cash’s record label refused to promote the album for its “provocative and unappealing nature.’’
Not everyone was against Cash’s political stance. One of the editors of Country Music Magazine thought that Johnny Cash should leave the Country Music Association saying he was too smart to associate with the other country musicians around him.
Cash faced heavy backlash from many around him for this album, though he didn’t back down. “D.J.s – station managers – owners, where are your guts? I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations are afraid of Ira Hayes. Just one question: WHY??? Ira Hayes is strong medicine. So is Rochester, Harlem, Birmingham and Vietnam.” Cash relentlessly pushed the song and eventually, it worked. The song got to number three and the album got to number two on the Billboard country LP and Singles charts.
On the Johnny Cash Show, he continued to talk of the plights and hardships of the Native American people. One of the biggest topics he discussed was The Trail of Tears. In 1966, the Seneca Nation’s Turtle Clan adopted him as recognition for his activism. He performed benefit concerts in 1968 at the Rosebud Reservation which is close to the massacre at Wounded Knee. The goal was to raise money to help build a school. In 1970, he recorded a reading of John G Burnett’s 1890 80th birthday essay, which spoke of the Cherokee Removal in Nashville.
Johnny Cash’s legacy lives on not only in his music, but his fight for others who faced oppression and continue to to this day. He had the guts to fight for the marginalized members of society when others in his position did not.
