******* Apache Tears *******
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By Barbara LaBarbera / Thunder Wolf

Pinal Apaches looked out across a barren plain
Bodies tired and hungry, their hearts in pain
Not one single buffalo could they see
How would they feed their clan and family...

Buffalos had been killed off by the white man
All had become Just a barren waste land...
Apaches started taking rancher's cattle over time
So they were accused of a cattle rustling crime.

White soldiers followed the cattle herd's tracks
And started making plans for a sneak attack
They made their attack in the early morning light
Fifty Apaches died in the first fire fight.

Apaches were outnumbered by the white man
With no arrows left, they could not make a stand
Many were badly wounded as they fled
Running fast as their poor hearts bled.

With no where to run but a towering cliff edge
Apaches were trapped there on the cliff's ledge
Rather than suffer defeat by the white man
Apache warriors would die by their own hand...

Their brave hearts did not wait nor hesitate
As they bravely Jumped to meet their fate
Apache women stood with gasped breath
Watching their men plunge to their death.

A voice whispered from the sky...
I should not have made those cliffs so high
Great Spirit watched in sorrow from the skies
As tears fell from the Apache women's eyes...

Forever remembered in our history's past
These Apache warriors were among the last
Although those brave warriors are gone
In Apache hearts their fighting spirit lives on...

For a moon their women barely slept
As their poor grieving hearts wept...
Great Spirit could see the pain they bore
As their tears fell across that canyon floor.

He was so touched by tears and grief so sincere
He made beautiful stones from each sad tear
Great Spirit reached down a kind hand
And created Obsidian stone from sand.

There's an old legend that's still told...
If an Apache tear stone is yours to hold
Your heart's spirit will never cry again
For the Apache women wept for all our pain.

Where Apache women so sadly wept
A symbol of their sorrow is yet kept
There all across that lone canyon floor
In Obsidian stones, their tears remain forevermore.