though their forces were small in stature
their vision was of towering height
they'd not be denied their tribal territories
they belonged to the ancestral peoples

the mountains of conviction
they had in their beings
were of resistance
to the white man's
unwarranted usurping

histories pages have their feats
recorded for all to see
they were feats
of great bravery

the mountains of conviction
flowed in their blood
and it flowed
as a massive flood

they lost the battle
for their tribal territories
but they honored
their ancestral pedigree

the French
the British
the Dutch
the white men
took the lands
from the indigenous man's
hand

the mountains of conviction
were there in spades
but the tribal people
couldn't sustain
the colonialists
endless raids