XIT – Plight Of The Redman 1972 (USA, Psychedelic-Progressive Rock)
The unwritten law of the Wild West says: "a good Indian is a dead Indian." One of the laws of the state of Montana considers any Indian company that has gathered in a number of more than 7 people with weapons - a gang and allows you to open fire on them without warning. Apparently, for this good reason, the first Indian rock band, "XIT", gathered not in Montana, but in New Mexico, consisting of 7 people, and they were armed not with tomahawks, bows and spears, but with guitars, drums, tambourines, keys and flutes. The name of the group is an acronym and stands for "Crossing of Indian Tribes" (Crossing of Indian Tribes - since the people in the team were motley - from Sioux to Navajo). As the legend goes, the first letter of the word EXIT fell off the door of a local eatery and the guys saw it as a mystical sign (and it must be said that Indians see such signs in almost everything that surrounds them: the flight of birds, the behavior of animals, etc.), and decided to name the group that way. It was a hard time: in 1969, the Indians, seeking to fulfill treaties that had been repeatedly violated by the US government, occupied the deserted island of Alcatraz, where the prison had previously been located, and held it for three years. In 1973, armed Indian activists occupied the village of Wounded Knee, the place where in 1890 the American army carried out a bloody massacre, killing about 300 peaceful Sioux - mostly women, old people and children. At the time when the "flower children" called for peace and love, the Indians created their own political organization - AIM (American Indian Movement), fighting for their rights not only in words, but also with weapons in their hands. The growth of political activity of North American Indians was reflected in music, which is clearly evidenced by the first two albums of "XIT". The album "Plight Of The Redman" is essentially a conceptual rock opera dedicated to the history of the disasters of the native inhabitants of America, starting from its discovery by Columbus in 1492 and ending in 1972, the release date of the album. The music is sometimes thoughtful and lyrical, interspersed with sharp and furious compositions. The lyrics begin with ballads glorifying the unity of the red man with Mother Nature and admiration for her beauty, reaching acute social topics and calls for resistance to racial discrimination. In terms of musical style, the album ranges from ethno-folk and psychedelia to garage music and hard. Essentially the same themes are continued by the second album, Silent Warrior, which was released exactly in the year of the Indian armed uprising at Wounded Knee (1973). The through theme of the album is human survival in a cruel, disharmonious world of social aggression and ecological catastrophe - the world of palefaces imposed on the Indians. The group released several more albums and performed a lot of concerts, including on such
