Red Wing

The original ballad, according to an e-mail message by Mark Thomas on January 12, 1994, "was originally a Tin Pan Alley song from 1907,
 words by Thurland Chattaway, music by Kerry Mills.  The original
 sheet music is reproduced in the collection Take Me Out to the
 Ball Game, and Other Favorite Song Hits, 1906-1908 edited by
 Lester S. Levy, published by Dover, 1984.  Lyrics of 'Red Wing' are about a forlorn Indian
 maiden." 
The text runs:

There once was an Indian maid,

A shy little prairie maid,

Who sang a lay, a love song gay,

As on the plain she'd while away the day;


She loved a warrior bold,

This shy little maid of old,

But brave and gay, he rode one day

To battle far away.

        

Now, the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
       
The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying,

For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
       
While Red Wing's weeping
 her heart away.



She watched for him day and night,

She kept all the campfires bright,

And under the sky, each night she would lie,

And dream about his coming by and by;


But when all the braves returned,
 the heart of Red Wing yearned,

For far, far away, her warrior gay,
 fell bravely in the fray.