Lyrics: 1)
Hiawatha was an Indian,
So was Navajo,2)
Paleface organ-grinders killed them
Many moons ago;3)
But there is a band of Indians4)
That will never die,5)
When they're at the Indian Club6)
This is their battle cry:
chorus:
Tammany, Tammany
Big Chief sits in his tepee
Cheering braves to victory,
Tammany, Tammany
Swamp 'em swamp 'em
Get me wampum
Tammany
On the island of Manhattan
By the bitter sea,7)
Lived this tribe of noble Red Men,
Tribe of Tammany,8)
From the Totem of the Greenlight
Wampum they would bring,9)
When their big Chief Man Behind,10)
Would pass the pipe and sing:
Paleface preacher, “Red Light Finder,”
To Manhattan came,11)
He was very old but he played
Leap-frog just the same,12)
He said he would run Manhattan
Like a Sunday school,
Made the village twice as bad
As under Tammany rule,
Paleface Band of Pirates called
“Reformers” made a fight,13)
Helped old “Red Light Finder” put the
Tam'my braves to flight;14)
Tammany came back and put this
Pirate band to rout,15)
Found the village treasure gone—
“Reformers” cleaned it out,16)
Although Tammany rule had returned, it had undergone a “public” reform and would never regain its former corrupt power. Croker avoided prison and retired to a country life in England and Ireland.