A well-known story told by Loudermilk is that , when he was asked by the '' Viva ! NashVegas '' radio show about the origins of the song " Indian Reservation " , he fabricated the story that he wrote the song after his car was snowed in by a blizzard and he was taken in by a small group of Cherokee Indians . A self-professed prankster , he spun the tale that a Cherokee chieftain , " Bloody Bear Tooth " asked him to make a song about his people 's plight on the Trail of Tears , even going so far as to claim that he had later been awarded " the first medal of the Cherokee Nation " , not for writing the song , but for his " blood " . He went on to fabricate the detail that on that day the tribe revealed that his " great-great grandparents , Homer and Matilda Loudermilk " were listed on the Dawes Rolls ( the citizenship rolls of the Nation ) . Had this detail of his tall tale been true , he would have been a citizen of the Cherokee Nation , which he was not . The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma communities are not known as " reservations . " Below are partial lyrics from the Raiders ' version :
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)