The Eagles song Don Henley wrote about Native American rights
James A. Michener was an American author of lengthy epics centring on generational family stories, and when Don Henley was writing ‘The Last Resort’, he vowed to “go Michener with it”. At the time, the Eagles were working on material for Hotel California, and Henley’s lyrics were so powerful that Glenn Frey called the 1976 track “Henley’s opus”. An interrogation of America’s racist history, the song looks at the human cost of capitalist greed, citing the mistreatment of Native Americans and the destruction of their land.
Reflecting on the song’s making on In the Studio with Redbeard, Frey explained that at the time, the band were hugely concerned with environmental issues, having been involved in anti-nuclear benefits, and Henley saw the song as a perfect vehicle to explore a lot of disparate themes discussed on the album. “It was the first time that Don, on his own, took it upon himself to write an epic story,” recalled Frey. “[He] found himself as a lyricist with that song, kind of outdid himself.”
His lyrics touched on the Native American principle of respecting the earth: “People were smilin’ / They spoke about the red man’s way / And how they loved the land,” they read before bluntly retelling how white men colonised it: “Some rich men came and raped the land / Nobody caught ’em”.
Reflecting on his work, Henley explained in a 1987 edition of Rolling Stone interview that ‘The Last Resort’ was one of his favourite songs. “That’s because,” he said, “I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence – by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment.”
It was the historic “raping and pillaging of the West by mining, timber, oil, and cattle interests” that inspired him to write the song at the time, the environmental impact of which continues to plague Henley. “We’re constantly screwing up paradise, and that was the point of the song – that at some point there is going to be no more new frontiers,” he said.
Henley added: “I mean we’re putting junk into space now. There’s enough crap floating around the planet that we can’t even use so it just seems to be our way. It’s unfortunate but that is sort of what happens.”
Henley not only voiced these concerns on ‘The Last Resort’ but also went on to form several charitable organisations, like the Walden Woods Project and the non-profit Caddo Lake Institute, to support the environmental cause further. “The environment is the reason I got into politics: to try to do something about what I saw as the complete destruction of most of the resources that we have left,” he said. “We have mortgaged our future for gain and greed.”
Revisit the song below.
