Jane Doe

Soundcloud, to the tune of Red Iron ore; featured on Rust Belt Ballads

Jane Doe was brought in from off of the street
Laid out on the table wrapped up in a sheet
They wrote down her number without any name
A woman was murdered and none was to blame 

In the north reservation there’s a chill in the air
And the lines on the faces are heavy with care 
And the pain in your belly pounds hard on your brain 
And the whiskey like poisons runs thick in the veins

Of the men with the money who come out to play, 
Drive up from the port to find out their prey
With presents and promises in a young girl’s ear
There’s more on the docks than you’ll ever get here

And Duluth rusts away by the waves and the heights
And the drunks take the streets in the red neon lights
And the lake sinks the sun and the night turns to black 
Out past the harbor and the taconite stacks 

And the girls stand cold by the skeleton quay
And they wait for the freight liners off Thunder Bay 
Across Gitchegumee they make for the shore
To buy the red women and the red iron ore 

The harbor horn screams and the freighter boat lands
The dollars and women are all changing hands
And the sailors buy in where their money is right 
To play the great settler night after night 

Well I’ve heard it’s been said and I think it’s the truth
That colony days never died in Duluth
For three hundred years they’ve been bargained and sold 
To the soldier, the logger, and the iron boat hold 

They’ve been killed by the needle and killed by the knife 
They’ve been cut down so low that they’ve took their own life 
They’ve been put on the Earth in a bed made of thorns 
They’ve been sentenced to die since the day they were born


This song was written on request, to raise awareness of the sexual trafficking of indigenous women in the Port of Duluth and across Minnesota. Native American women and girls make up 1% of Minnesota's population and 8% of murdered women and girls in the state, and 20% of victims of sex trafficking. 
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