metlakatla has a story
that is waiting to be told
their exodus from Canada
and brave effort to be free
eight hundred native pilgrims
who all fled tyranny

William Duncan came from England
a missionary man was he
to the tshimshean people
who lived along the sea
in British Columbia
the west coast of Canada
near the turn of the century

he visited the sick 
around a trading fort
and saw that no one cared at all
about the bodies or souls
 of the Tsimshian people there
 crime and misery ran free
liquor had taken it's toll

William Duncan saw the need
for a brand new community
without the sin and misery
and the sorrow that it brang
so he called the governor
and secured a patch of land
and the building soon began

It was called Metlakatla 
like a city on a hill
there was law and order there
whisky trade was not allowed
Gambling, too was banned
industry and music thrived
and Christ was well respected

Smallpox took it's deadly toll
wave after wave came through
Killing thousands everywhere
the old and young alike
metlakatla, though, escaped
and hardly any perished
God had spared believers

Slavery was normal 
in that place and time
it existed all around
but Duncan took a stand
and slavery was banned
many slaves that ran away
came to live in Metlakatla

the state supported liquor trade
despite the hell it caused
so government took their side
when Duncan tried to stop it
their courts ruled that natives
 had no rights to land at all
except as the crown may allow

BC then sent the gunboats 
to the Metlakala mission
 to take their land away
but the natives had decided
that they were not going to stay
they gathered their things
and the exodus began

they moved on to Alaska
far from that fallen place
over eight hundred souls
thumbed their nose at Canada
packed up and moved away
and though it wasn't heaven
it put a smile on their face

metlakatla has a story
that is waiting to be told
their exodus from Canada
and brave effort to be free
eight hundred native pilgrims
who all fled tyranny