killing indians

cortez - what a killer
Hernán(do) Cortés Pizarro, 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca (1485–December 2, 1547) was the conquistador who became famous for leading the military expedition that initiated the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Cortés was part of the generation of European colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Cortez the Killer is a song by Neil Young from his 1975 album, Zuma. It was recorded with Young's band Crazy Horse and ranked #321 on Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song is about Hernán Cortés, a conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain in the 1500s. The song also makes reference to the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II and other events that occurred in the Spanish conquest of the New World.
Only after several minutes of this does the lyric start. First it pictures Cortés and his "galleons and guns" about to arrive, then jumps to the Aztecs, depicting their civilization in somewhat idealized fashion even though explicitly acknowledging, before and after some guitar work, both human sacrifice and the immense human toll of building their pyramids. Instead of describing what happened when Cortez appeared, the lyric in the last verse suddenly jumps from third person narrative to first person, with elliptical references to a romantic relationship gone bad. This may refer to Cortez's Aztec mistress whom he loved dearly (perhaps Doña Marina, his interpreter),[citation needed] or to some other unspecified relationship. Finally after another spell of guitar, Young simply mutters, "Cortez ... what a killer."
Young has stated in concert that he wrote the song while studying history in high school. In Jimmy McDonough's biography of Young, entitled Shakey, the author asked Neil if his songs were autobiographical. Young replied, "...What the fuck am I doing writing about Aztecs in 'Cortez the Killer' like I was there, wandering around? 'Cause I only read about it in a few books. A lotta shit I just made up because it came to me." Nevertheless, the song was banned in Spain, according to Young's notes for the album Decade.