To me, it is a song with an obvious moral, violence isn't the answer to anything and will come back and bite you in the end.

It means not everyone can write good lyrics.

I believe the 'mountain people' to be Native Americans. The 'valley people' are white settlers.' "The treasure, buried beneath the stone, on the mountain," refers to the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota. Analagous to the Black Hills would be Mecca to a Muslim, Rome to a Catholic or Jerusalem to Jews, Christians and Muslims. The 'treasure' can be viewed two different ways. From the Native American (The Sioux aka 'Lakota', in this case) perspective as is seen in the song, the 'treasure' is not some concrete, material thing. The 'treasure' is spiritual. To the white settlers, protected by George Armstrong Custer, the 'treasure' was gold in 'them there hills'. So, the 'people of the valley' went into the Black Hills under the protection of the US Army. They did it to take gold from the sacred Black Hills. "Go ahead and hate your neighbor. Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven. You can justify it in the end". To me, the lyrics are talking about how the Whites and Blacks thought they were rightfully entitled to take what they wanted. The lyrics, "Came an answer from the kingdom, "With our brothers we will share. All the secrets of our mountain. All the riches buried there", shows the Sioux were willing to share if asked. They referred to not only themselves as 'brothers', but everyone. "Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain dark and red. Turned the stone and looked beneath it, 'Peace on Earth was all it said". The materialistic 'valley people' had no capacity to understand the difference between the material and the spiritual. They thought that one led to the other. The 'treasure' was "Peace on Earth'! The treasure was sharing. Only one person understood, in the end, how wrong it all was "On the bloody morning after...One Tin Soldier rides away". Thomas J. Stowers was the lone survivor of the Little Big Horn.

I think it is rather poetic, but that's about the extent. If I want to listen to a song that is going to give me social commentary and attempt to enlighten me, it'll be "The Last Resort" by The Eagles.

i ve always thought it was about rape