Native noise: resilience, pride, and taking a stand

November 15, 2014 2:12 PM

Rebel Music: Native America looks at the lives of four Native American and First Nation activist-musicians, and the causes they support, from the impacts of oil extraction to the epidemic of missing and murdered Native women.

The show is a web-exclusive feature, one of six episodes in the second season of Rebel Music (list of episodes in the first season). The artists highlighted are

• Frank Waln: a passionate and provocative Sicangu Lakota hip-hop artist who uses his music and activism to fight against the destruction of the environment and cultural heritage.
• Inez Jasper: an award winning pop music powerhouse who uses her platform as a public figure to shed light on the epidemic of missing and murdered Native women.
• Nataanii Means: a budding activist and passionate hip-hop artist (and son of American Indian Movement luminary Russell Means), who uses his music to fight against the spread of suicide on Native reservations.
• Mike “Witko” Clifford: a Pine Ridge Reservation rapper who works with Nataanii and others in the True Pride Music group to inspire Native youth with his message of perseverance and resistance.

You can also view a slightly longer version of the episode on RebelMusic.com, and see a music video produced by the first collaboration between the four artists. Rebel Music has a lot of additional content that is currently focused on this episode, including a playlist featuring songs by the four artists, as well as A Tribe Called Red, Scatter Their Own, Sihasin (article), Wab Kinew and Tinsel Korey, Tall Paul (Bandcamp), and Supaman (NPR).

posted by filthy light thief (6 comments total)

Been working w/ Nusrat and his team on the visuals for this show; happy to see that it's been posted here.

Really feel like this is the kind of stuff that MTV should be doing more of--at it's most amazing, all music has a story behind it.

Imagine something like a "30 For 30," but for music.
posted by raihan_ at 3:01 PM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]

I was interested to see MTV associated with this one, but it's odd that they're hyping the fact that it's on Facebook. It seems like they're trying to be like Vice, but softer.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:16 PM on November 15, 2014

I lived in North Dakota for a time in the summer and my neighbor who was I believe Cree used to get politely chased out of his apartment by his very own wife and kids for listening to Native American music at too high a volume so he would sit outside in his car and rock out. I would sit outside on the bench and we would smile and nod at each other occasionally. Also he sold me a bicycle [he had like five of them chained up outside] at a very reasonable price.
posted by vapidave at 4:27 PM on November 15, 2014

Additional reading for general context, free (today only?) on Amazon: The World of Indigenous North America (Routledge Worlds) [Kindle Edition] - Robert Warrior (Editor)
posted by filthy light thief at 6:36 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thank you for this excellent post.
posted by jokeefe at 12:54 AM on November 16, 2014

A Tribe Called Red - Burn Your Village To The Ground
posted by homunculus at 4:23 PM on November 27, 2014