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The Artists and Voices of
Oyate Ta Olowan--The Songs of the People

These CDs make great gifts-- and when you purchase, each artist receives
a royalty! CDs may be purchased using Paypal below,or if you want to
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Scroll down, listen to samples, see the artist's page, and make a purchase. 
To see artists organizated by region, click here
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Evelyn Alexander, Athabascan from Minto, AK
Unfortunately, we somehow missed the boat on getting a picture of this beautiful Elder who sings of the first time she saw a boat belonging to the white man. A gem!
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Anita Anquo, Kiowa from OK
Has a wonderful laugh and many stories to tell. Be sure to see the picture of her with her sister in their beautiful shawls on the artist page..
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Atka Dancers--Unangax from Atka, AK
Atka, along the Aleutian chain has 100 Unangax people living there. Look close and you'll see Milt and I in the middle. The youth do an amazing seagull dance--making the bird sounds as they dance.
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Sylvester Ayek, Inupiak from Anchorage, AK
...is a talented artist as well as a musican. Fabulous marble scultpures of bears, and other creatures.
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Eddie Benton Benai, Ho'chak from Hayward, WI
...is a fullblood Ojibwe and a member of the Midewiwin Lodge. He says “I was never without the sound of the drum, without the sound of music...
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Black Lodge Singers, Blackfoot from White Swan, MT
...Black Lodge—Take it Away! That’s the call at many pow wows across the United States as the Master of Ceremonies calls the drum group to begin. And Black Lodge does just that—takes it away.
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Loren Bommelyn, Tolowa from Crescent Beach, CA
...lives with his family in a nice house down a quiet cul-de-sac. Originally from the small fishing village of Nelechundun on the Smith River, now he walks in two worlds and is both an eloquent, educated man and a traditional Tolowa.
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Harris Burnette, White Mountain Apache from AZ
 ...began singing when he was seven years old. He was helping his father at a ceremony in Cibecue when he had a dream. The next day, during the ceremonies, he knew the songs and what they were about.
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Curtis Burrows from Grindstone, CA
...is from the Grindstone Rancheria, in north central California. Playing a slapstick that is a stick cut up the middle that clicks when slapped against your hand. When I asked Curtis what kind of Native lived at Grinstone, he smiled, and replyed,"Native American". They do the big head dance in Grindstone, and so much more.

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Walker Calhoun, E. Cherokee from N. Carolina
...is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokees. He was born in these mountains and heard only Cherokee spoken until he was 12. His family had little in the way of material wealth, but he was drawn to the music and dances of his people.
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Ferdinando Cellicion, Zuni from AZ
...is an accomplished traditional flute player and singer. From Zuni, New Mexico. Fernando loves music! By the time he finished high school he played twelve different instruments, and he has not slowed down since.

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Gilbert Cheechoo, Cree from Moosonee, Canada
... and his son Gitchee (Gilbert Jr.) are from the southern tip of James Bay in Ontario, Canada. They live in the village of Moosonee, Ontario that is only accessible by riding a train for six hours north of Cochrane, Ontario.

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Forrest Chimerica, Hopi from Phoenix, AZ
 ...drums and sings for a youth dance group that started as a single performance and now has many members. He carves Kachinas, earrings, and other items to sell at fairs. Kachinas are sacred objects and Forrest feels people need to regard them as items of spirit.
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Lee Cremo, Mic Mac from Nova Scotia, Canada
...was a magnificent fiddler and composer. In fact, we discovered, to Milt's delight, that Lee was the composer of the famous fiddle tune called "Constitutional Breakdown." We are sorry to report that he has passed on.Read More ..............................................Hear Sample MP3

     
Brent Michael Davids,
...is both musician and composer. He tells this amazing story of how he created a flute from crystal, and has since created several others. They are clear and beautiful and we were stunned by this unusual instrument.
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Ken Funmaker, Hoc'ak from Friendship, WI
...and his wife, Rhonda and their children live in a traditional woodlands wigwam. Ken is lean,earthy and funny all at the same time and is a strong leader for traditional Hoc'aks (pronounced Hochunk).
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Patrick and Wade Greene, Makah from Neah Bay, WA
...are uncle and nephew and have sung together for many years. Wade is the main composer of songs for the family and says there "is nothing in this universe that compares to native culture.” Sadly, we recently got word that Patrick (left) passed on in 2005.
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Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole from FL
... remembers living in a “chickee,” an open-aired, thatched structure common to her people. Her mother was a Seminole medicine woman and her father was white, a trapper and sugar cane worker. She remembers only seeing him once when she was 12. She says “I ran and hid. I didn’t want to see him.”
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Charles Ka'Upu, Hawaiian, Maui, HI
... For Charles Ka'upu, the island of Maui is home. He is a young, powerfully-built man who teaches at a local junior college and puts on traditional garb to perform in one of the hotel luau events every week. When we first meet him he is wearing a t-shirt that says, “the natives are restless.”
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John Kionut, Caddo from Fort Cobb, OK
... is the last Caddo alive to speak all four dialects of the original Caddo language. He also speaks 14 other languages fluently, although he says he is beginning to lose some because there is no one left to talk to.
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Frank Lapena, Wintu from Sacramento, CA
...is an artist, scholar, and singer and is joined in this program by Brian Bibby. Frank and Brian work tirelessly to preserve the strict traditional forms of the music and dance in their area.
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Barnaby Lewis, Akimel O'odham from Coolidge, AZ
... sings mostly bird songs he learned from two of his elders who have passed away. An elder’s group called “The River People Oriole Singers” lead the songs and keep them alive. The eldest is 84 and the youngest is 68. The Akimel O’odham used to be known as the Pimas.
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Woodlin Lois, Choctaw from Mississippi
...lives with his wife, Thalis. They both work tirelessly to keep the culture strong and to teach the music and dances to the young people of the community. Woodlin builds drums, and speaks of the Choctaw life.
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Danny Lopez, Tohono O'odham from Big Fields, AZ
... is a teacher and traditional man from south of Tucson on Sonoran Deser. The land out there has a large and lonely quality; a sky that makes a person feel small. We interviewed Danny beneath that sky in a summer kitchen.
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Roland and Jeff Manakaja, Havasupai from Supai, AZ
Supai village is down in the bottom of a canyon that is connected to the Grand Canyon System. There is now way to reach the village except by helicoptor, horse or mule--or walking.
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Wilmer Mesteth, Lakota from Pine Ridge Reservation ...is from our own home state of South Dakota and is well known on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He is a full-time instructor for Oglala Lakota College in the Lakota Studies Department and is deeply involved in the music and culture of the Lakota people
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Trebol, Mexico, Part One
We had a call from Maggie Paul, our Oyate friend from New Brunswick. She asked could we be in Mexico in a week to be at this five day festival. Amazingly, we made it. This incredible experience recorded on this and the next show. A must hear...
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Trebol, Mexico, Part Two
Probably the biggest surprise was the instrument that Gabino
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Felipe Molina, Yeome from Arizona
... took us to an isolated part of the desert north of Tucson because he wanted the songs recorded where they belonged. His brother and two nephews joined us in this unusual studio of sky and desert--beautiful music with a waterdrum, rasps, and poetic images.
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K'odi Nelson,Kwakwaka’wakw from Alert Bay, Canada
Of the first 26 shows in the Oyate series, this one holds perhaps two distinguishing marks--one for “youngest artist” and the other for “most remote”. K’odi Nelson, in his early twenties, lives on Cormorant Island in a village called Alert Bay.
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Maggie Paul, Passammaquoddy from New Brunswick, Canada...met us wearing a pair of comfortable sweat pants and a red T-shirt and looking like somebody's favored auntie—until she opened her mouth to sing. So spirited you think she will float away, pulled up by the fine strands of the creator’s web.
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Grant Pilgrim, Yurok, from Grants Pass, OR
... was a logger, peeler, roofer, traditional fisherman, ran a smokehouse, worked with abalone shells and was, in Aggie’s words, an “all round traditional man.” He was well loved by his community and, sadly, passed on shortly after we recorded him.
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John Pingayek, Chu'pik from Chevak, Alaska
... offers special thanks to his grandfather, Joseph Friday, for teaching him to sing and drum. He would like people to know that “We are the only Chu’pik people in the world”.
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Ron Pond, Umatilla from Pendleton, Oregon
... teaches native music at Washington State University where he is also enrolled in a Ph.D. program. Both his work and his family life are centered on preserving the traditional ways of his people.
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