Hey, lady, what are you listening to?

Oh I'm listening to Boujee Natives by Snotty Nose Rez Kids.

It's on this playlist that I'm making.

I'm either going to title it Indigenous Excellence or lil Indigi-Bean’s Jams.

Yeah, okay, I'll go with the first one.

But it's got all the great native artists on there.

Like I got Supaman.

Nataanii Means, Halluci Nation.

It's going to be a really great playlist, you know, despite what popular Western culture may have you believe, the sounds of our communities aren't just limited to flutes and Tom-Tom drums.

What if I told you that in addition to some of the more traditional sounds you may have heard, Indigenous music also permeates dubstep, jazz and death metal?

What if I told you that aspects of traditional indigenous music are the heartbeat of rock and roll?

ah, I did that prick up your ears?

Well, strap, in partner!

I'm Cheyenne Bearfoot, your favorite alter-NATIVE host of Sovereign Innovations.

Let me take you on a musical journey to understand how Indigenous music and musicians are captivating and innovating the music industry.

oh, and stay tuned till the end so you can hear my final playlist.

humans have been creating tunes to bop their heads to for thousands of years.

And for indigenous communities, a lot of our traditional music is how we connect to our ancestors.

But before we get into exactly how traditional Indigenous music has impacted modern genres, we first got to understand the core component that infuses all traditional indigenous music together.

The Drum.

See, it's far more than an instrument made out of a wooden frame with stretched animal hide.

For us, it's the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

For centuries, this instrument has brought together Indigenous communities, and it holds a special significance within Indigenous tribes across Turtle Island.

But that's not always shown in popular culture.

Like many other misrepresentations, mainstream media would have you believing that the Tom-Tom drum is a relic from a more primitive time.

I mean, just look at the Kansas City Chiefs, for example.

All they have to do is cue up the Tom-Toms to get the crowd tapping into their inner noble savage.

This practice is an ongoing way that removes positive cultural connections for Natives, and it further marginalizes Indigenous music as something foreign or less than Western music.

I'm with Channing Concho.

She's a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, and she's the drummer for the all female heavy metal band.

Suspended.

my guitarist Amanda Castillo, was actually the first person who was like, Hey, I know your dad plays drums.

My dad is also a drummer.

His name is Buck Concho.

He's been in many bands himself, but of course he's everybody's Uncle Buck, soul, he's got the groove.

He's just the funniest guy you'll ever meet.

And he gave me his gift and I'm happy to be able to share that and carry that on.

when I go back home and I hear our own drums, or even when I'm at a powwow, it has its own voice, you know, with every step.

It's like a natural metronome.

It's the heartbeat of our Mother Earth.

And I feel like I'm most in tune with that because it's the time where I can self-reflect by the men, so the men are usually the ones who are doing the singing and the drumming within our traditional ceremonies.

So for me to be a drummer and especially as an Indigenous woman, it’s a big step But drumming isn't just a cultural flourish.

It's the key to Indigenous cultural understandings.

Everything begins with the heartbeat.

But Chey, where’s the innovation!?

Hang on, man.

I'm getting there!

We got to talk about some science stuff first, okay?

There's some real scientific evidence that supports why Indigenous instrumentation jives well with certain understandings of indigenous identity.

Humans are surrounded by sound.

I mean, unless you're in a soundproof room like me right now.

And what sound Vibrations.

Studies have shown that sound vibrations, which include those from traditional drums, can have positive effects on.

Okay, bear with me, y’all.

Hemodynamic, neurological and musculoskeletal systems in the human body.

Huh, that wasn't so bad.

If it takes something like hitting some drums to, you know, get you through the day, then I definitely encourage it.

I was just very shy, I didn't know if I could even keep a beat.

But with practice, it all came naturally and it's opened so many opportunities within my own community to be able to show that, you know, music is important.

And it, you know, shows that it does tie us from our traditional into our modern day societies.

So it is very healing.

especially when you go to powwows or if you go to ceremonies on the Pueblos or anywhere else in your tribe and you hear the drums, you know, you hear that natural beat and you feel it in your heart and it's like a pulse.

So it's it's, you know, a whole nother sensation.

And definitely one of my best therapies.

Let's take another important cultural instrument for Indigenous peoples.

The flute.

Sure, many associated with the New Age sound of spas in the Southwest, but Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been creating and playing flutes for thousands of years.

And the oldest modern Native American flute dates back to the mid 1800’s.

One study noted the effects of flute vibrations on the human body were noticeable and significant from lowered heart rate to increase in delta and theta brainwaves.

these are the brainwaves closely associated with relaxation and sleep.

Okay, so we have heartbeats and brainwaves and disproving long held misconceptions about our music and all that jazz.

So at this point, I know you want to know where the innovation is.

Well, Indigenous people have been marching to the beat of our own drum for centuries, and a component of that march is adaptation.

See, for us as Indigenous people dealing with over 500 years of genocide and ethnocide, this trait has become critically important for not only survival but for day to day innovations.

and while adaptation isn't only unique to Indigenous communities, Indigenous musicians have been playing with instrumentation and adaptation for centuries.

For me, it was never really about showcasing us as being an Indigenous band.

It took me a lot to be able to embrace myself as an indigenous and native musician.

Before, I didn't really want to claim, you know, myself as being Native, because at first being in this type of scene, you know, it's like everyone wants to know where you're from, but then they automatically assume your identity.

So until I started realizing like, this is who I am, I need to showcase that, I need to wear, you know, my Pendleton vans and my, you know, my eagle earrings and keep my hair down long to show who I am.

That's my identity.

So that's one way that I like to bring who I am to my music.

For the rez metal musicians, a lot of them talk about those struggles that they went through or even living in the two-worlds, you know, our traditional society, and then the white-man’s society and the colonization and being stuck in between.

So when I finally found our communities out there in the rez metal scene, you know, that's when I started really to open my eyes like this is a real thing.

I, you know, didn't grow up fully traditional.

So this is my way of being able to carry on my own culture and traditions from my family heritage and leniency onto the next generations to be able to encourage them and inspire them to pick up the sticks.

From Creole influences and tribal rhythms of the Caribbean to the polyphonic harmonics of traditional flute.

Indigenous adaptation is at the core of American popular music.

So what happens when you begin to deconstruct, extract and reimagine what Indigenous music is today from what most people have typically perceived it to be?

You begin to see this influence across American musical genres.

You can see where Afro-Indigenous musicians helped shape American popular music by drawing on their cultural and ancestral roots.

In the history of rock and roll you can see where musicians like Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray and Jimi Hendrix drew on their cultural backgrounds to adapt and transform the musical palette of America.

You may even recognize Native music in your favorite movie soundtracks, like, Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring the popular Native band, Redbone.

All right, so we know that the way mainstream media has represented Indigenous music is a little outdated, and we know that our traditional music has positive health effects on the human body.

So then what's the effects of indigenous peoples actually seeing indigenous bands in their favorite genres?

for me personally, it means a lot to see Indigenous bands being catapulted into the mainstream.

When I was younger and super into punk rock and alternative bands like Green Day, Avril Lavigne and Paramore, I genuinely didn't think it was possible for Native people to be part of the punk scene.

and although I felt like my angst and rebelliousness was understood by these white bands, not seeing indigenous people at the forefront honestly made me feel like I had to be white in order to be accepted in this scene.

And this led to a lot of really unhealthy patterns of thinking as I navigated the world.

Like favoring one side of my mixed identity because it gave me an opportunity to fulfill my false assumptions that I needed to be white in order to be accepted.

Now that I'm older and I look back on that period of my life, I realize I was kind of silly because Indigenous peoples have literally helped shape punk rock and everything from hair to politically and culturally charged lyrics.

And now I realize that Indigenous peoples are in all sorts of genres from reggae and folk, even punk.

As with nearly everything in this world, the music our communities have been making for centuries has both merged and adapted to develop unique sounds and approaches.

Indigenous peoples continue to both explore and influence traditional and modern music genres.

Check out the link in the description of this video so you can listen to my Indigenous Excellence playlist on Spotify and YouTube music.

- I'm listening to it now!

- Until next time.

Hey, it’s Chey from the future.

I couldn’t let you go without hearing some important information first.

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You also get to cast your vote on new show ideas So it would be awesome if Sovereign Innovations fans were well represented in the polls There’s a link in the description, go ahead, check it out and make your voice heard.