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Smoke Signals
r comes to kwm
By Amanda Siestreem
In the darkened Willamina gym
nasium, the fog machine surrounded
the crowd in wisps of smoke. Last
month Litefoot and the Red Ryders
performed at Willamina Middle
School for community members and
Native youth from the Grand Ronde
Tribe, Siletz Tribe, and Chemawa In
dian School.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Okla
homa, Litefoot is an urban Indian
working on reservations around the
nation. The excited crowd showed
him they were some of his biggest fans.
Producing his own record label, his
Red Ryders rap group, a movie ca
reer, and a clothing line, Litefoot is
an entrepreneur. Between songs he
raps to the dancing crowd, "make an
example, everyone will follow, put
down the bottle, never take a swal
low. Times have changed, the land
is strange, and all our people are
bound in chains. The path of righ
teousness is real narrow. Your words
your bow, your pen your arrow."
A dedicated performer, Litefoot's
pro-Native philosophy sets him
apart. Speaking clear, he tells the
audience, young and old, "Smoking
and drinking is not part of who we
are as a people. Ask yourself one
question: Where is my relationship
with the Creator?' Young and old
alike, they all listened to his message.
Having turned down movie deals
to focus on his music, Litefoot has
brought together young Native art
ists from Vancouver, BC, New Mexico
and Minnesota. One of his rappers,
RDS1, just joined the Red Ryders
two weeks ago from the Navajo Na
tion in New Mexico. He says his fam
ily is concerned but they are support
ive of his new traveling schedule and
that working with Litefoot is really
inspirational. Litefoot says, "One
thing I try not to do with new artists
is to inhibit them too much. I try not
to dominate too much. I just try to
make real for them the ability to
reach out and touch whatever the
Creator has for them. I still struggle
with that, I don't have that, some
one to do that for me."
But it hasn't slowed him down, he
sees each setback as information for
his battle plan. When a well-known
record label wanted to sign him with
srkm - J J
Litefoot poses with fans.
Above: Kimbery Roybal (left) and
Leah Pratt.
Photo at right: (from left to right)
Tara Leno, Lisa Leno, Lacy Leno,
and Brandy Leno.
Photos by Lisa Leno
make an example,
everyone will follow,
put down the bottle,
never take a swallow."
Litefoot
the requirement that he didn't talk
about being Native, he walked away
and started his own record label, Red
Vinyl Records. Since that time he has
not only created a career for himself,
independent of the popular multime
dia industry, he has supported Na
tive artists who are just coming up.
"Things are getting ready to
change for me," he says to the crowd,
" I just did a song with Coolio. Right
now I'm ready to go to the next level.
I promised I wouldn't do that until I
felt I'd taken care of Indian Coun
try. I'm ten years deep now. It takes
a Native to help a Native, and we're
covering all the bases."
The Grand Ronde Tribe, hosting
Litefoot and the Red Ryders, drew a
diverse crowd, with a group from the
Chemawa Indian School in Salem
and a group from the Siletz Tribe.
With a slow steady rap, he sings,
"Will unborn children prosper from
what you did? Did you turn a spark
into a fire? Or encourage another
Native Leader to retire? When they
put you in the ground and you're
dead, will unborn children prosper
from this life you lead?"
Litefoot is creating a documentary
of his Red Ryders Tour 1999. Greg
Pierre, who is filming, hopes to edit
the film after the tour. "I'd never been
out of British Columbia before Litefoot
asked me to come along. "I quit my
job, postponed my class and came
along. Who knows, maybe this will
lead me somewhere else," said Pierre.
Litefoot's commitment to pro-Native
work extends down into the fine
details of the shows, where he had
insisted on hiring an all Native se
curity team which consisted partially
of members from Grand Ronde's
drum group Eagle Beak. Litefoot
met his wife while attending the Na
tional Indian Education Conference.
Litefoot said, "the Creator put me
here to do things, I said I would. A
lot of these things have nothing to
do with me. My wife, for example,
she was given to me by the Creator.
I look at her as a gift, she is one-hundred
percent the person for me. Let
me tell you, you don't have to get
very many gifts for it to make it all
worth while because the gifts are
priceless and unimaginable."
0 I
Litefoot, the 1998 Native American Rap Artist of the Year, is popular
among Native youth. He is also the star of the films: The Indian in the
Cupboard, Mortal Kombat II, and Annihilation.
Carmen, his wife, and their seven
month-old son, Quannah, watch
Litefoot perform for the energetic
crowd. "I've never seen a harder
worker," she said of her husband. "He
won't stop until it's perfect. The pow
wow he put on in Washkie, Wyoming,
he prepared for three months, and
there was a turnout of 14,000 people.
He's just a busy man. I was going to
go into Native law, because I wanted
to help Native people, but I'm doing
that with him. It's not hard to share
him with everyone because I under
stand what he does, I'm for the kids
too. Indians are on the low end of
everything, we need pride, through
his music he gets to the kids."
Litefoot speaks straight to the
crowd, "if you don't know your cul
ture too much, look to the Creator.
You just start praying, in the shower,
on the way to school, anywhere you
are. We are different. It is just who
you are, it is yours, because you say
please and everything will be taken
care of for you. It is so simple, just go
do it. Yall hear me? Who's proud to
be Indian out there? Who's proud?"
Arms high and voices raised, the
crowd let Litefoot know they heard
him. With a philosophy of taking
care of the small things and letting
the big things take care of them
selves, he has formed for himself an
empire of his own talent and left him
self creative control over the future.
Rising up out of the Tulsa atmo
sphere of prejudice that shaped his
voice, Litefoot says, "I used to get it
about being Chinese, because they
didn't know what I was. Kids used
to spit their food at me. I feel a lot of
responsibility. That's the motivation
behind my songs. It's always about
connecting back. I feel a personal ob
ligation to fight on. My struggle is to
construct it so the words are food."
With a persistence to his fans, and
an accessibility rare to stardom,
Litefoot won't leave a show until he
has signed every autograph and ad
dressed every concern. Families tell
him stories of their lives and admire
his baby. And Litefoot's famous smile
does not waver. In his own words,
"7s there an ultimate plan for my de
mand, a crutch so my nation can
stand. Do I have the words to edu
cate the youth or am I a fabricated
hero, the burden of proof. Then pow
erful thought came to me. The spirit
of Crazy Horse ran through me. I
spoke his word, the vision was un
blurred. Powerful people pointed
their fingers absurd. I cured here
to the fullest, fight with your mind,
resist and we can do this. No drugs,
no gangs and no arrest. I had my
vision, now I begin my quest..."
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A note from Lisa Leno,
youth education coordinator
A very special thank you to the fol
lowing people: Duane Coulson, Dustin
Harmon, Shane Harmon, Bobby Mer
cier, Anthony Henry, Brian Krehbiel,
Tara Leno, Brandy Leno, Diana
Robertson, Dustin Billings, Christina
Lara, Sam George, Dana Leno, the
Wellness program, and the Education
Committee. Your support and time
was greatly appreciated. Thank you
to Selene Rilatos from the Siletz
Tribe, for the blessing.