Smoke Signals
Native American Music Awards
Honor Grand Ronde Tribal Member
Jan Michael "Looking Wolf" Reibach was thrilled to compete though he did not win.
MARCH 1, 2005
By Ron Karten
"Native music not only survives,"
said Jimmy Lee Young. "It grows and
it thrives!"
I le accepted the 2005 Native Ameri
can Music Award (NAMMY) for best
Single of the Year: One Voice One Cry.
"It starts with the Creator," said
Litefoot, who took home the NAMMY
for Artist of the Year. "I was told I
would never do anything for my people
with rap," he added, now vindicated.
After the NAMMYs, Litefoot was to
start on a 40-state, 211-reservation
tour in support of his album, Native
American Me.
"See you on the Reservation," he said.
This year's venue, the Seminole
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Fort
Lauderdale on the southern Florida
coast, hosted some 800 at $ 100 a ticket,
including performers, fans and press
to honor Indian Country's top musical
stars.
The range included blue grass, rap
and symphony; the talent swung from
music to ventriloquism to comedy.
Crystal Gayle and her sister, Peggy
Sue (both Cherokee), performed Sacred
Ground, a newly written piece, for the
first time that evening. Rita Coolidge
(Cherokee), already recipient of a Na
tive American Music Awards' (NAMA)
Lifetime Achievement award, and Rap
per Buggin Malone (Oneida and
Potawatomi) presented. Micki Free
(Comanche, Cherokee), who won this
year's best PopRock Recording, told the
audience, "We're gonna rock tonight,"
and then brought the house down with
a medley of greats at the evening's end.
Free (See Smoke Signals, 121502)
played with band members, Dennis
Tieken on drums and former Cheap
.Q
i
Recording Artist Jan Michael "Looking Wolf "
Reibach posed before the awards ceremony with his
Native flute in front of the Seminole's Classic guitar sign.
Trick bassist John Brant, who joined
him when he performed in Grand
Ronde in 2002. Tieken arrived with
one of his twin sons, Trenton, who has
formed a band with his brother, Trevin,
called TiekenTwins, and already, the
young pair have put out their first CD
by the same name.
In Grand Ronde, the highlight of the
night was Tribal mem
ber Jan Michael "Look
ing Wolf Reibach, nomi
nated his first time out
for a NAMMY in the
BluesJazz category.
On his excitement
level before the show,
Reibach rated it at,
"Way!" Afterwards,
when the award went to
Cecil Gray & Red Dawn
Blues Band for their CD,
Indian Harmony,
Reibach started looking
ahead to this year's
work.
"My new CD, entitled
A New Day, is now be
ing released nationally,"
he said afterwards in an
email. "It is Native flute
with contemporary ac
companiment such as
gentle guitar, drums
and classical piano.
Later this year, High
Spirits a label out of
Arizona will be releas
ing a CD I recorded for
them as well. The nomi
nations this past year
have brought attention
and a certain expectation
from the Native music
industry. This is an exciting time. I
am looking forward to see where the
music takes us now."
He attended the awards ceremony
with Vernon Kennedy (Burns-Paiute),
also a member of Reibach's band that
last year put together Native Blues,
this year's competing CD, produced by
Cedarfeather Productions.
"I felt pretty good about it," said
Kennedy. "I said, "Wow,' we're nomi
nated. Even though we didn't win, Fm
just going to keep doing what I'm do
ing." "It is an honor to be recognized by
the Native American Music Awards
and I am so thankful to everyone for
their support," wrote Reibach. "Also,
I appreciate the guitar tracks by
Vernon Kennedy and Michael "Stand
ing Elk" Reibach. Their talents con
tributed greatly to the CD's success."
Standout performances between
awards came from Li'l Dre (Navajo),
a 12-year-old rapper from Shiprock,
Arizona and ventriloquist, Buddy Big
Mountain, who brought his dummies,
like Awesome Fox, back a bunch of
times, once giving his dummy the op
portunity to belt out Frank Sinatra's
My Way, and later, performing an un
believable throw-your-voice rendition
of Geoff Mack's and John Grenell's, I've
Been Everywhere, Man.
Windtalkers and Smoke Signals
movie star Adam Beach (Saulteaux
from Manitoba, Canada) and singer
Jana (Lumbee) emceed the event.
Beach kept up a buzz about Jana's
appeal; Jana's replies were smiling,
but not exactly encouraging.
"I met so many nationally known re
cording artists and producers. Many of
them asked questions about our Tribe,"
said Reibach. "It felt good to be there."
It blew my mind," said Kennedy.
"All these Native artists gathering in
one place. It was very interesting. Art
ists, singers, drummers."
Sponsor Mitchell Cypress, Chair
man of the Seminole Tribe of Florida,
had one word for the night's event:
"Fabulous," he said.
v.
- -'A.. i - ' M.
Elder To Elder
Tribal Elder Kathryn
Harrison (left) tells
about her life and
explains the history of
the Grand Ronde Tribe
to a group from the
Oregon Retired
Educators Association.
The event was Thurs
day, February 3 in
Tigard at the King City
Town Hall.
Photos by Marty George
V;
I ir i iiimiiiiirM I I
Cwt Tribal mzn&ex , t
and facilities technician Jeff Larsen
cut the grass near tlieVeterans'Me-
morial during the unseasonably .
warm weather in February.
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