The New Fast-Paced Normal for Indigenous Performing Artists
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Social media pages across the Colville Indian Reservation lit up after the tremendous announcement: James Pakootas’s (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) song “ Break These Chains ” won the 2019 ‘NAMMY’ for Best Hip Hop Music Video at the 19th Annual Native American Music Awards . The video features fellow tribal members Tony Louie and Daniel Nanamkin.
“It was a powerful moment for our people,” James says. And an emotional time for he and his mother.
“She saw me through all of the mayhem that I caused in my twenties, holding my community in bondage for so long,” he says. “Now, to give back to my community in such a big way and then to be awarded for one of the biggest passions I’ve always had — my mom was super proud.”
A few years ago, when James was released from the hospital after a car accident while under the influence, he was broken. His mother sat with him through the night, and the next day, he found a beat, a way to let the pain out. Later, the words he wrote became the first verse on “Break These Chains.”
“It wasn’t a message to my community or our youth at first,” he says. “It was a message to me, to remind myself that I’m a warrior too. I’ve lost the use of my arm, but I’m resilient, and I’m still going to make something out of this life. To win that award was probably the most pinnacle moment of my life up to this point. And it’s only the beginning.”
James is finishing his 2019 Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship. He became involved with the organization in 2017 when FPF held a meeting at the Colville Indian Reservation. It was the first time James called himself an artist, and that simple statement changed the course of his life. He is now a certified FPF trainer, and helped pilot the performing arts version of the Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) curriculum.
First Peoples Fund is tracking the development of performing artist fellows like James who are seeing monumental success and growth in their fellowship year. At the 2019 FPF Fellows Convening, James and three other fellows wrote and recorded a song on the spot at a local studio. That initial collaboration gave birth to DCM — Dream Chasers Music Collective. The heart of the DCM Collective beats in James’s studio in Spokane, Washington. It is poised to create residencies and group tours for performing artists. Throughout 2019, they’ve done workshops on writing, beat-making, recording knowledge, and more.
“There’s a lot of community engagement work which is always going to be our focus,” James says. “How do we add value to the community in which we’re in? We’re building partnerships with local nonprofits to handle the services so we can inspire our youth.”
“The fellowship has gone way beyond my initial grant request to do my own album. First Peoples Fund helped me build the infrastructure to have 50 albums, and help other artists with their dreams. I feel worth, I feel value not only in myself, I’m doing something bigger than myself, making the world a better place in my eyes. Every day I wake up, and I’m thankful. This is the new norm. Every time I think of identifying myself as an artist, that first moment came at a meeting First Peoples Fund set up on our reservation. I feel like in a small way, I owe a piece of this [NAMMY] award to them.”
— James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) in regard to another performing artist from his community, Tony Louie (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)
One of the performing artists who recorded on the impromptu song at the Fellows Convening was Talon Ducheneaux-Shoots The Enemy (Cheyenne River Lakhota / Crow Creek Dakota) of Wonahun Waste Studios. He continued to work closely with James and, through support from FPF, is now the first artist in residence of the Collective (read his narrative travel report here). He traveled to James’s basement studio at his home in Spokane, Washington, to finish recording an album he and James worked on long-distance for several months. A whole force of talent is driving the album, bringing in many voices. Talon calls the project, “Traveling the Multiverse with Ikto.”
“I can say and write a lot, I’ve made a lot of songs in my time,” Talon says. “But I found through the studio and through collaboration, it really helps move a narrative when you have multiple people saying it in different ways.”
National Performance Network Mentoring and Annual Conference Opportunities
Some of the 2019 FPF fellows are a part of the National Performance Network Mentorship Initiative in partnership with First Peoples Fund. James is one of those, and chose Andre Bouchard as his mentor to help him prepare for networking events, including the annual National Performance Network (NPN) conference in New Orleans.
Another FPF fellow, Elexa Dawson, is also preparing to dive into the annual conference where she will be performing. At NPN, she will join other First Peoples Fund fellows and staff.
“This will be my first time at NPN, and also to New Orleans. I’m excited about going, and about the performance as well,” she says. “It seems it will be at a peak time with a big audience. It’ll be just me and a guitar.”
Elexa plans to perform a song she wrote called “His Name” (video below) which is also featured in a freshly produced music video with her new record label.
“Getting picked up by Lost Cowgirl Records is very exciting,” she says. “I’ve never worked with a label before. They have some tools that I don’t have. This video is actually going to be the very first intentional music video I’ve ever had. A lot of things are happening that are projects I’ve been working on for a long time and haven’t seemed to be able to get done, and now it’s all coming together really fast.”
In addition to the record label, Elexa also has a song on the music streaming platform, Spotify. Her song, “I See Me”can be listened to by Spotify users at any time, and as Elexa joked, “I can now tell Alexa to play Elexa!”
These performing artist fellows are going deep with their work, inspiring their communities, expanding their networks and building intertribal collaborations.
“The fellowship has gone way beyond my initial grant request to do my own album,” James says. “First Peoples Fund helped me build the infrastructure to have 50 albums, and help other artists with their dreams. I feel worth, I feel value not only in myself, I’m doing something bigger than myself, making the world a better place in my eyes. Every day I wake up, and I’m thankful. This is the new norm. Every time I think of identifying myself as an artist, that first moment came at a meeting First Peoples Fund set up on our reservation. I feel like in a small way, I owe a piece of this [NAMMY] award to them.”
