04/07/24 - Trey Blackhawk, Indigenous resistance music from Turtle Island and beyond
Makes you such a threat? We choose the right to be who we are. We know the difference between the reality of freedom and the illusion of freedom. There's a way to live with Earth and a way not to live with Earth. We choose the way of Earth. It's about power.
Anne Keala Kelly:Heartfelt greetings and welcome. I shake your hand with good feelings in my heart, and the whole world is a beautiful day. It's good for all of us to be here and let the people hear your voice respectfully and celebrate life. This is First Voices Radio coming to you again this week from the illegally occupied Hawaiian Kingdom, a nation state known erroneously to most as the dream vacation destination state of Hawaii. I'm Ann Kealakeli, sitting in this week for your host, Tioka's and Ghosthorse.
Anne Keala Kelly:And on his behalf, Mahalo Nui for your generosity as always, and for being here. Because without you, this show cannot go on. This is all native hosted, all native produced First Voices Radio, now in its 32nd year of broadcasting. Our First Voices Radio producer is the fabulous Liz Hill. I wanna welcome the more than 110 community, public, and commercial radio stations that carry First Voices Radio, and thank all of you who monitor this program online and around our mother, the Earth.
Anne Keala Kelly:Now as Tiokasin would say, let's count coup. The American Indian College Fund partners annually with Pendleton Woolen Mills to raise funds for native scholarships through a design contest. As you may or may not know, Pendleton designs and sells beautiful native inspired blankets and clothing. This year's winner for his design entitled drumkeepers is Winnebago musician, artist, and farmer, Trey Blackhawk. And as you will hear when he speaks about his design, this blanket is his own loving way of honoring his elders, Winnebago culture, and the land.
Anne Keala Kelly:This blanket is really a beautiful piece of art and an enduring tribute to his people. Trey, welcome to First Voices Radio. I'm so glad you could take some time to talk story with us.
Trey Blackhawk:Yep. I'm happy to be here.
Anne Keala Kelly:I came across this article. I think it was in Native News Online recently about the Pendleton contest, and then I started reading up on you a little bit and saw that you're doing other work as a farmer. First of all, let's talk about the contest for the blanket. Help the audience understand what that's about.
Trey Blackhawk:The Pendleton blanket contest, put in put on by the American Indian College Fund and, Pendleton company, which, it's mainly for tribal college students where a portion of the blanket design, if you're the winner, both proceeds go to tribal college students for scholarships and whatnot. You can find more information on the American Indian College Fund website. That that's how I found out about it. When you do enter the contest, you're supposed to tell a little bit about your design, kinda what it means to you, the components in your blanket. Yeah.
Trey Blackhawk:My first design, it it kinda was the same thing, but, I I did add add a lot more color and a lot more different design work to it. I I think it turned out well. I I've I've been getting a lot of compliments and, you know, that that's just really great to hear because I I did spend a lot of time on it, and it it was kinda I was late at night most of the time trying to figure out the perfect colorway and different designs that kinda took me a little bit. But I could tell you the easy thing was mainly the the drum itself. I I I first started out trying to draw it.
Trey Blackhawk:I I couldn't do a perfect circle. So the good thing with technology is that it can do a perfect circle for you, so that's how I ended up doing that. But, yeah, I I I kinda went based off my first design, and then I started the second design. And kinda just from there, it just it it kinda slowly just came together and kinda really like how it turned out.
Anne Keala Kelly:Well, let's talk about it for a minute so that the audience knows what it looks like. First of all, what's the name of it, the design?
Trey Blackhawk:Yeah. So my blanket, I named the drum keeper's blanket. And for that, that's, my way of giving back to that drum because I am a singer. I I do sing with my, my uncle. He he's actually the drum keeper, so it's more of a dedication to to my uncle on, you know, having that knowledge and, you know, just, being a head singer, knowing the songs of, you know, the Winnebago tribe, you know, different family songs, veteran songs.
Trey Blackhawk:I mean, he's just, he just he knows a lot, and, you know, that's who I can learn off from. And what what I always say is that, you know, appreciate people why they're here because I I know, you know, just like many other, you know, native communities on reservations and all this that, you know, we lose a lot of close relatives to us. And it's just you know, I I feel that appreciate them while they're here, and, you know, that that's just the way that I can give my heartfelt kinda thank you to my uncle for, you know, kinda taking me under his wing and kinda letting me learn off from learn off from him and, you know, just being able to just to sing those songs. You know? It's our it's who we are.
Trey Blackhawk:You know? It's our culture. It it makes us you know? I'm I'm from Winnebago. I'm a enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
Trey Blackhawk:So for me, it it it's really huge, to learn these songs and just be a part of these group of singers that carry on these songs and that can be passed down to the next generation. That that's my big thing, is getting my son involved, getting my, you know, my daughters to learn these songs. You know, it it's just really, heart touching thing for me to sing, but, yeah, it is called the drum keeper's blanket. I did put a applique design around kinda as the border. That that kinda took me a while to do the applique design because a lot of I see a lot of applique work.
Trey Blackhawk:My, my auntie is actually she's a she's a graphic designer. So I tried to ask her for help, but I I did wanna do this on my own. So I I don't know if you could tell. If you look at the applique design that it does kinda look like a corn corn stock. If you look at it sideways, so me being a farmer growing corn kinda year after year, that's kinda how I started, working that design.
Trey Blackhawk:And from there, I kinda had to put meaning to it. And the meaning behind those is that we do have a lot of women applique, whole chunk applique dancers that, you know, it it's just a it's a lot of legwork, I mean, to do the dance. But, as far as the applicator, that kinda goes out to all those mothers, those grandmothers, you know, those aunties, the ones that, you know, kinda help you raise your kids, the ones that that kinda hold the family together is is the way I was always kinda kinda told, kinda listening to my to my grandmother because my great grandmother, she did have 11 kids. You know? She's a matriarch.
Trey Blackhawk:So from there, you know, our family is just we we got a big family. So that that was my way of giving back to all those mothers, the ones that kinda hold the family together. Another heartfelt thank you to, you know, all those mothers and everyone that takes part and, you know, care for the family. And aside from that, I ended up doing, 4 drumsticks represents our 4 directions, you know, northeast, south, and west. How we do the things, we usually pan off in the 4 directions if we do a ceremony.
Trey Blackhawk:So so that was my way of representing those. And then, of course, the colorway, I needed the colorway to really stand out, to be more eye catching. So for me, being a farmer, usually waking up early in the morning, staying late, just kinda how I view the world. That that's kinda how I see it. It's it's a really colorful place, and I I really do enjoy being a farmer, seeing seeing all the colors.
Trey Blackhawk:You know? I I do like diversity, so I I try to diversify the crops as much as I can. But aside from that, it's more of a night and day type of effect that I try to go with too. A head singer, being a singer, carrying on these songs of, you know, your people, your tribe that, you know, it's not just a one day type of thing. It's every day.
Trey Blackhawk:You know, it's constantly thinking about these songs. You know, even if you're, like, you're humming to them or, you know, you sit down at the drum and sing them. You know, you're always carrying on these songs. So it's more of a carrying that on for life type of thing. So Well, let me ask you from that okay.
Anne Keala Kelly:This stuff. So you talked about farming, and I know that you're a farmer. And so, I mean, I've seen a few articles out there about you over the past couple few years maybe. Can you talk a little bit about that work and how being a singer and having this tradition, the drumming, in your family and practicing these things, like, literally practicing them, like, every day as you're just describing, how does that inform your farming, or does it?
Trey Blackhawk:So for me, my job my job title I'm actually the manager for the Winnebago Tribal Farm, which, our main focus is food production. I'm trying to develop a local food system for the Winnebago tribe, which, you know, I'm trying to incorporate cattle, you know, fruits and vegetables, you know, orchards, poultry. I've I've been working on trying to get going a a meat walker, you know, meat slaughtering facility for the tribe, but, you know, it's gonna take a great deal of time and a lot of resources to get that moving. But my big thing is food sovereignty, and, like, I enjoy what I do. So being able to help the community in this way when knowing that it was a huge hit when COVID came through when, you know, kinda went rampant in 2020, and we've seen this dent in our food system here locally.
Trey Blackhawk:And we didn't have any have anything like this set in place, but since then, you know, we're slowly kinda growing and trying to incorporate more food production for, you know, my tribe. But, how all this singing and all this stuff ties into myself and my farming is mainly just it's just who I am. I I didn't start singing until I was 15. That that was the time where I was kinda going through a hard time in my life. And, you know, when I first set up the drum, you know, that kinda took that took that feeling away of kinda having this turnaround carried around all this weight.
Trey Blackhawk:You know, it kinda lifted me off my shoulders when I first started singing and learning how to drum Mhmm. And started learning these Winnebago songs that it it just helped me to become a better person and to really tie into exactly who I am as a Winnebago travel member. Do I know my history of my Winnebago people? Do I do do, like, do I really know these things? And I had to sit down and really think and, you know, learn these songs and actually dive into our Winnebago history.
Trey Blackhawk:And, you know, that that makes you who you are. You know? It's having those ties to your to your people, that land, you know, the history of your whatever tribe you come come from that, no one in your history, you know, kinda makes you who you are, and kind of value that too at the same time that I just, you know, love what I do. I love farming, and I love singing, and I I do love giving back too. So giving back my time or giving back, any sort of type type of educational components in my work or, you know, even, like, just in my free time, you know, talking to people too.
Trey Blackhawk:It's just what I love to do. I I was always taught to give back. So even if you have a little, it you know, even if you can give back your time, you know, people really love that too as well.
Anne Keala Kelly:You know, there's this term that's kind of become a buzzword really is regenerative farming, which when I hear that, I hear indigenous knowledge. I hear I hear traditional ways of using of land use. I saw you referred to as a regenerative farmer. What is that for you, or am I just understanding it wrong?
Trey Blackhawk:Yeah. So with regenerative agriculture, when I first read about this and kinda discovered what it means is basically is what the natural world is doing with all this disruption of the soil. I mean, if if you go into any type of woodlot or, you know, just in a a native prairie grass field, I mean, a lot of native prairies kinda disappearing. But if if you go into these natural natural ecosystems, and then, you know, that's basically that's basically what it means is that, you know, it's taking care of itself. But, you know, a lot of times, you know, industrial and commercial farming, commercial agriculture has really taking a hit on, on the soil and especially, you know, with climate change.
Trey Blackhawk:And, you know, that, you know, some people don't understand that that the amount of, you know, carbon emissions in the atmosphere, you know, that that's really that really takes a toll on, you know, all of us individually. I mean, I I can see it year after year. We our winters really have been kinda short. Surprisingly, we we kinda did have a long winter, and we did kinda get a good amount of snow this year. But, as far as your gender, agriculture and what we're trying to do on our farm is, you know, we're we're trying to take care of the land.
Trey Blackhawk:So I I'm not I'm not too interested in a monoculture. I do like I said, I like to to diversify. So I I'm really trying to incorporate, you know, a a lot of a lot of different crops, rotating those crops, of course, and then also making sure we're keeping that soil covered during the wintertime. You know, we don't wanna have, you know, another kind of dust bowl. I mean, if if when I drive around my reservation, there there is a lot of soil that isn't covered.
Trey Blackhawk:You know? You you can plant any type of, you know, field peas, you know, a winter rye mix to keep that soil covered during the wintertime. And that that's what we really try to work on is taking care of the land. So if that's integrating, you know, poultry or cattle, doing some type of silver pasture with our orchard, which we do plan on doing with, poultry, which we we finally did order our tree. So we are gonna be putting in a 6 acre orchard, but also trying to control the pesticide drift.
Trey Blackhawk:I I know there's a farm next to a a big commercial farm, and I I know year after year, they spray. So I'm trying to keep trying to keep that to a minimum of at least putting in a one break to at least take a hit off our crop, but that's as far as I know. I I know I just try to I try to copy what the natural world is doing, you know, without the disturbance of people. But, you know, I I still have a lot to learn. You know?
Trey Blackhawk:I'm I'm still in school, still learning a a lot of different components that we can integrate into our farm production.
Anne Keala Kelly:Mhmm. What's the name of the reservation?
Trey Blackhawk:We're in Winnebago, Nebraska, which is in, Northeast Nebraska.
Anne Keala Kelly:And how big is it?
Trey Blackhawk:I I can't give you a good idea how many acres. I think the amount of people that live here in town might be over 25100.
Anne Keala Kelly:And is it mostly does the population mostly Winnebago?
Trey Blackhawk:Yep. Pretty much.
Anne Keala Kelly:Okay. So in terms of the farming that you're able to accomplish thus far, is it all being, like, everybody in town is eating this food, or are you selling it? What's the model?
Trey Blackhawk:So, really, with us, we're we really are trying to market more, and we really are trying to get more of the community involved. Right now, we're currently we're currently set on a 3838 acre farm. So we do have a few orchards that, you know, take up about 3 acres, and we're putting in another orchard that's gonna take up about 6 to 8 acres. But, we also do have, like, a lot of different garden plots for, you know, our our, heirloom, Indian corn, you know, just a lot of different vegetable production and also integrated and, trying to move our chicken through the land that kinda needs to be fertilized. So Mhmm.
Trey Blackhawk:Once we do that, then we can start trying to trying to work that land. But, for us, there's only 3 of us, and that's currently working right now. For us, we are a nonprofit, so we are trying to trying to work on hiring maybe 2 more to run it more efficiently. I know in the past, we did run into the problem of having, water. So we did have adequate water for, like, the past 3 years, on the amount of, you know, acres that we have to kinda water these different garden plots that we was kinda dependent on the rain, and and that's where I kinda noticed that we really weren't getting a lot of rain during the summer.
Trey Blackhawk:But since then, we we did get a little bit of funding, and we did get a new well installed, last year, and it should be ready to build this year. I ordered a new new water tank just in case, and, we are working on building the farm pond for irrigation needs as well, but as well as, putting in some, you know, different type of fish species, you know, so people can come out and fish. And, you know, just trying to develop a whole food system that's really local for people to come out and enjoy anytime they want to.
Anne Keala Kelly:Do you find that other tribes are doing similar projects, or do you have are you connected throughout Indian country with others who are doing what you're doing?
Trey Blackhawk:So for me, I I did kinda reach out. I was a I did do a apprenticeship with the First Nations Development Institute where it was beginning farmers and ranchers, and I did get to talk with a lot of different farmers, you know, throughout the country. I believe it was around 35 or 40 of us. But, as far as visiting, I I haven't really got to, like, visit, too many farms. I know there's just a few, few apple orchards that I visited, but I I do pay attention to other models that, you know, that these tribes already have in place, like, the Oneida tribe.
Trey Blackhawk:I mean, they're they're doing really well with their whole food sovereignty movement, which, you know, I I really look at these, and I try to try to mimic what they're doing and and really try to, kinda go based off from, like, okay. You know, a tribe, you know, they already have this up and going. Why can't we go off their model and do the same thing? And, also, the Quapaw Tribe as well too with their, meat processing, I I see that as huge for them, and I I think that would be a great deal for their tribe, you know, if we are to move in that direction. And, plus, you know, it creates more jobs as well.
Trey Blackhawk:So I I really try to follow these other tribes and, you know, try to pay attention to these to these different components that they're involving in their food sovereignty movement.
Anne Keala Kelly:Seems like the buzzword. Right? Regenerative. I mean, is that, like, a nationwide movement, do you think? Do you feel like you're a part of your movement?
Trey Blackhawk:I sure hope so. I mean, my my big thing, like I mentioned, is taking care of the land and trying to leave it in a better condition than when we got it. So I'm I'm thinking about, you know, the next generation of, you know, farmers that might wanna take my job, you know, when when I'm ready to retire or, you know, these next next ones that take interest in it. So, I I am hoping that, you know, what we do is for the betterment of, you know, mother earth, as we call it. So I I always, anytime I I work the land, I always try to, you know, do it in a good manner.
Trey Blackhawk:And, you know, even before we, plant our first crops, I, say a word of prayer and, you know, I I put our tobacco down. And, you you know, I just to give thanks to you know, for all that to come and for, you know, the past people that got this set forward for me because I'm I'm really just carrying on this this mission of these past leaders that, had the idea to do this. So I'm I'm I'm really thankful for that and to be in this position. But, I I do like the idea of regenerative agriculture, and I do like the idea of permaculture where you know you're integrating a lot of different you're diversifying your farm, which is kinda the more easier way to say it.
Anne Keala Kelly:Mhmm. Well, Trey Blackhawk, it's been really a pleasure and an honor to have you on First Voices Radio. Can you give people, email or rather website to learn more about what it is you're doing and to support your work?
Trey Blackhawk:Yeah. So you can find us on Facebook. I mean, as far as trying to market a lot of stuff, you know, we're working on that. But you can look us up on Facebook at Winnebago Tribal Farm. You can also get ahold of me through email at trey.blackcock@winnebagotribe.com.
Trey Blackhawk:I'm usually pretty responsive in my emails. So if you have any questions or want to know more or even want to help contribute, you can, get a hold of me through my email.
Anne Keala Kelly:Wonderful. What a pleasure. We'll have to have you back on the show, hear about, how your crops are going in your new orchard.
Trey Blackhawk:Yep. That sounds good.
Anne Keala Kelly:We close the first half of this week's show with a recording of the new breed drum group at the missing and murdered indigenous relative Sioux City Pow Wow in 2023. For the second half of the show, we're going to listen to a handful of resistance songs by indigenous peoples. All of them represent an aspect that is unique to the world's first peoples, and for this show that includes Palestinians. Unity song. All my relations are ho.
Anne Keala Kelly:Welcome back to First Voices Radio. You just heard a recording of the AIM song by Ode Min Kueh Singers. It is an anthem of the American Indian Movement that was born out of the resistance at Wounded Knee in 1973. This next song, I just love it, is by Bobby Sanchez, a Peruvian American transgender poet, artist, and musician. The song is called Quechua 101, Land Back, Please.
Speaker 4:Please don't ask me for a translation because I'm only repping 1st first 1st nation. Please don't talk to me about decolonization when you still speaking in the colonizer's language. See you genocide us,
Narrator:under
Speaker 4:siege. Land back. Land back. Land back. Under siege.
Speaker 4:Land back, land back, land back, please. Stolen land, under siege.
Anne Keala Kelly:Now one from the homeland of the Hawaiian people is called Kaunananapua, which translates to mean famous are the flowers. Hawaiian songs are filled with what we call Kauna double meanings. The flowers are the children of Hawaii, which is another way of saying the Hawaiian people. It was written as a protest song against the US overthrow and takeover. This version was recorded by Hawaiia Ho'olu'u Okea Nuanue and Sudden Rush in 1999.
Narrator:A song of sovereignty, a o Himalayini. She ruled her people with grace and dignity, showing all the world the importance of unity. Only for a a model until we die. Any In this day and age of progress and change, we as a people must progress as well. But in doing so, we cannot, under any circumstance, forget our culture, our language, and our history.
Anne Keala Kelly:I really love this next one. It's called native tongue, and it comes to us from Australia. It's by Moju, formerly known as Mojo Juju. And if you get a chance to see the video for this one, check it out because it is deep and powerful.
Narrator:My great granddaddy was with Rajouri. My father came here from the Philippines. It's where I live. It's where I wanna be. Oh, well, you make me feel so ill at ease.
Narrator:I don't speak my fault. Something, call it to my face. But I will not apologize for taking up this space. Every time you cut me down, I'm I don't speak of my father's native tongue. I was born under the southern sun.
Narrator:I don't know where I belong. I'm all I don't speak my father's native tongue. I was born under
Anne Keala Kelly:We've got to get some reggae and Maori into the show. This song does both. It's called Marana Ake A'i. It is a Maori protest song from the 19 eighties. It was and is an anthem of resistance.
Anne Keala Kelly:In 2020, NLC, an award winning Maori reggae band, was chosen to rerecord the song as part of the Maori party campaign. Yes, Maori have their own political party in their homeland, which is still under settler colonial rule.
Narrator:There's a movement, movement, movement on the street. People moving, moving, shuffle to the beat. I hear them talking, talking, talking on the street. Words of freedom from oppression because that's what my people need. How much longer must we keep on talking?
Narrator:I'm nearly miles already, and must you go okay.
Anne Keala Kelly:We're gonna play this next song for the people of Palestine who are under such intense, absolutely insane, colonial violence at this moment that it's hard to contemplate, but contemplate it we must. This song is the urgent call of Palestine. The singer songwriter, I hope I'm saying her name right, Zainab Shahath composed a song from a poem written by Indian poet Lolita Punjabi in 1970. The version of the song I'm going to play here is the audio from a film of the same title by Ismail Shamut. Now the song stops abruptly and Kamal Nasser, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, appears on screen talking about their resistance movement.
Anne Keala Kelly:After that brief moment, there's the sound of rapid gunfire and then the song picks up again as the words on the screen explain that Nasser was assassinated by the IDF in his Beirut apartment on October 4, 1973. Have a listen to the urgent call of Palestine.
Speaker 5:But for the Palestinians who lost everything, they are ready to do anything to save their country. We do not fight for the sake of fighting. We do not want war for the sake of war, but we want the world to know that we have a cause. We are a 100000000 a 100 1 and a half 1000000 refugees living in the camps. 1,000,000 refugees living under occupation.
Speaker 5:Our mothers, our sisters, our families. We have been attacked brutally by a called Zionism. We have to reveal this movement to the whole world, and we basically differentiate between Jews and Zionists. We hope to save the Jews from Zionists and make a Palestinian democratic state where we can live with the Jews in peace and in love.
Anne Keala Kelly:We'll close out the show today with Star People, a song by Indian City, featuring the much beloved and forever missed, Vince Fontaine. This one reminds me that memory is its own kind of resistance. Know who your people are, know their origins in this universe here on Mother Earth, because those are your origins too. Your ancestors tell you where you always belong. And I promise you this: your ancestors never forget you, so remember them, even the ones that came from the stars.
Anne Keala Kelly:Mahalo nui for sharing this sacred time with me. Until next time, stay righteous.
Narrator:We're on the road believing now, gonna find the place they call tomorrow. Tomorrow, it's the place we've dreamed about. If we go, there ain't no doubt they'll follow. They'll follow. Suddenly, we've come this far.
Narrator:I realize there's so much me, we're there by daylight. Take me to the stars. We can never go too far. Too far. Take me to the star.
Narrator:Let's find out who we are, who we are. I wrote a song with you in mind. We can pass the past with you in mind for right now. Right now. I had a dream of you and I said a sacred teaching.
Narrator:Show us why and show us how. Show us how. Hear the voice of mother She's asking what she's really worth. She's crying. Take me to the star.
Narrator:We can never go too far. Let's find out who we are. Yeah. Who we are. We are sky
