This video was made entirely by children from the Pine Ridge Reservation
On so-called Columbus Day, a day in which Americans honor the slave-holding, genocidal maniac who supposedly discovered America, although it was filled with people whose ancestors discovered the place thousands of years earlier, two new music videos by two of my favorite artists were brought to my attention.
One was a very infuriating one by Apsáalooke (Crow) hiphopper/multi-instrumentalist Supaman, with images of the police cracking down a protest demonstration by Native Americans against trespassing on their land. But that one was removed very quickly by YouTube, although Supaman assures us it will be back up soon.
The above video is by Frank Waln, whose angry but hopeful album The Bridge ended up on my list of favorite albums of 2017. Waln, like Supaman, grew up on a reservation (he is Lakota), where he built a recording studio with the help of his friends and family and started his musical career after dropping out of med school.
His new song Wokiksuye is an ode to his family, whom he thanks for the things they taught him and the person they made him.
The video was written, directed and shot entirely by children and teens from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. (PB)
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