List of Native American musicians
Encyclopedia
This is a list of Native American
musicians and singers
Everlast (Erik Schrody) is White Earth Band of Ojuibwe
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
musicians and singers
Gospel
- The Jody Brown Indian FamilyThe Jody Brown Indian FamilyThe Jody Brown Indian Family was a professional Southern Gospel group from Robbinsville, NC. The family recorded on the Crossroads Recording Label.-Members:...
(Eastern CherokeeEastern Band of Cherokee IndiansThe Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America, who are descended from Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States while others moved, or were forced to relocate, to the west in the 19th century. The history of the...
) - Klaudt Indian FamilyKlaudt Indian FamilyThe Klaudt Indian Family was a professional southern gospel group. They were noted as being one of the most diverse groups to ever travel the gospel music circuits....
Jazz
- Illinois JacquetIllinois JacquetJean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....
(SiouxSiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
) - Andrea MenardAndrea MenardAndrea Menard is a Canadian actress, playwright, and jazz singer, born in 1971 in Flin Flon, Manitoba and based in Saskatchewan.-Career:Menard, who is of Métis descent, is best known for her work on the television series Moccasin Flats and for her starring role as...
(MétisMétis people (Canada)The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
) - Jim PepperJim PepperJim Pepper was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and singer of Native American ancestry.-Biography:...
(Muscogee Creek/KawKaw (tribe)The Kaw Nation are an American Indian people of the central Midwestern United States. The tribe known as Kaw have also been known as the "People of the South wind", "People of water", Kansa, Kaza, Kosa, and Kasa. Their tribal language is Kansa, classified as a Siouan language.The toponym "Kansas"...
) - Oscar PettifordOscar PettifordOscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
(ChoctawChoctawThe Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - Della ReeseDella ReeseDelloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese , is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - Keely SmithKeely SmithKeely Smith is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
(part CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
)
Native American flute
- Timothy ArchambaultTimothy ArchambaultTimothy Archambault is an American Native American flutist, architect, and composer.-Background:...
(KichesipiriniKichesipiriniThe Kichesipirini are an Algonquin indigenous people of Canada. Their traditional homeland and primary village was located on Morrison Island in the Ottawa River , as well as territory on both sides of the river in Ontario and Quebec, including...
) - Douglas Blue FeatherDouglas Blue FeatherDouglas Blue Feather is an internationally known Cherokee songwriter and performer of contemporary music featuring the Native American flute...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - Joseph FireCrowJoseph FireCrowJoseph Fire Crow is a Cheyenne flutist. He has been releasing albums since 1992. His album Cheyenne Nation was nominated for a Grammy in 2001...
(CheyenneCheyenneCheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
) - Hawk LittlejohnHawk LittlejohnHawk Littlejohn was perhaps the greatest contemporary Native American flute maker. At the time of his death, he was living in Old Fort, North Carolina, where he made his flutes and kept alive his native Cherokee traditions...
(Eastern Band Cherokee) - Charles LittleleafCharles LittleleafCharles Littleleaf, a Native American, born in Warm Springs, Oregon, is a Native American flutist and traditional flute maker. Littleleaf is a tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Central Oregon...
(Warm SpringsWarm Springs (tribe)The Warm Springs tribes are several Sahaptin Native American tribes of northern Oregon. They were also known as the Walla Walla . The Warm Springs tribes are the Upper Deschutes , the Lower Deschutes , the Tenino, and the John Day...
/BlackfootBlackfootThe Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....
) - Kevin Locke (Lakota)
- Tom Mauchahty-WareTom Mauchahty-WareTom Mauchahty-Ware is a Kiowa-Comanche musician. He is known for his work playing the Native American flute, and has been a successful Indian dancer, and has sung in a popular blues band. He is also a skilled traditional artist: painting, sculpting, making flutes, bead working, and feather working...
(KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
/ComancheComancheThe Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
) - Bill MillerBill Miller (musician)Bill Miller is a Native American singer/songwriter of Mohican heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation, near Shawano in northern Wisconsin....
(MahicanMahicanThe Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
) - Robert MirabalRobert MirabalRobert Mirabal is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.His flutes are world renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian...
(Taos PuebloTaos PuebloTaos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
) - Michael MurphyMichael Murphy (musician)Michael John Murphy is a folk musician based in Omaha, Nebraska. He plays various instruments, including the guitar, piano, and Native American flute. He has been a singer songwriter based out of Omaha since the 1970s.- Style :...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - R. Carlos NakaiR. Carlos NakaiRaymond Carlos “R.” Nakai is a Native American flautist of Navajo/Ute heritage.-Biography:Born Ray Carlos Nakai, in Flagstaff, Arizona, he released his first album, Changes, in 1983...
(NavajoNavajo peopleThe Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
/UteUte TribeThe Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...
) - Sonny NevaquayaSonny NevaquayaSonny Nevaquaya is a Comanche Native American flute player and maker from Oklahoma. He began his professional career in 1993 when he recorded an album entitled Spirit of the Flute. His second album, Viva Kokopelli was released in 1996. He has also released an album in honor of his father, Doc...
(ComancheComancheThe Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
) - Jay Red EagleJay Red EagleJay Red Eagle is a Native American flautist and Native American artist whose businesses include lines of music clothing called Nashville Threads and M.T. Medicine Bottle. His clothing and shoe designs include country music and Native American clothing, Hip hop clothing, and the first ever Cherokee...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - John Two-HawksJohn Two-HawksJohn Two-Hawks is an Oglala Lakota Native American musician who has been performing professionally in live concerts since the early 1990s. He sings and plays many instruments, but is best known as a pioneer and virtuoso player of the Native American flute...
(Lakota) - Andrew VasquezAndrew VasquezAndrew Vasquez is a Native American flute player of the Apache tribe. He has released four albums to date, Vasquez, the award winning Wind River, V3: An American Indian, and Togo, all released by Makoché Records.- Biographical details :...
(ApacheApacheApache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
) - Tommy WildcatTommy WildcatTommy Wildcat is a Native American flutist, storyteller, lecturer, and traditionalist. He is a fullblood Native American of Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, and Natchez ancestry.-Background:...
(Cherokee NationCherokee NationThe Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
-Muscogee Creek-NatchezNatchez peopleThe Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
) - Mary YoungbloodMary YoungbloodMary Youngblood is a Northern California Native American flutist. She is half Aleut, and half Seminole. She has been awarded three Native American Music Awards, being the first woman to win "Flutist of the Year," which she won in both 1999 and 2000, as well as winning "Best Female Artist" in 2000...
(Aleut/SeminoleSeminoleThe Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
)
Native American Protest Singers
- Floyd Red Crow WestermanFloyd Red Crow WestermanFloyd "Red Crow" Westerman, also known as Kanghi Duta was a Sioux musician, political activist and actor. After establishing a career as a country music singer, later in his life, he became a leading actor depicting Native Americans in American films and television. He is sometimes credited simply...
(Sesaton Oyate People/DakotaDakota- Ethnology and linguistics :* Sioux sub-tribes:**Eastern Dakota**Western Dakota* Dakota language, either of two regional varieties of the Sioux language- Geography :United States*North Dakota, a state*South Dakota, a state* Dakota, Illinois, a village...
)
Rap and hip hop
- AKU-MATU, Iñupiaq
- AmilAmilAmil Whitehead more commonly known by her stage name Amil, is an American female rapper, singer, and songwriter from New York City. She was prominent in the late 1990s as a Jay-Z protégé, most notably on the single "Can I Get A..." from the Rush Hour soundtrack.-Early life:Amil was born September...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - Anybody KillaAnybody KillaJames Lowery, also known as Anybody Killa, or ABK, is a Native American rapper from Detroit, Michigan whose stage persona is that of a Native American warrior. He is signed to Psychopathic Records.-Biography:...
(LumbeeLumbeeThe Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
) - Bizzy BoneBizzy BoneBryon Anthony McCane II , better known by his stage name Bizzy Bone, is an American rapper and a member of the Cleveland rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.- Solo career :Bizzy Bone started his solo career in 1998...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - Shar JacksonShar JacksonSharisse "Shar" Jackson is an American television and film actress, reality television personality and rapper/singer best known for her portrayal of Niecy Jackson on the UPN show Moesha.-Early life and career:...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - LitefootLitefootGary Paul Davis , better known by his stage name Litefoot, is a Native American rapper and the founder of the Red Vinyl record label. He also portrayed Little Bear in the movie The Indian in the Cupboard.-Personal life:...
(CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
/ChichimecaChichimecaChichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"...
) - SoléSoleSole may refer to:* Sole , the bottom of the foot* Sole , the bottom supporting member of the shoe-Business:* Sole proprietorship, a business which legally has no separate existence from its owner...
(BlackfootBlackfootThe Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....
) - TabooTaboo (rapper)Jaime Luis Gómez , better known by his stage name Taboo, is an American singer, actor, and rapper best known as a member of the group The Black Eyed Peas.-Personal life:...
(ShoshoneShoshoneThe Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
) - Isreal Loman Harlan (Omaha Nation)www.soundclick.com/isrealharlan
- Julian B. (MuskogeeMuskogeeMuskogee or Muscogee can refer to:*The Muscogee tribe, an American Indian people originally from Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, many of whom later relocated to Oklahoma*Muscogee Nation, a federally recognized Muscogee tribe in Oklahoma...
)
Everlast (Erik Schrody) is White Earth Band of Ojuibwe
Traditional music
- Black Lodge SingersBlack Lodge SingersThe Black Lodge Singers of White Swan, Washington are a Native American northern drum group led by Kenny Scabby Robe, of the Blackfeet Nation. The Black Lodge Singers are largely drawn from his twelve sons...
(BlackfeetBlackfeetThe Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
) - Cozad SingersCozad SingersThe Cozad Singers are a Kiowa drum group from Anadarko, Oklahoma. The group was founded by Leonard Cozad, Sr. in the 1930s, and consists of Leonard, his sons, grandsons, and other members of the family. Cozad, as they are commonly known, are southern style pow-wow and gourd drum, and have...
(KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
) - Lakota ThunderLakota ThunderLakota Thunder is a group that records and performs Lakota Traditional music, out of North Dakota. They have released two studio albums to date with Makoche Records, "Veterans Songs" and "Way of Life," the latter of which won a Nammy for Best Traditional Recording....
- Joanne ShenandoahJoanne ShenandoahJoanne Shenandoah is an Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist. She is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Her music is a combination of traditional songs and melodies with a blend of traditional and contemporary...