Indigenous
Indigenous is the name of a Native American Blues/Rock group consisting of four siblings: Mato Nanji on lead vocals and guitar, Wanbdi on drums, Pte on bass, and Horse percussion and congas. All four are Nakota Nation Native Americans from South Dakota. These four have opened for such blues greats as B.B. King and Johnny Lang. The group recently won three Native American Music Awards including Best Group.
In a hastily arranged interview, FEMMUSIC spoke with Pte backstage before a show in November. Due to the circumstances of the interview, it has been heavily edited. For more information visit: https://www.indigenousrocks.com
FEMMUSIC: As a Native American Band with a woman in the group, have you faced discrimination both as Native Americans as well as with having a woman in the group?
Pte: Well we dealt with that all our lives because of the color of our skins which is wrong. I believe that women have a lot more style than guys when it comes to playing music. Guys are always putting themselves above women which is wrong. Women are the ones who create a lot of things in guys lives.
FEMMUSIC: Indigenous is up for more than one Native American Music Award. What awards are you up for?
Pte: I can’t really tell you right now because I don’t know. Indigenous is there to do one thing and that is to play music. When it came down to winning awards and something like that we didn’t feel like it was something we deserved. We’re out here playing music. It’s not about awards or anything.
FEMMUSIC: Speaking of experiences, what has been your best show on this tour so far?
Pte: Every show. Every show has been my favorite show. With Indigenous it’s all about playing the music. It was never what we looked like or where we came from, it was about what we were doing right, then and there. Every show we played at I had fun at because it was music or not.
FEMMUSIC: Who have been your (Indigenous’) greatest mentors when you began with this?
Pte: It was more less life that we looked at. Our dad always told us, “If you’re going to do what you love to do, keep going , but if you don’t love what you’re doing then don’t do it. It was as simple as that. Whenever I got into music I was like, “I don’t want to do this. I want to hang out with my friends.” I was like eleven years old when I started the music. Eleven years old is young. Whenever we did our first recording, I was about twelve, I said, “This is it. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”