WEBVTT 00:00:22.978 --> 00:00:31.025 - Thank you so much. Good evening. So nice to be here. Thank you so much, everybody. All right. So we're 00:00:31.025 --> 00:00:37.118 - just going to get started. Fabian, you'll see him flying in in just a moment. 00:00:54.018 --> 00:01:05.703 - I am indebted to my Zuni people and my ancestors for all that I am. My Zuni religion and language which 00:01:05.703 --> 00:01:17.612 - is the foundation of my being. The songs of the Zuni people are passed down from generation to generation 00:01:17.612 --> 00:01:23.230 - to celebrate culture, tradition and the teachings 00:01:24.706 --> 00:01:35.385 - The songs and dances are a means of ushering in blessings and hope for the people to be lifted in spirit 00:01:35.385 --> 00:01:46.165 - and to prosper in their daily lives. May these songs touch everyone, young and old, all races, all people 00:01:46.165 --> 00:01:53.182 - throughout the world. May grandfather keep you safe and warm always. 00:01:55.010 --> 00:02:01.118 - to answer my own. 00:04:40.674 --> 00:04:47.499 - I wrote this song as an honor song and remembrance and honor song to the creation story of the Zuni 00:04:47.499 --> 00:04:54.529 - people where my husband Fabian was born and raised. They have a beautiful story of emergence. It takes 00:04:54.529 --> 00:05:01.354 - four days and four nights to tell the story of their emergence. From the bottom of the Grand Canyon 00:05:01.354 --> 00:05:08.862 - they came, from the underworld out into the world of Sunfather. It's a beautiful story. So I wrote this song. 00:05:10.274 --> 00:05:12.158 - their story of emergence. 00:06:41.666 --> 00:06:58.921 - they came out of darkness and shadow into the light of new day. Creator breathe life into them. The 00:06:58.921 --> 00:07:11.518 - sting of breath and new eyes. We opened their mouths for the first time. 00:07:13.762 --> 00:07:27.735 - First spoken words realize and they call themselves the people of the flesh. Out of the ashes and into 00:07:27.735 --> 00:07:38.046 - light. Out of darkness and into the light. Out of the ashes and into light. 00:07:46.402 --> 00:08:04.094 - Out of the ashes and into life Out of darkness and into the light Out of the ashes and into life 00:09:21.826 --> 00:09:29.335 - I don't know if any of you have been to New Mexico, but there's 19 reservations, or we like to say villages, 00:09:29.335 --> 00:09:36.293 - in New Mexico, and Zuni is the largest and oldest village in New Mexico, and that's where Fabian was 00:09:36.293 --> 00:09:43.320 - born and raised. He's also Omaha, and so the way he's dressed tonight in this outfit, his regalia, is 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:50.622 - more representing his Omaha people, although he does have some things that he wears to represent his Zuni 00:09:50.754 --> 00:09:59.772 - family as well. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming out everybody. Thank you so much. How many people 00:09:59.772 --> 00:10:09.045 - have been to Taos Pueblo? Have people not been there? Taos people always say they're the oldest continuously 00:10:09.045 --> 00:10:16.702 - inhabited village on the North American continent. Don't believe them. Because Zunis are. 00:10:17.890 --> 00:10:24.602 - Oh gosh, reminds me of football or something. Well anyways, I wrote this next song for all of you here 00:10:24.602 --> 00:10:31.184 - today, for our family and for yours. And I think it's so important to be proud of who we are, all of 00:10:31.184 --> 00:10:38.092 - us here tonight. Be proud of who you are and where you come from. It's so important. That's so beautiful. 00:10:38.092 --> 00:10:44.022 - You know, especially we have the holidays upon us coming and we all have so many different 00:10:44.022 --> 00:10:46.238 - ways of celebrating those things. 00:10:46.370 --> 00:10:52.488 - So teach your children and your grandchildren those things, your traditions and so forth. Carry those 00:10:52.488 --> 00:10:58.607 - things down and teach them and show them and be proud of who you are. I wrote this song for all of us 00:10:58.607 --> 00:11:00.766 - here tonight. It's called Heritage. 00:11:28.162 --> 00:11:57.854 - Our fathers fought for this heritage Where the spirit wind reminds me of who I am 00:12:01.314 --> 00:12:15.095 - by my calling to uphold the ancient secret of my past. I recall the elder's stories and the wisdom in 00:12:15.095 --> 00:12:26.174 - their eyes. I must teach them to my children. I will never sacrifice my heritage. 00:12:32.066 --> 00:12:47.149 - Spirit wind reminds me of who I am. Heritage, our fathers fought for this. I can hear their distant 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:51.070 - voices as they tell me to 00:13:03.106 --> 00:13:03.806 - We've fallen. 00:14:54.882 --> 00:15:01.728 - from all over the world on our travels is so beautiful. It's amazing how much we all have in common. 00:15:01.728 --> 00:15:06.270 - Even though we come from different places, it's a beautiful thing. 00:16:00.546 --> 00:16:07.460 - to write songs, music and songs that bring people together. Especially now these days we need that. 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:14.581 - We need to be kind to each other and compassionate and all of that. So it means a lot to me to be able 00:16:14.581 --> 00:16:21.702 - to sing these songs to you. And to be able to do what we do, Fabian and I, I'm so thankful that we can 00:16:21.702 --> 00:16:28.685 - do these shows together. Our daughter used to travel with us and dance, but she's all grown now with 00:16:28.685 --> 00:16:30.206 - children and so she's 00:16:30.658 --> 00:16:38.817 - carrying on and teaching our grandchildren the dances and so forth. And it's just, we're so proud. We're 00:16:38.817 --> 00:16:46.199 - so proud of them. At this time, baby's, what was that? Heritage. Heritage, exactly. Thank you. 00:16:46.199 --> 00:16:54.668 - I wrote a song, I love to write contemporary native music, so I take real traditional old rhythms sometimes, 00:16:54.668 --> 00:16:58.942 - dance rhythms, and I write contemporary songs to them. 00:16:59.202 --> 00:17:05.913 - This next one is one of those. It's a double beat crow hop. It's one of my favorite old, old style dances, 00:17:05.913 --> 00:17:12.186 - the double beat crow hop. And I wrote this song so that Fabian could come out and dance. I wrote it 00:17:12.186 --> 00:17:18.458 - also for our families to encourage them to keep dancing, keep singing. It's so important that we do 00:17:18.458 --> 00:17:24.793 - that. And so Fabian, maybe you could explain to them the meaning behind the double beat crow hop. As 00:17:24.793 --> 00:17:27.678 - Shelley said, this is her most favorite song. 00:17:27.842 --> 00:17:34.900 - and dance, the style of dance. And I believe that, I truly believe that the Double B Crowhop truly belongs 00:17:34.900 --> 00:17:41.496 - to the Shorajay people of Montana. The Shorajay people actually to this day still have the Double B 00:17:41.496 --> 00:17:48.289 - Crowhop Society songs. And the drum group that's really well known, that's very old family drum group, 00:17:48.289 --> 00:17:55.215 - who knows, maybe a couple hundred or several hundred year old family traditional sacred drum group known 00:17:55.215 --> 00:17:56.798 - as the Mad Dog Sinners. 00:17:57.186 --> 00:18:03.772 - and they carry very, very old traditional double B krohop songs. And Shelly took the rhythm and the 00:18:03.772 --> 00:18:10.621 - groove and she put orchestration and lyrics to it and it came out very, very beautifully and she titled 00:18:10.621 --> 00:18:11.806 - it Faithful Feet. 00:19:07.842 --> 00:19:24.487 - spirit of the drum it calls to me it calls to me dance dance dance faithful feet shake the ground like 00:19:24.487 --> 00:19:36.446 - a thunder from the heavens from the north the south the east and the west 00:19:39.010 --> 00:19:56.675 - shape the ground. My heart beating. The rhythm of life. I am a child. I am a woman. Cover me in the 00:19:56.675 --> 00:20:08.510 - sacred smoke. My paint is red and yellow ochre. I move with grace. 00:20:09.058 --> 00:20:09.758 - Destiny 00:20:58.754 --> 00:21:15.668 - the drum it calls to me, it calls to me. Spirit dance, holy dance, ghost dance, war dance, scalp dance, 00:21:15.668 --> 00:21:20.222 - buffalo dance, eagle dance, 00:22:23.330 --> 00:22:30.378 - close to 25 years. I taught myself how to play this beautiful instrument and I love music. I love to 00:22:30.378 --> 00:22:37.356 - play. I have different instruments. I play guitar and mandolin piano and I love music and I love to 00:22:37.356 --> 00:22:44.473 - play different kinds of instruments. But I think the Native flute is by far my most favorite. This is 00:22:44.473 --> 00:22:51.870 - a medicine instrument. It's an instrument of the heart and you don't have to know how to read music or be 00:22:52.002 --> 00:23:00.122 - have special training. Anyone can play this instrument. And it's brought a lot of healing into my life. 00:23:00.122 --> 00:23:08.007 - I'm so thankful for this Native American flutes that I have. And they're in different keys nowadays. 00:23:08.007 --> 00:23:16.205 - There's contemporary flutes now, different keys, different types of wood. Sometimes they get real exotic 00:23:16.205 --> 00:23:21.982 - and real fancy. But this is an A bass flute. And I thought I brought this 00:23:22.114 --> 00:23:28.500 - to share with you tonight because it has such a beautiful sound, a beautiful tone, much different than 00:23:28.500 --> 00:23:34.824 - the other flutes that I have. And so I'm just going to play a little song from my heart on the A bass 00:23:34.824 --> 00:23:41.024 - flute and Fabian will accompany me so you can hear the sound of the Native American flute, just the 00:23:41.024 --> 00:23:42.078 - flute by itself. 00:25:27.490 --> 00:25:35.696 - I always say when I do my flute demonstrations, I try not to go on and on and play long because I don't 00:25:35.696 --> 00:25:43.743 - want you to go to sleep. It's very relaxing. This is a drone flute. This is called a drone flute. And 00:25:43.743 --> 00:25:51.712 - this is actually two flutes side by side built together. So you can play one side or both sides. And 00:25:51.712 --> 00:25:56.446 - I'd love to share this one. It has the most wonderful sound 00:25:56.610 --> 00:26:06.658 - Definitely, this one is much different than the rest. And so I'll play a little something on this one 00:26:06.658 --> 00:26:14.046 - so you can hear the sound of the drone, Native American drone flute. Okay. 00:27:55.170 --> 00:28:01.830 - going to share some hand drum songs and stories with you. I'm so proud of Fabian, but he carries the 00:28:01.830 --> 00:28:08.621 - things that he teaches me and our family. I'm so thankful. He carries so many songs from his, not only 00:28:08.621 --> 00:28:15.742 - his days with the, and travels with the American Indian Dance Theater, but he grew up in a real traditional 00:28:15.742 --> 00:28:17.918 - family in Zuni. His grandparents 00:28:18.946 --> 00:28:26.381 - created the Zuni rainbow dancers in the early 1900s. And they've traveled to many places all around 00:28:26.381 --> 00:28:34.114 - the world in order to bring native education and dances and songs around the world. And so carries many 00:28:34.114 --> 00:28:42.070 - stories and songs. So proud of Fabian. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Thank you, Shelley. Let's give Shelley 00:28:42.070 --> 00:28:47.870 - another big round of applause. I'm so proud of my sweetheart. I love Shelley. 00:28:49.282 --> 00:28:55.779 - Just to give you a little bit more about Shelly, she's northern Cheyenne, the Sista Osuna people, the 00:28:55.779 --> 00:29:02.404 - Sista Osuna people, northern Cheyenne people. They believe they come from the Morning Star, the Morning 00:29:02.404 --> 00:29:08.901 - Star people. And through Shelly, we've received numerous awards, accolades throughout the years, just 00:29:08.901 --> 00:29:15.654 - to name a few. New Mexico Music Awards, Best Female Vocal Artist, Best Album of the Year, Native American 00:29:15.654 --> 00:29:17.246 - Music Academy Awards for 00:29:17.570 --> 00:29:26.073 - album of the year, again, best female vocal artist, the Red Bronze Feather Aborigine Award. It's kind 00:29:26.073 --> 00:29:34.825 - of a tongue twister for me. Oh, as of late, August 24th of last month, the Intercontinental Music Awards 00:29:34.825 --> 00:29:42.494 - of Los Angeles, California for the American Roots Division best song, Shirley Morning song. 00:29:49.570 --> 00:29:57.570 - I want to share our grandfather's ego dance song with you all. It's a very special song to my family, 00:29:57.570 --> 00:30:05.413 - our family, our people as well, and to a handful of northern relatives from Taos Pueblo, Pickarees, 00:30:05.413 --> 00:30:13.256 - Hoka, Hwingi people. There's several northern Pueblo people that still use this song to this day in 00:30:13.256 --> 00:30:16.158 - their dance and in their ceremonies. 00:30:16.802 --> 00:30:24.327 - And it was composed for a grandfather around the early 20s, 1920s. And my interpretation of what the 00:30:24.327 --> 00:30:31.778 - eagle means to our people, to our families, could be totally different to the person to the left of 00:30:31.778 --> 00:30:39.080 - me and the person to the right of me. There's 567 recognized tribes in the United States, Canada, 00:30:39.080 --> 00:30:43.998 - and Alaska. And we all, pretty much everyone of us, believe that. 00:30:44.674 --> 00:30:52.239 - The ego carries our hopes and our prayers and our dreams up to grandfather creator, that he's been given 00:30:52.239 --> 00:30:59.588 - the power to look into the eyes of grandfather, takes our prayers, our hopes and our dreams. And he's 00:30:59.588 --> 00:31:06.937 - ever present in all our societies, in our homes, men's societies, warrior societies, and even women's 00:31:06.937 --> 00:31:14.430 - societies as well. And the song sings about how we believe that he has the power to also fly into huge, 00:31:14.690 --> 00:31:22.178 - cumulus clouds to produce thunder, lightning, and rain. And that's what this song sings about. And our 00:31:22.178 --> 00:31:28.794 - grandfather's Indian name was Young Man, cha cha na, in our language. Old man, cha cha na. 00:31:28.794 --> 00:31:36.137 - And it's funny, because when you translate it, it's like, how you doing, old man, young man? How you 00:31:36.137 --> 00:31:40.862 - doing today? But our grandpa, Merle, this is his ego dance song. 00:34:13.442 --> 00:34:20.729 - of them recorded and stored away in the Folklife Library in Washington, D.C. So I'd like to sing one 00:34:20.729 --> 00:34:28.306 - of those songs to you. Thank you. Maybe you can explain a little if you want. Grandmother went to school 00:34:28.306 --> 00:34:35.809 - in Riverside, California, Indian school in Riverside, California. And little did she know she was going 00:34:35.809 --> 00:34:41.726 - to become a singer, a soloist, a performer, and so on to make a long story short. 00:34:42.242 --> 00:34:48.945 - This was in 1917 when she graduated, and in 1919, with the help of her great-great-grandfather, our 00:34:48.945 --> 00:34:55.716 - great-grandfather, they composed a song, and they actually took it from a Longhair Society song, and 00:34:55.716 --> 00:35:02.553 - they asked permission from the elders, from the medicine people, if she could use this in her travels 00:35:02.553 --> 00:35:09.726 - and her shows, and she was given approval to do so. So they tweaked it a little bit, took out some of the, 00:35:10.018 --> 00:35:17.042 - ancient sacred actual words out, but kept a little bit of them in. And again, it sings about coming 00:35:17.042 --> 00:35:24.135 - from a very dry, arid North Plateau country in northern New Mexico. Water is very essential. This is 00:35:24.135 --> 00:35:31.229 - very sacred to many people in the Southwest. And so it sings about the thunder and the lightning and 00:35:31.229 --> 00:35:39.166 - the rain, and it's singing to the babies. It's singing to the little ones. Don't be afraid, grandfather thunder. 00:35:39.426 --> 00:35:42.622 - Grandfather Lightning and Grandfather Rain is coming. 00:37:36.802 --> 00:37:47.036 - a show years back, years ago. Somebody in the audience said, he yelled out from the audience, you remind 00:37:47.036 --> 00:37:56.881 - us of Sudden Share, they said. I said, hey, wait a minute. I think it's more like Abba and Costello. 00:37:56.881 --> 00:38:06.238 - Yeah. We always crack up on that. But he'll explain to you. This is a very beautiful old dance. 00:38:06.530 --> 00:38:14.287 - It's an open hand. It's called an open hand dance. Very old. He'll explain. I am going to attempt to 00:38:14.287 --> 00:38:21.968 - dance for you the old style of fancy war dance, also known as open hand style of war dance. I had a 00:38:21.968 --> 00:38:29.649 - big dinner. Shirley fed me some buffalo ribs, so I'm going to try my best. But it's known among the 00:38:29.649 --> 00:38:35.486 - Southern Plains people from the Southern Plains all the way up into Canada. 00:38:35.650 --> 00:38:42.084 - and points north, and it's an old style fancy war dance. And the drum group that's going to sing for 00:38:42.084 --> 00:38:48.455 - me, I have to commend these young men, especially the songkeeper and the drumkeeper for North Bear. 00:38:48.455 --> 00:38:54.889 - His name is Jermaine Bell, and I've known him since he was about yay high, sitting with his dad, his 00:38:54.889 --> 00:39:01.832 - grandfather, uncles, and relatives at the drum. And now he's an awesome young man, drumkeeper and songkeeper 00:39:01.832 --> 00:39:04.062 - for North Bear and a young father. 00:39:04.642 --> 00:39:14.212 - And his name is Jermaine Bell. He's half Arapaho and Lakota. But the song and dance is known as open 00:39:14.212 --> 00:39:19.518 - hand style of dancing to a straight song by North Bear. 00:42:14.914 --> 00:42:23.235 - I want to share with you, no matter who you are, no matter where you come, we love you all so much. 00:42:23.235 --> 00:42:31.639 - Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I want to sing a song to you so we can give him a breather. 00:42:31.639 --> 00:42:40.459 - A song that I wrote is called Everything is One Thing. That means we're all connected. We're all related. 00:42:40.459 --> 00:42:43.870 - That's a beautiful thing to think about. 00:42:43.970 --> 00:42:51.019 - Like I said earlier, we come from so many different places, but yet I know we have so much in common. 00:42:51.019 --> 00:42:57.930 - And I love it when we travel, we meet people overseas and just all over, so many different kinds of 00:42:57.930 --> 00:43:04.979 - people. And I can talk to a perfect stranger for less than five minutes, five to even 10 minutes, and 00:43:04.979 --> 00:43:08.158 - we're already relating stories. We're already 00:43:08.866 --> 00:43:15.878 - Seeing the commonalities that we have talking about our children grandchildren or just or whatever, 00:43:15.878 --> 00:43:22.961 - you know It's so sweet and that's what everything is one thing means is we're all related. We're all 00:43:22.961 --> 00:43:29.973 - connected Yes, right You see so much beauty in each other Even though we come from different places 00:43:29.973 --> 00:43:34.110 - and that's what this song is about and how we're connected 00:43:34.242 --> 00:43:40.939 - Not just to each other, but to the Mother Earth, our planet that we stand on, and the stars and the 00:43:40.939 --> 00:43:45.694 - skies, our animal nation, the trees, the flowers, we're all connected. 00:44:08.386 --> 00:44:24.988 - So softly on my face I feel but cannot see A power greater than myself Reveals itself to me And I stand 00:44:24.988 --> 00:44:37.758 - where bloody feet once walked Where earth and teardrops met In this quiet place 00:44:40.034 --> 00:44:58.369 - We are one with every living thing. From the greatest to the small. To desecrate one's sacred life. 00:44:58.369 --> 00:45:03.870 - Brings destruction to us all. 00:45:16.674 --> 00:45:33.717 - Everything is one thing. Look up to the heavens to see a mystery unfold. A million stars like diamonds 00:45:33.717 --> 00:45:37.854 - with stories to be told. 00:45:59.362 --> 00:46:15.381 - Everything is one thing. Everything is one thing. Everything is one thing. Everything is one thing. 00:46:15.381 --> 00:46:23.550 - I heard when you heard and you heard when I heard. 00:46:43.874 --> 00:46:54.752 - Everything is one thing. Everything is one thing. Everything is one thing. We're all connected. We're 00:46:54.752 --> 00:47:05.951 - all related to the beautiful Mother Earth, our planet that we stand on, to the galaxies. Even our bodies 00:47:05.951 --> 00:47:12.030 - are made from the stars, the same elements as the stars. 00:47:13.826 --> 00:47:30.760 - I feel what you feel and you feel what I feel. Everything is one thing. We're all connected. We're all 00:47:30.760 --> 00:47:36.350 - related. Everything is one thing. 00:48:04.994 --> 00:48:12.889 - I just want to thank you all for coming out tonight. It's our first time here at Lotus, and we're so 00:48:12.889 --> 00:48:21.019 - impressed and amazed with all of you and everyone involved in putting the Lotus Festival together. Wow. 00:48:21.019 --> 00:48:28.915 - So many beautiful people we've met. Oh, I'm just so amazed. And everyone's been so kind and helpful. 00:48:28.915 --> 00:48:33.214 - Just everyone who's in charge of putting this together 00:48:33.538 --> 00:48:40.229 - What beautiful people. We're so grateful, grateful to be here tonight. Thank you so much for coming 00:48:40.229 --> 00:48:47.054 - out. We're gonna finish with a song I wrote many years ago, and Fabian and I, each morning, and every 00:48:47.054 --> 00:48:54.281 - morning, every morning we say our prayers in our traditional way. We go outside and we talk to the Creator, 00:48:54.281 --> 00:49:01.039 - and we talk to our ancestors, those that have passed on before us, our relatives and our loved ones, 00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:02.110 - those that have 00:49:02.242 --> 00:49:09.353 - passed on that have left us. And we talk to them in our prayers, and we ask them to continue to walk 00:49:09.353 --> 00:49:16.394 - with us, continue to guide us, show us the way, show us how to be good human beings, how to be good 00:49:16.394 --> 00:49:23.786 - parents, grandparents, how we should walk in a good way while we're here. And so we always include those 00:49:23.786 --> 00:49:29.630 - loved ones in our prayers, and that's what this song is about. It's called Return. 00:49:30.178 --> 00:49:36.770 - come back to us, talk to us, walk with us. We believe they're in that unseen realm all around us, our 00:49:36.770 --> 00:49:39.614 - loved ones. But this song is called Return. 00:51:51.650 --> 00:51:51.966 - Thank you. 00:52:58.594 --> 00:53:06.294 - walking with us in that unseen realm all around us. We're so grateful. All of our loved ones, all those 00:53:06.294 --> 00:53:09.182 - that watch over us, that walk with us. 00:54:10.722 --> 00:54:21.396 - Thank you so much. Thank you very much. I want to thank Lotus for bringing us out. Sound tech, 00:54:21.396 --> 00:54:32.856 - stage people, thank you for giving us a wonderful, helping us do a wonderful show. And again, we want 00:54:32.856 --> 00:54:39.710 - to thank all of you for coming out. And just one more thing. 00:54:40.578 --> 00:54:55.450 - Kelly and I would love to leave you with this for all of you, your loved ones, your families, extended 00:54:55.450 --> 00:55:09.022 - loved ones, your children, your grandchildren. May you all have a wonderful, blessed evening. 00:55:09.890 --> 00:55:18.712 - Good night's rest, whether your travels are near and far, when you reach your homes, may you find them 00:55:18.712 --> 00:55:27.448 - just the way you left them. And we love you all so much. Many blessings to you all. Thank you. Shelly 00:55:27.448 --> 00:55:31.902 - Mournes on another Cheyenne. Thank you all so much.