NAMMYs

[milehighsalute]

what you guys think of the austrian "native" twinkie band winning best group at the Native American Music Awards

[Epiphany]

Which group is it? http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/awardsceremony.cfm

[Superdog]

The Nammy's have got real problems.  Pretty much if you can get your music in there it only takes a campaign on facebook to get a win. 

To me, this was a good idea from the beginning, but they tried too hard to copy other award shows.  On the Nammy's...anyone can vote to determine the winners....not Natives, not Native artists....anybody...and so few people actually vote, it's easy to skew the results.

There's a few more winners that should've had no business being nominated in the first place and the last few years have really been black marks as far their reputation is concerned.  Canada's got a better model with the Aboriginal People's Choice Awards....I put way more stock in that award than a Nammy....

Superdog

[Ingeborg]

Which group is it? http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/awardsceremony.cfm

This is them:

http://bigcityindians.com

Their site exchanges links e.g. with Manataka...

It also makes one wonder how they seem to claim Navaho for the Nammy while the title of their CD was taken from Lakota language.

[Epiphany]

Thanks Ingeborg!

Big City Indians call their emotional energetic sound “Native Indian Power Groove”. The Band has been spreading this unique groove since 1997. The quintet has adopted an original sound and created a wider range of melodies incorporating influences of Native American musical tradition. The mixture of rock, roots, fusion, blues and continual songwriting attracts numerous tribal beats, mystic ethereal keyboards, rocking guitar riffs, mysterious whisper of Native American flute, funky basslines and meditative sounds. This creates a melting pot of sounds which is deeply grounded in the earth, reaching out to the heart of the listeners and speaking the common language of mankind .

http://bigcityindians.com/en/band/bandinfo

Nuage themes in that description: stereotypical romanticism of "mysterious whisper of Native American flute", along with the belief that every culture has a "common language".

Really not impressed with Wolfsheart.

[Epiphany]

After looking over Big City Indians, like this photo of Wolfsheart, definitely needed a dose of 1491s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BHvpWP2V9Y

[Ingeborg]

Besides Manataka, they also got other interesting friends:

http://thewolfandthebear.blogspot.de/2012/04/native-music-with-european-flair.html

[Defend the Sacred]

They are Austrian pretendians. They are not the slightest bit Native. They sell romantic Hollywood-NDN/Karl May stereotypes, and the NAMMY crowd bought it.

The are just like the other horrid "indianer" frauds we have on here who took the Karl May books not as bad fiction, but as gospel.  They even go to schools to teach their racist stereotypes to children: http://paganpoet.com/big-city-indians/

[Ingeborg]

Members of BCI are Austrian citizens predominantly, with alternating ndn additions.

This is their present lineup:

DAS LINE UP:
Wolfsheart: (lead vocal / perc./native flutes)
Chris Pogats: (guitar / perc.)
Gigi Skokan: (keyboards / harmonica / perc.)
Werner Haller “Firefly”: (bass / perc.)
Roy E. Pete: (traditional vocals / dancer)
Oota Dabun (vocals / dancer)
Chris Kurz: (drums)

Previously they worked with a Navaho dancer, resp. a person from the Blackfoot nation.

When they got started, they had a very interesting „ndn“ band member: J. Reuben Silverbird, on whom we have got a thread already ( http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=852.0  ) – he is a plastic shaman and cooperates with the Moon cult who made him „UN Peace Ambassador“. When Silverbird left the band, they seem to have hired his son Perry Silverbird.

First a press article advertising a gig in 2000, when J. Reuben S. still was a band member:

http://www.alpenstrand.eu/monterusso/indianer/presse_indianer14_gr.jpg
The site lists Tour dates from 1999 to 2004, and several articles, e.g this press article dd April 1, 2000:

„The Indians come to Buchschachen today
Navajo J. Reuben Silverbird makes music and talks about his culture
by Claudius Rajehl
He is the showmaster among the Redskins and therefore not completely non-controversial in Indian circles: The Navajo J. Reuben Silverbird understands to fascinate his listeners with stories, rituals, and songs from his tribe. Today, Saturday, he does a gig with the „Großstadtindianer“ in the town of Buchschachen.
His soft voice, his mellifluous guitar playing always sets the audience into a certain adventure romnticism, although they also mention the shady sides and problems of his people on the verge of extinction and persecuted  resp. ghettoized by the Whites.
The „Großstadtindianer“ on the other hand are a genuine Viennese „tribe“. Bernhard Weilguni, Andy Bauer, and Wolfgang Maximilian combine ethno-sounds of Indian culture with pop and rock music. Drums and percussion instruments naturally play a major role in their music, guitars and keyboards provide the melodies.
Together, Silverbird and the „Großstadtindianer“ will turn the „Village Barn“ in Buchschachen into a tipi for one evening in which the audience can listen to foreign sounds, ways of life and wisdoms and, besides romanticism, will learn bits and pieces about Indian culture.“

Ticket prices were: 120/150 Schilling, i.e. Euro 8,75/10,95 = US$ 11,60/14,20

http://www.indianermusik.de/artists/big_city_indians.htm

Band members and where they come from
The Band is from Austria. Presently, band members are singer Bernie Wolfsheart Weilguni, guitar player Geri Cuba, bass player Werner Firefly Haller, keyboarder Gigi Skokan, percussions Roland Reiter, traditional Blackfoot dancer White Buffalo. All members also do percussion instruments. Flute player, poet, singer, and percussionist Perry Silverbird (Navaho-Apache-Cherokee) who used to be a member of the band, unfortunately has left. (June 2002)

BCI continued to cooperate with J. Reuben Silverbird, however, and still do:
http://www.panther-media.net/index.php?page=image_preview.php&image=200231&slideshow=1

Reuben Silverbird
Took part in the Big City Indian's Christmas Concert in Vienna in 2005 and did a sacred ritual. It was pure magic.

Emphasis mine

http://www.myspace.com/bigcityindians/photos/47770576/tagged
Photo done at a gig 'Dec 16, 2006 – Weilguni (right), J. Reuben Silverbird (left)

This is a nuage event which took place in 2012:
http://www.friedensakademie.at/fileadmin/friedensakademie/Veranstaltungsfolder/Programm_12.pdf

4th Peace Festival for Love and Light Attersee
Patronage: UN Peace Ambassador J. Reuben Silverbird
[…]
8-12 p.m
[…]
Peace-songs, lighting a fire
Big City Indians – Wolfsheart
Indian love flute, inspirational musical journey

http://www.salzi.at/2012/09/attersee-ein-bunter-reigen-des-friedens-in/
photo showing Town Mayor of Attersee with Silverbird (wearing an eagle bonnet!)

Silverbird also made an appearance to promote the BCI's latest CD in 2012:

http://bigcityindians.com/news

CD presentation – TUWA

Thanks to everbody who, despite a thunderstorm, came to our presentation at Don José Feliciano Cafè in downtown Vienna […]. Thanks to Peace Ambassador J. Reuben Silverbird [...]

Please take due note that BCI use Silverbird's fake Moonie title of „ambassador“.


http://wolfsheart.eu/info/

This site belongs to band founder Weilguni aka „Wolfsheart“. He has a separate section for press info:

http://wolfsheart.eu/press/

Short Bio:
Vienna musician Wolfsheart […] received this name during a special ceremony in the Indian country from a Kalapuya Indian, and also received several prizes for his outstanding contributions to Native American music and as the first European has been honoured with the world-wide highest prize for Indian music, the Native American Music Awards, in the USA which he sees as an honour and commitment, advocates the preservation of the culture of the American natives and is dedicated to interpreting the North American culture in music and word.

Please take due note that Weilguni uses the singular when mentioning ndn cultures.
Apparently, this bio has not been updated to mention the third Nammy in 2013. However, it is noteworthy that Weilguni does not care to pass the information that the 2010 and 2011 Nammies were obtained in the category „Native Heart“. There are more press articles etc to be found which only say that BCI won „the Nammy“. It is also quite apparent that BCI use these prizes to create the impression they were fully accepted in Indian country.

Weilguni's claim of having obtained his „Indian name“ from an unnamed person, plus the fact that he always uses the English translation, reminds of the practice of plastic shame-ons.

And indeed, on both the BCI and Weilguni's site, one is only one click from Nuage:

http://bigcityindians.com/links
mblue
Wolfsheart
Drum Motion
Kola Online Petition
DHO Immobilien
Tipi Lager
Spirit Of The Wood Flutes
Tipi Werkstatt
Native Radio
Hanksville
Indianen Startkabel
Gathering Of Nations
Silenzio
Cherokee Friends
Yavor Roussinoff
Kelly Montijo Fink
The Wolf And The Bear Network
Andreac
Scan Pictures
Lakota Village
Indianermusik
Chainsaw-Art
Manataka
Bernd Galler
Blue Raven
Country Home
Nativeweb
NAIIP Musical Paths
Lady Hawk
Woodrot Radio
Konzerte und Bands
Indigenoustourism
Bearpaw
Stumble Boots
Native American Tube
fm4.ORF – Soundpark
last fm
Folkbeat
Danajoe Productions
World Music Central
Macua

Manataka and „The Wolf and Bear Network“ (i.e. bear Medicinewalker) have their own threads at NAFPS:

Manataka:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=324.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1021.msg5576

bear Medicinewalker:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2931
 

http://www.macua.de/inhalte/impressum.html

Impressum
Kiktá yo - art • music • and more...
Tomawho Michael Rudigier
Mühleberg 25
79733 Görwihl

Another one who mixes music and Nuage (shamanism, Maya).

http://ladyhawkesite.tripod.com/

"Being an Indian is not in the bloodline, but in the way of life.

Nuff said.

Weilguni links to a few sites, among them:

http://www.journeysintojoy.com/index2.htm

The site belongs to Margit Mayra Fuchs, a Nuager who studied with Esalen Institute; she did a course in Hawaii to become a Trainer of „Living from the Vision“ and a training as a Aura-Soma Counselor, was a teacher at Findhorn, and also is an ambassador of the dolphins.

http://indian-inspiration-english.weebly.com/

As the title suggests, we are inspired by the Native American culture.
With this website we provide information about upcoming events and workshops, which is directly or indirectly connected with their culture.

http://indian-inspiration-english.weebly.com/about-us.html

Our organization started in 2008 and grows every year. At first we organized an Indian Inspiration Weekend once a year, but because of the hard work to get this done, we decided to present our event every 2 years.

We present our weekend with performances, small workshops, music and so much more...
All we bring is inspired by the Indian culture, their Spirituality & their Wisdom
We work together with ALL kind of Natives from all over the world,  also Native inspired persons!

You can enjoy performances with traditional dances & music
You're welcome to join a drum circle, participate in workshops, etc...
A World market with all kind of crafts, Indian crafts & art, drums, Native Flute,
Spirituality, Indian inspired crafts, etc...

[Ingeborg]

BCI mostly rely on persons interested in Indians as their audience. So they do gigs at powwows, hobbyist camps, and nuage events.

Another thing they advertise is events for children:

http://bigcityindians.com/kids
The text is introduced with:

Hoka Hey, come to us at the fire and get touched by the fascinating world of the Indians with singing, story telling, dancing, and fluteplaying and drumming. We enable an insight into the magical world view of the native Americans and teach children valuable, cultural knowledge.

They offer: „Drums & Kids“, „Storytelling – Indian fairy tales, myths, and legends“, and „Indian flute – the breath of the wind“.

Reenactment events:

BCI did a concert at a large camp in 2012:

http://www.bayernradar.de/events/indianer-und-trapperfestival-hallbergmoos
The camp is called „Indian and Trapper Camp“, the event takes place annually. Their latest addition is a powwow. However, the powwow has seen some criticism, as a) they allow white persons to wear eagle feather bonnets, and b) there's alcohol at the premises. As the event merges trappers and Indians and also intends to draw an audience, there is no way to keep the premises „dry“. There are in fact vendors' stalls selling alcoholic beverages.

This is a video with „impressions of the powwow“ done in 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obuzvK6D5d8


Nuage events and magazines:

An Austrian nuage mag did an article on BCI and their music:

http://www.diegoldenezeit-schrift.com/Archiv/2013/01/index.php?show=Wolfsheart

Their CDs are also sold by nuage company Syntropia:
http://www.syntropia.de/index.php?verlags_id=2112
A few authors sold by Syntropia:
Scout Cloud Lee, Manitonquat, Emaho, Lynn Andrews, Ken Carey, Thomas E. Mails, Wabun Wind, Annie Pazzogna, Xokonoschtletl [fake Mexican], Steven Foster, Sandra Ingerman, Phillip Kansa, Armando Torres („Meeting the Nagual“), Carlos Castaneda, Alberto Villoldo, Sun Bear, Kenneth Meadows, Apu Kuntur [our former user Neil Greenwood], Serge K. King, Simon Buxton, Michael Harner, Jeremy Narby, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, Hank Wesselmann.


http://www.tipi-lager.at/cms/index.php/bilder/category/21-filmaufnahmen-fneuen-song-der-big-city-indians-sept-2011?start=80
In 2011, BCI had a film done for a new song at a „tipi camp“ in Austria
The family owning the camp also do/offer sweatlodges and shamanic journeys.
http://www.tipi-lager.at/cms/index.php/links
The first link is the BCI site, with the comment „a Native band“
Their third link is the site of an Austrian plastic shaman:
http://www.naturspirit.net/
The lady contends her professional name, Tanka, was Germanic, and points out she has „Germanic blood from my mother“.

A Nuage festival:

http://www.friedensakademie.at/fileadmin/friedensakademie/Veranstaltungsfolder/Programm_12.pdf
(cf above)

Another shame-on promoting BCI:

http://shamanwhirlwind.wordpress.com/

http://shamanwhirlwind.wordpress.com/about/

As an author, editor, publisher and journalist Bob values freedom, tolerance and open expression. He is now fulfilling a life-long dream of service and teaching through his practice of shamanism and his ongoing independent research into comparative spirituality. His impulse for service also extends into the making of sacred drums and other ceremonial items for people on a spiritual path.

An internet project, mostly nuage, who also promote BCI:

http://www.woodroot-radio.eu/
They e.g. advertise an „Indian solstice 2013“:

Fri, Dec 21 in Silberwald, Schwaz
6 p.m.: tuning in into the time of change, a soul metamorphosis into the Otherworld – music trance and cosmic sphere sounds […]
From 7 p.m.:
The large medicine wheel at the arena will be set into movement
Indian-shamanic weddings
The totem animal of next year will be drawn at the firmament. Ten warriors will throw torches into the sky above the arena, ten Silberwald women will read next year's totem animal from the fire image in the sky.
Greeting the new year resp. the new totel animal with the huge fire of love
The entire event will be accompanied by Indian music.

(They do not specify this „fire of love“ - your guess is as good as mine.)

[Defend the Sacred]

(They do not specify this „fire of love“ - your guess is as good as mine.)

Maybe they think all of Robbie Robertson's pop songs are ceremonial songs, where they will find The Seekrits.

Actually, I think it's something worse. Probably akin to the naked hippie freakout fire circles, popularized by movies like Mists of Avalon. At those things, people claim to see nudity and sexuality as sacred, but the proportion of sexual predation and exploitation is at least as high as in the mainstream.  I could be wrong. But with the alcohol and other weirdness...

[milehighsalute]

truth be known the nammys are white owned just like GON so eventually there will be all european winners anyways