About Me
John is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He is a recent graduate at Western Dakota Tech, with a Degree in Pharmaceutical Applied Sciences and will eventually study to be a Pharmacist later on. He recently completed clinicals in the "In-patient" pharmacy at Regional Hospital as a Pharmacy Technician,where he is now employed. Some of the things he likes to do are: practice Congas,League pool,disc golf, cook on the grill, play football with his son,watch the Denver Broncos play, go to powwows,Racquetball,study, concerts, eat barbeque ribs, watch Food Network, read books and magazines about Pharmacy,and design and create native american silver jewlery. John also works as Equipment Manager for the Rapid City Flying Aces(Professional Indoor Football), and he also worked for the 2005 Black Hills Red Dogs(still and will forever be the team that helped make him who he is, "thank you guys"). He likes to travel with the team to away games, to see new places, and also to trash talk the away team fans. He likes working with the team because he gets to learn more about the game he loves from his friends that play on the team. The thing that stands out in all this is his love for music,which is his first love. His dad taught him how to play Bluegrass music on the Mandolin when he was six, and his mother was his biggest fan when he played, which kept him grounded and wanting to learn more about music. In his early teens he switched to the drums and now plays the drums you see in the background.
Mr.PONCHO SANCHEZ is a big influence in his life,and made him want to play Congas. He has three other big influences, and they are Monte Briggs, Robert Briggs, and James Bordeaux. They are his bandmates in the band "STONES OF RED", formerly "SteelRiver". These are three of the baddest and most talented musicians(Rock-N-Roll Buddies!!) a man could ever know,THEY just don't know it! Damn, Rock~N~fuckin Roll! It's a way of life!! In 1997 thru 2000 John traveled and performed Grassdance with a theatre production called "Voices of Native America", a touring production that included powwow dancing and music with contemporary sights and sounds of a typical production. Voices of Native America took John to venues and theatres all over america, and even different countries.Last but not least John was fortunate enough to work along side 4 record producers in recording a CD that won a GRAMMY. The CD was a "Live" recording of the 1998 "Gathering of Nations" Powwow in Albuquerque New Mexico. 176 songs were recorded and edited over the course of the weekend, then whittled down to 19 songs that went on the album. In 2000 the album was submitted to the Grammy Academy. Then on the evening of February 21st 2001 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles California, the FIRST EVER Grammy statute awarded for the "BEST NATIVE AMERICAN RECORDING" catagory was given to "Gathering of Nations"(Various Artists). This same CD also won a NAMMY(Native American Music Award) later that year. John feels very lucky and honored that he had the oppurtunity to work on this project. Although he won this award as a producer,his goal is to someday win one as an artist. He would like to encourage anyone reading this "don't be scared of something you want to try or do, because you never know what might happen"!If you would like to know more about his world of Rock~N~Roll,Pharmacy,family,conga playing,football,Blues and Latin music, and want a friend that's real, and will tell you exactly what's on his mind. Then go ahead and click "add me". All he asks is that YOU be real, and be yourself. Thank you for taking the time to read thisdiv
