Steve "Mato Tanka" Emery is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He received his Lakota name from Ben Black Elk, the son of Nick Black Elk about whom John Neihardt wrote the book "Black Elk speaks".
Since he was a small boy, Emery learned traditional Lakota songs, Lakota Language and Culture. At the age of 13, he received his first guitar and he's been playing ever since. Although mostly self-taught, Steve studied guitar with guitar virtuoso Christopher Robin Johnson for more than two years at the University of South Dakota.
Emery/Big Bear has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Michael Martin Murphy's WestFests and opened for top acts such as Merle Haggard, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don Edwards, Rick Trevino, the Tractors and Bill Miller. Emery is a featured artist on the 2003 Smithsonian Folkways Recording of Native American Hymns entitled "Beautyful and Beyond". he has written more than 100 contemporary songs and composed numerous traditional songs for voice as well as the traditional Lakota Siyotanka (Courting) Flute.
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