XIT

..Xit - I was Raised, from "Plight of the Redman", their debut album, released in 1972. Formed in the early seventies, Xit, which means "Crossing of Indian tribes", were a native American Indian band formed by music and lyric writers Mike Valvano and Tom Bee, and featured R.C.Gariss Jnr. on guitars and piano, A. Michael Martin on guitars and vocals, Leeja Herrera on drums and percussion and Jomac Suazo on bass. Very much a protest band, their highly emotive and thought provoking music was as tunning mix of ethnic native American Indian rhythms and western rock, aided in parts by some truly beautiful orchestral pieces. Their best known track is undoubtedly the excellent "Reservation of Education", taken off their second album, "Silent Warrior", which came out the following year. The band did, however, have a fairly sizeable fan base in Europe, and this was quite apparent on their final offering, a live album called " Drums Across the Atlantic", which came out in 1981. Like Redbone and Geronimo Black, Xit were very good musical ambassadors for American Indian rock music.