About Me
Nahaw Po:so:h Mawani: wi:yuk, Keneq aya:wehtuaq No:weqnen kene:w Omae:no:mene: Menae:sa:h eneq 'skew we:ki:yen.
( nahaw, posoh maw-wa-knee-wee-yuk, ken-neq a-yah-weh-too-wat no-wet-nen ken-aye o-mat-no-men-aye men-nah-sh-ah enit skew way-kee-yen)
Translation:
Alright, hello everyone, we are Wind Eagle, we live on Menominee land. The group Origanaly started back in the summer of "93", and since that time, and with the help, guidence, and wisdom of Joey Awonohopay, and Myron Pywasit we have metamorphesized into the group you know, hear, and interact with today. We have made may changes to the singing roster over the years, but we tryed to hold one truth, our identity.
The two people that brought us toghter were Adam "toe-seah" Waukau, And Tony "ko-jack" Fish Jr. Ko-jack had this old Bass drum in his basement, it was just siting there so they made some duck tape sticks, and started pounding around. Sortly after, the pounding of the drum began to draw people to it. Eventualy all us kids Had sticks, and were around the drum. We were just making noise back then, but the people of Zoar never told us to stop, never asked us to find something else to do. We beat the H*%L out of that drum, with our duck tape sticks. lol. After we started to sing more than just pound around, aye, we were given our original name "nekotae:s we:ske:wat" by our tribal elder, and well respected traditional woman Frances Awonohopay. She has helped us find ourselves when we were to young. Her Stories, and her Wisdom helped us as we began our journey into the pow-wow world. the name she gave us translates to "some day we will be good or great". The vision Francis had would come true in Wind Eagle, and we thank her greatly.
Shortly after, we started traveling to various small tradish pow-wows singing songs given to us by Joey Awonohopay. He had put 4 or 5 songs on tape for us to learn. The first song on the tape was "soldier boy" by the black lodge singers, and we sang the hell out of it. LOL. There was a Little Otter song as well. Thanks to Joe's help and encouragment early on we continue to be who we are. Our name Changed from Nekotae:s we:ske:wat, to Wind Eagle at the Stockbridge pow-wow on the Mohegan Reservation in '95' when Eric Awonohopay and John Teller Jr started to sing with us, and have been Wind Eagle Ever Since. We have traveled throughout Indian Country, and sang songs from Blackstone, Summer Cloud, Smokytown, Blackfoot Crossing, High Noon, and any other songs that we thought were cool.
Our first songs were composed by John Teller Jr. We finnaly had our own songs, and were creating our own identity. With the help of Joey we had a structure for the sound of Wind Eagle and hold true to that today. Now I have the privledge to compose the word songs, but I am not the only composer of songs. The songs are composed by all our singers.
Myron, and Joey are still influential parts of our style, sound, and identity to this day. Although over the years we have had many, many people who inspired us to keep moving forward. This coming at a time when it seemed no one wanted us around. We thank these people greatly, and thanks them for their continuing support.
The Wind Eagle singers you see today are a composition of years of studying, singing, mistake making, listening, experiencing, and self finding. We've been through alot, been scolded, and praised. All were good experiences that were nessesary for our drum group, and we are still learning.
Of all the singers that were ever with Wind Eagle over the years, and left for there own reasons we say keep singing. It does not matter who you sing with as long as you sing. To our brothers' and sisters' in the strugle, keep your head up. Don't ever stop singing no matter what! It is a form of prayer, spoken from your spirit, from the center of you. nahaw.
We always try to hold true to our mentors teachings, and hold family in high regard. To live in a good way, to be humble, and to always respect elders, and our mother earth. We are a family, we are friends, we sing for you! And we say thank you to Ko-jack, and Adam for starting us on this jurney through, what is now our life. Peace! animal layout powered by HOT FreeLayouts.com / MyHotComments
