Last fall, Nahko Bear carved time out of his schedule as the frontman of Medicine for the People to visit the Standing Rock Reservation during the height of the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It had been around nine years since Nahko met his birth mother and grandmother and learned he was of Apache (and Puerto Rican and Filipino) ancestry. He’d spent some years after that trying to find his place in the greater Native Indian community, showing up at reservations during the summers in his van with a guitar, looking to play a song or two at local schools, “to be validated and find my identity in that community.”
Of course, it wasn’t that easy for a kid who grew up in Oregon, adopted and homeschooled by white, conservative Baptist parents, trained in classical piano since he was 6.
Looking back, the 29-year-old knows how naïve he was, but it was a part of his journey, nonetheless. He learned shared blood is not a substitute for shared experiences, and being aware of oppression doesn’t mean you understand it.
So when Nahko made his way to Standing Rock late in 2016, it was no surprise to find young folks learning this lesson in real time.
“I was approached by some white kids who wanted help because they got kicked out of a certain camp. It was a straight Star Wars moment; ‘You’re our only hope,’” Nahko says. “It put me in an awkward position. I was just there as an indigenous person who cares about what was being asked of the oil companies.
“It’s tricky because we need everybody, everybody’s bodies and prayers, but it’s a hard thing for passionate young white kids that struggle to understand protocol and the delicacy and the sensitivity of native relations. It’s also on the side of our native people: we can be very abrasive. I’m a futurist looking at big pictures. The allyships we’re looking to create, the only way people are going to learn is if we tell them.”
In his music, Nahko isn’t afraid to talk to people. And while there are messages of social and political change woven throughout his work with Medicine for the People, the real power of Nahko’s music — the way it encourages people to become better allies in a world starved for unity — comes from his unrestricted honesty about his own life.
Nahko is a product of rape, a child of a 14-year-old girl sold into sex work by her own mother, a carrier of intergenerational trauma, a brown boy raised in a white conservative home, a handsome guy who struggles with his ego from time to time, a farmer, a psychonaut, an outspoken activist for climate change, education and conservation.
These are Nahko’s stories — his songs, his life. Taking a note from artists like Michael Franti and Manu Chao, Nahko and Medicine for the People are a multi-cultural outfit binding hip-hop, folk rock and world music to deliver messages of social justice, healing and forgiveness.
Just last year, the band went out on the “Call to Action” tour. The election was coming up and Standing Rock was going strong, so Nahko’s show took time out in the middle to ask white allies specifically to recognize the meaning of standing in solidarity with a minority movement.
“It was intense,” Nahko says.
Education is a job minorities take on every day without consent or pay — white people often look to minorities for permission to use certain words, or for clarification about misconceptions.
It’s a struggle, Nahko admits, but worth the effort.
“You have to take it like the Sacred Stone camp [at Standing Rock] side of the world, that has grace and compassion for white communities that don’t understand and are willing to teach them and have patience,” he says. “And then you have the Red Warrior side [that] struggle, they don’t want to take time and soften in that way.”
While the “Call to Action” tour is over, Nahko says it’s “one of those things that rolls over into forever.” He says he’s taking a step back from being “so in the face of politics and social constructs” to just lay down some good vibes on a tour aptly called “Good Vibes.”
“I think people need a respite from the politics,” he says. “With World War III being on the back burner … what you see at home and on the news every day, it’s intense.”
Despite claims that he’s taking a step back, Nahko’s as politically involved as ever. This month he’ll award a Native American youth with the Nahko Scholarship to help them access indigenous education enrichment summer programs. He’ll also premier his first documentary in June, Salmon Will Run, a film about the Winnemem Wintu tribe’s salmon restoration project. In July, he’ll join Honor the Earth in their horseback ride to oppose the expansion of tar sands and fracking imports.
Later this year, he’ll release his first solo album, and odds say there will be a little social commentary in the mix.
“I feel we recognize in the activist community the heart can be missing, we’re too focused on front-line tactics,” Nahko says. “That’s where the magic of the music comes in. That’s the heart.”
On the Bill: Nahko and Medicine for the People. 6 p.m. Thursday, June 8, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., 303-786-7030. Tickets $25.
— with Boombox, 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 9, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison, 720-865-2494. Tickets $30.00 – $39.95 in advance, $45 at the door.
