Fort Wiliam First Nation celebrates National Indigenous Peoples Day with Grammy Awards nominated singing group
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM — The eight-time Grammy Awards nominated Black Lodge Singers were featured as the host drum at the National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD) pow wow at Anemki Wajiw in Fort William First Nation.
“It’s a real pleasure and a surprise to have one of the most esteemed singing groups in North America joining us from White Swan, Washington, the Black Lodge Singers,” says Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek Elder Jim Misquart, emcee at the NIPD pow wow. “To have them here is no better treat than National Indigenous Peoples Day could have ever had. Everybody here is just all amazed.”
Elder Misquart says he explained to the singing groups before the pow wow started that he would be asking the Black Lodge Singers to perform more than usual.
“We’ll never know when we’re going to get another group like this up here again,” Elder Misquart says. “It’s been a pleasure having them here.”
Erwin Scabby Robe, singer with the Black Lodge Singers, says one of their friends, Marcel Bananish, encouraged them to perform at the NIPD pow wow.
“We’re glad you invited us to come and share our music,” Scabby Robe says. “We’re on our way back from a pow wow in Obedjiwan, Quebec. We’re glad to be here — it’s a nice place to have a pow wow [on] the mountain here.”
Scabby Robe says the group sings in Blackfoot because his father was from Montana and his mother’s father was from Alberta.
“We made our home in Washington because my mom’s mom was from there and we grew up there,” Scabby Robe says. “We tried to move to Montana once and it didn’t work out, it’s too cold.”
Scabby Robe says the group currently consists mostly of his sons and nephews as singers because his brothers are too busy nowadays with their work to travel to pow wows.
“We’re always happy to come and share music wherever we can go because as my dad says: ‘God gave us a gift of music and it needs to be shared,’” Scabby Robe says. “I grew up on the road so I love travelling.”
Scabby Robe says the pow wow trail “feels back to normal” after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting they recently travelled to pow wows in Texas, Minnesota and Louisiana in addition to the one in Quebec.
“We just like to sing and share our music,” Scabby Robe says. “Hopefully the music touches somebody and it helps them.”
Scabby Robe says his father told him and his brothers that they had to either sing or dance if they wanted to go to pow wows when they were young.
“So we thought we would try singing and it’s been with us ever since,” Scabby Robe says. “We enjoy meeting all the new people we never met before.”
Janine Desmoulin, a women’s traditional dancer from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, says it was “really great” for the Black Lodge Singers to share their gifts at the NIPD pow wow.
“It’s an awesome pow wow today,” Desmoulin says, noting that she enjoyed dancing during the Black Lodge Singers’ crow hop song. “Their singing is good — it’s all over YouTube, it’s renowned. My son grew up on Black Lodge Singers, he’s three-years-old and he can recognize them.”
Desmoulin also stressed the importance of supporting NIPD.
“I’m just really here to support our Indigenous peoples and support healing and dance in a good way today,” Desmoulin says.
The NIPD pow wow included a Sunrise Ceremony with Aroland Elder John Gagnon, a feast and giveaways. The co-host drum was the English River Singers and the arena director was Dave Simard.