We The Peoples Before
Discover the Artists: In 2022, the Kennedy Center and First Peoples Fund presented events honoring Native cultures, sovereignty, history, and vitality. Meet some of them here.
First Peoples Fund logo (2024-10-18) by First Peoples FundThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
First Peoples Fund
First Peoples Fund's mission is to honor and support the Collective Spirit of First Peoples artists and culture bearers by supporting the cultural, artistic, and ancestral practices of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian artists, families, and communities.
President Kennedy and Indigenous Leaders
President Kennedy welcomed a gathering of tribal leaders to the White House in 1962, remarking on the "very strong obligation which any American, whether he was born here or came here from other parts of the world, has to every American Indian.”
Tribal Nations Flag Procession (2022-06-30) by Ruth Bazhnibah KawanoThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
First Cultures
Created in collaboration with First Peoples Fund, We The Peoples Before spoke to the diversity of Nations, cultures, languages, philosophies, spiritual traditions, peoples, and practices rooted in land and territories across North America before the founding of the U.S.
The inspiration for "We The Peoples Before"
Lori Pourier, Founding President/CEO of First Peoples Fund, reflects on the genesis of the creation of the event.
Jingle Dress Dancers (2022-07-02) by Kenji KawanoThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
"We The Peoples Before" Artists
Nearly 50 Indigenous dancers, hip hop performers, poets, vocalists, and spoken word artists came together for the one-night-only free concert. Watch excerpts of the performances and learn about the artists below.
Talon Bazille
Talon Bazille is a rap artist and poet from the Crow Creek Dakota and Cheyenne River Lakota tribes of South Dakota. Bazille is currently the head of Wonahun Was’te’ Studios, which provides access to recording and production for community members and allies around central South Dakota.
Talon Bazille
In collaboration and support from First Peoples Fund, DCM Collective and Panoramic Dreams, Bazille recently released his three-part series Traveling the Multiverse with Iktomi, and is currently working on his next solo release, “Ghost Plant.”
Miss Chief Rocka
Angela Miracle Gladue, aka Lunacee, is a nehiyaw (Cree)/Greek interdisciplinary artist from the Treaty 6 Territory of amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). Her practice as a B-girl began in 2003 through the Indigenous hip hop group known as The Red Power Squad.
Miss Chief Rocka
She is also a member of The Fly Girlz Dance Crew who have trained with some of the originators, innovators, and pioneers of hip hop culture. Since 2016, Angela has toured as one of the lead dancers for The Halluci Nation (formally known as A Tribe Called Red).
Pte San Win Little Whiteman
Pte San Win Little Whiteman is an Oglala Lakota Writer, their pronouns are they/them, and they reside in the Medicine Root District of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. They work in multimedia, ranging from drawing, painting, sewing, theatre arts, beading, and writing.
Lyla June and Tanaya J. Winder
Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. Tanaya Winder is a poet/singer/songwriter from an intertribal heritage of Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Duckwater Shoshone Nations.
Ulali Project
Ulali Project (Pura Fé, Charly Lowry, and Aleix Raeana) is the first Indigenous women’s group to create their own sound from their strong traditional roots and personal contemporary styles, creating a new genre of Indigenous Music.
Tribal Nations Flag Exhibit (2022-06-30) by The Kennedy CenterThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Tribal Nations Flag Exhibit
More than 100 Tribal Nation flags were on display in the Hall of States. As nations within a nation, this was the first time native flags were hung at the Kennedy Center alongside U.S. states and territories in a powerful statement on native sovereignty.
The River Pavilion at the REACH (2019-07) by Nosrat TarighiThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are standing on the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway peoples past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have been the stewards of this land throughout the generations.
