Kandia Crazy Horse x Jimi Hendrix: Native American Heritage Month
Hope yer gettin’ over The Hump well this week, Sisters & Brothers! For those that don’t know: November is #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
Here in New York City, I will be doing lots of actions & activities to honor that. Among them, I am doing a prayerful march through the entirety of Manhattan Island this Saturday with my friends of the Eagle & Condor Community Center (in Queens), from the National Museum of the American Indian @ Bowling Green (the southernmost tip of Manhattan) all the way to Shorakapok (the Indian Caves @ Inwood Hill on the Spuyten Duyvil). The march goes from 10 am until 6pm. I will also be rolling through the Black Farmers Conference in Harlem this weekend.
This month, I will be performing at another benefit for Standing Rock, on November 25 @ 9pm, this time at the City’s premiere venue for hillbilly/old-timey/bluegrass/roots music — the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn. I have been trying to work it out to play at Jalopy for a long time, so happy to finally do so for a great, beautiful cause so near and dear to my Native heart. This will also be the proper debut of my new Native Americana / twang band Cactus Rose. More details TBA!
(Kandia Crazy Horse @ Electric Lady Studios in vintage fringed buckskin jacket, Greenwich Village NYC, by Camara Dia Holloway)
Made my #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth pilgrimage to #ElectricLadyStudios in the Village, honoring #JimiHendrix’ Native #Tsalagi roots. Received some purple & feathered energy from Jimi that I will be unleashing when I perform @ the Standing Rock benefit @ Jalopy – A’ho*
#Jimi Hendrix #AniYunwiya #KandiaCrazyHorse x #CactusRose #Pamunkey #Afrohippies #CherokeeMist #TaharqaAleem #Ibeji #TheAleems #TwinsSevenSeven #NativeAmericana #ICanHearAtlantisFullOfCheer #MniWiconi #ElectricLadies #CosmicAmericanMusic
Sacred Water Medicine Show: My Standing Rock water protectors benefit concert in NYC #mniwiconi #NoDAPL
Good Friday, y’all! I am now getting feedback & documentation from the Standing Rock water protector camps benefit I conceived, curated & performed at last Saturday in Manhattan @ Decolonize This Place (Artists Space) in TriBeCa. Such was the response, I have been asked to undertake some more & when things develop, I will be sharing the word here & on my Instagram. Regardless, my personal commitment to praying for & helping support the Oceti Sakowin & other united nations assembled @ Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota remains unabated; the setbacks to the trips I was slated on since August were unavoidable, yet I still plan to be of service there. And we of the Eastern nations are paying attention to the similar projects here in our own “backyard,” such as the Algonquin Pipeline, & doing actions locally.
My #IndigenousWeek in NYC concludes tomorrow with the re-opening of the Caribbean Cultural Center (CCCADI) in Harlem on 125th Street. More to come! A’ho*
“Water Is Life – Solidarity Concert” on Saturday, October 8th, 2016 (All photographs by Camara Dia Holloway)
(Kandia Crazy Horse giving the Introduction to the benefit concert @ Decolonize This Place in TriBeCa, by Camara Dia Holloway)
(Kandia Crazy Horse & Morgan O’Kane, singers/songwriters/purveyors of twang & Appalachian-rooted mountain music, from Virginia)
(With my lead guitar player/singer Jeff McLaughlin – Cactus Rose by Theodore Kuhnapfel)
(Alex Battles)
(Lonnie Harrington)
(Morgan O’Kane)
(Ebony Hillbillies)
(Bejike Luis Sanakori Ramos doing water ceremony & closing dance)
(My Tsalagi aunty Eagle Woman (our hostess & emcee) & the gang getting the shoutout on the welcome wall @ Decolonize This Place)
(Rehearsing for the Standing Rock benefit earlier last week in Midtown, with Alex & Lonnie)
Kandia Crazy Horse in Indigenous Peoples Day NYC film by Peter Eliscu
Here is the footage by Peter Eliscu covering the actions I was involved in from this past Monday in Manhattan, October 10, 2016: #IndigenousPeoplesDay > #DecolonizeThisMuseum @ American Museum of Natural History > & the subsequent march through the Upper West Side commemorating the young Lakota man murdered by police in Rapid City, South Dakota, after attending a #NativeLivesMatter rally in 2014, Allen Locke.
In this film, I am dancing & reading the Indigenous Peoples Day 2016 declaration.
Kandia Crazy Horse x Decolonize This Museum NYC
Decolonize This Place’s Monday action @ American Museum of Natural History in NYC – #DecolonizeThisMuseum – was a resounding success & has been getting coverage in outlets as diverse as the Guardian (UK) & Bitch. I have already linked the press which included interviews with me on the subjects of Indigenous Peoples Day, why I am standing in solidarity with the Oceti Sakowin of Standing Rock / #NoDAPL, & ongoing issues with museum and archival collections established in the 19th century and earlier and how they resonate with us today in the 21st century. Here are some more images from the action, by myself or ones featuring me by Betty Yu. Looking forward to organizing more with #DecolonizeThisPlace – A’ho*
Kandia Crazy Horse reading the Indigenous Peoples Day 2016 declaration @ American Museum of Natural History – on the Theodore Roosevelt statue @ Central Park West & 79th Street (Credit: Betty Yu)
(by Betty Yu)
(by Betty Yu)
(Inside the galleries of American Museum of Natural History, by our #NoDAPL chronicler, Dan Vea)
(Andrew of #DecolonizeThisPlace @ the Hall of African Mammals, American Museum of Natural History, by Kandia Crazy Horse)
(#DecolonizeThisMuseum in the Rotunda, by Kandia Crazy Horse)
(Brother Amin Husain of #DecolonizeThisPlace & my Virginia homegal, artist Marz Saffore (in #BlackLivesMatter hoodie), of NYU in the galleries @ American Museum of Natural History, by Kandia Crazy Horse)
(1 of 2 original #DecolonizeThisPlace posters for the #DecolonizeThisMuseum action, by Kandia Crazy Horse)
(Artivists covering the statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside American Museum of Natural History in echo of the 1971 Lakota action, by Kandia Crazy Horse)
My Sacred Water Medicine Show – A benefit for Standing Rock in NYC on 10/8 #mniwiconi #NoDAPL
Please join us this Saturday night in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood downtown as I and my fellow indigenous artists & friends from the Brooklyn Country scene sing in support of the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance and in solidarity with the Oceti Sakowin of Standing Rock Reservation and all allied nations of the water protector camps that are defending the Missouri River and Lakota sacred sites out in North Dakota. All of the artists involved & I are committed to standing with Standing Rock until the end. We will also be featuring speakers on the topics of #NoDAPL, the Algonquin pipeline project, the Anti-Mountaintop Removal movement (particularly important to Morgan O’Kane & I, hailing from Virginia), & other environmental issues affecting Indian Country — some of whom have just returned from the frontline at Standing Rock.
We look forward to seeing you out – be ready to bust some of yer square-dancing moves!
WATER IS LIFE – SOLIDARITY CONCERT @ Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker Street btwn Church & Broadway, NYC | 6pm doors, 7pm show | $10 suggested donation
ft. KANDIA CRAZY HORSE (Pamunkey)
EBONY HILLBILLIES (Catawba)
LONNIE HARRINGTON (Seminole)
MORGAN O’KANE
ALEX BATTLES
BEJIKE LUIS SANAKORI RAMOS+BAND OF TAINOS (Taino)
& TINA EAGLE WOMAN JOHNSON (Tsalagi)
+ SPECIAL GUESTS
Throwback Thursday: Chief Arvol Looking Horse & Kandia Crazy Horse
On Tuesday night in the West Village, I had the great honor of hearing spiritual leader Chief Arvol Looking Horse & his lovely wife Mrs. Paula of the Cheyenne River Reservation speak at Indigenous Voices. The stories they both shared expressed a great depth of wisdom & compassion as well as some worry for indigenous futures. As we continue to stand with Standing Rock and aid the water protectors for the long haul through this winter, there is a lot to think about, act on, and — as Mrs. Paula said — learn to pray centered from our umbilical cords rather than our trickster hearts.
I am still processing all that I learned from them & heard about the frontline in Standing Rock, so I will offer forth more this Saturday night at my Standing Rock benefit in lower Manhattan — Water Is Life – Solidarity Concert — and in the weeks to come (including during Indigenous Day of Remembrance @ Central Park where I shall be sharing songs & ceremony).
Sacred Water Medicine Show in NYC on 10/8 @ 7pm #NoDAPL

Dear Family, Friends, Followers & Folks – Come on out to the Standing Rock benefit concert that I conceived, curated & will perform at on Saturday, October 8th, in Manhattan @ Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker Street, 7pm (doors 6pm), $10 suggested donation. We will be having an evening of indigenous musicians and visual artists coming together with our allied friends from the Brooklyn Country scene to sing, dance, speak about the pipeline resistance & generally raise a joyful noise standing in solidarity with the Standing Rock Oceti Sakowin, united Native nations from across America, and their allies as they winterize to combat the Bakken project afflicting sacred burial sites, the Standing Rock reservation, and lands and water all along the Missouri River.
The featured performers:
Kandia Crazy Horse (Pamunkey)
Ebony Hillbillies (Catawba)
Morgan O’Kane
Alex Battles
Lonnie Harrington (Seminole)
Luis Sanakori Ramos+Band of Tainos (Taino)
& Special Guests including Jana Brownbear, Anastasia McAllister, Bianca Dagga & More
Emcee/speaker: Tina Eagle Woman Johnson of Cherokee Language & Cultural Circle NYC
Facebook evite: Water Is Life – Solidarity Concert
Kandia Crazy Horse (credit: Camara Dia Holloway)
Tina Eagle Woman Johnson (credit: Kandia Crazy Horse)
Henrique Prince of Ebony Hillbillies (@the recent Harlem Hoedown) (credit: Kandia Crazy Horse)