Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Grammys will go ahead as planned on February 10, despite the writers' strike. The Writers Guild of America has given the go-ahead to script the show. That’s good news for an Eastern Washington-based group that’s been nominated for an award in the Native American music category.

It’s the Black Lodge singers sixth nomination for a Grammy. If you don’t live in Indian country you probably haven’t heard of them. But in pow wow circles they’re legendary.

Richland Correspondent Anna King has the story.

The first time you hear the music of the Black Lodge singers, it might sound like something really foreign.
 
SOUND: Song
 
But really, the songs sung in Blackfeet are about the same things that pop singers like Justin Timberlake croon about.
 
Kenny Scabby Robe: "Funny things you know like love and breakups and taking someone else’s wife. Those are the types of songs that we sing."
 
That’s Kenny Scabby Robe, the patriarch of the band. Black Lodge was one of the first Native American drum groups to put lyrics in their songs.

The group -- based in White Swan near Yakima -- has been singing together for 25 years. There are 13 men in the band. All family.

In fact, it’s Kenny and his 12 sons. This year Black Lodge got the Grammy nomination for the new album called “Watch This Dancer.”
 
Algin Scabby Robe: "We sing for one purpose that purpose is for the Creator or from the Creator to the people. And each time we sing hopefully that that song we sing may touch someone out there that needs to be healed."
 
That’s Algin Scabby Robe.  He’s 33 years old and the drum keeper, the group’s spiritual anchor. He says they could hardly believe the first time they sat in the audience of the Grammy ceremony.
 
Algin Scabby Robe: "Like you wanted to jump up and scream cause you were actually there."

They saw the Backstreet Boys and Madonna, people they had only seen on MTV or heard on the radio.
 
Algin Scabby Robe: "It was like man I can’t believe I’m here. All the time I was there that just kept going through my mind. Man I can’t believe I am here."
 
That was in 2001. Now Black Lodge is up to nomination number six. And the Grammys has lost some of its golden glow. Band leader Kenny Scabby Robe puts it this way.
 
Kenny Scabby Robe: "I talked to a gentleman there, he was nominated 16 times and never won. And a couple years ago, he finally won his category. He said keep on trying you will win one of these days. I’m waiting for that moment."
 
During the summer the singers perform for hundreds of pow wows and special events. They’ve traveled to Alberta, Canada, New York, Louisiana and California to drum. But for Black Lodge and those they play for, the music is more than entertainment. It’s medicine.

Bear Scabby Robe, another member of the group, says the family’s music healed his 3-year-old son after the boy was hit by a car in a parking lot.
 
Bear Scabby Robe: "He always listened to it with his headphones. When they were going to come and do something, like change his bandages before they did it he always wanted his headphones so he could take his mind off what they were going to do. He would just lean his head back and sing along to the music."
 
And now that 11-year-old boy named Treleigh sings along with the band.
  
Treleigh and his young cousins know all of the Black Lodge songs. So Grammy or no -- the strong drum beats and music of Black Lodge will continue.