In the autumn of the year, thoughts turn to harvest celebrations and family gatherings, tales of history and stories of older times. In North America, with Canadian celebrations of Thanksgiving just past and celebrations of Thanksgiving in the United States just coming on, those stories of history include the presence of the first peoples, the American Indians, the Native Americans. So this time of year has also become a time for celebrating Native American Music month.

Joanne Shenandoah and Bill Miller both grew up in the traditions of their peoples, and they have both chosen to take their music and through it, insights into their culture, into the world beyond the tribal lands.

Joanne Shenandoah is of the Iroquois people, of the Oneida tribe in New York State. One of her ancestors was the person from whom the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia takes its name. That heritage didn’t help her much when she first decided to make a life in music. It was not a career for women in her tribe, it seemed, but she knew it was her calling, so she continued to seek ways to follow it. Follow it she has, taking her songs of peace and family and connection across, the world, meeting with spiritual leaders, singing with rock stars and symphonies, always connecting her understanding of the heart and spirit of her heritage to the ideas and music of those who seek peace around the world. One of her best loved albums is called Peacemaker’s Journey, in which she traces a story from the history of her people. In Bitter Tears, the dark and the hopeful side of interactions between first peoples and others in North America are the subject, while Lifegivers sees the different stages of a woman's life through common threads across cultures and lands.

Bill Miller is of the Mohican people. He grew up on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation in Wisconsin, where he, too, felt a calling to make music. He learned to play the flute, and the Native name he was given meant Bird Song. Miller took his music to Nashville and later for a number of years on the road, adding the flavor of his flutes and singing to the work of rock and country artists. He also followed a solo career on his own, with well received albums including Ghost Dance and Reservation Road. Miller includes his Christian faith in many of his works, believing, as he says in one of his songs, “these are the Holy Lands,” that the lands of North America are as filled with spirit and as worthy of reverence as are the Biblical Holy Lands. Miller has recorded a holiday album, Sacred Gift, and he has been working on a series of flute compositions honoring tribal lands. These may be heard on his album Spirit Wind East.

Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com

Kerry writes about music and the arts in Ireland, Scotland, North America, and other places, and the creative practice of being an artist, at Music Road, Journey to Scotland, National Geographic Traveler, and other publications.