[2021]
Music Video Filmed On the Rosebud Reservation
Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Frank Waln for FDW Entertainment
First released as a video and single file
On the album "In the Key of Lakota" (2021)

' The impact of settler colonialism is still evident in America today, widely impacting Indigenous communities across the country. On the Rosebud Reservation alone, Waln says, poverty is rampant. Unemployment levels are over 80%, and violence and addiction have become a problem that desperately needs solving.

To continue experiencing the consequences of colonialism compounds the trauma experienced by both the old and new generations, Waln says.

“I use music to process this pain,” he said. “In my culture, we look at medicine from a non-Western perspective. And music is medicine, so I’m constantly trying to find new ways to keep making new and better medicine for myself and sharing... (continuer)

[2015]
On his first studio record, "The Bridge" [2017]
Lyrics by Frank Waln, with samples from Disney's 1953 "Peter Pan"

Lakota rapper and activist Frank Waln wrote this scathing satire of the song “What Made The Red Man Red?” from Disney’s 1953 film Peter Pan to criticize its broadly stereotypical portrayal of Native American tribes. Using audio samples from the original song, he lambasts the United States for its legacy of colonialism and genocide in what was originally Native territory as well as Hollywood’s whitewashing of the harsh history of U.S.-Native relationships.

The song was first released on Dec. 29, 2015, on KOYA FM, the local radio station for the Sicangu Oyate (Oyate is the Lakota word for nation). Place and date are significant: on that December day of 1890, about 300 Lakota were slaughtered by the US 7th Cavalry in what remains sadly known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.... (continuer)

[2020]
On the album "Born Ready"

Many of Waln's songs tackle Native American social issues. In this particular song, introduced and concluded by spoken words by John Trudell, he put's the social issues in the larger perspective of a perpetuation of the historical "Indian Wars" in a still lasting "white war" against the identities, ways of life of the native people. As oppression has many ways, it needs a lot on both side to find a way out. Resistance on one side and apologies on the other won't do it alone. It needs deconstruction of the minds and decolonization of the memories. And the key is sovereignty. And the misunderstandings about it.

“Every time I perform, there’s people in the crowd who were alive when it was illegal for us to be Lakota. So, even though you know that history is in the past, it’s very much impacted our reality,”

Here the link to a CNN rewritten interview with... (continuer)