Six songs written by Lac du Flambeau tribal members are finalists for the Native American Music Awards.
The awards are meant to honor indigenous artists from across the continent and recognize the importance of music in many Native American cultures.
This is the most nominations the Lac du Flambeau tribe has ever received in a single year.
Bobby Bullet St. Germaine and his wife, Pamela Nesbit, helped produce five of the songs nominated for this year’s awards.
Bullet’s song, “I’m a Vet,” remembering Menominee drummer Richie Plass, has been nominated for the category of Best Tribute Song. Nominated for Best Animated Video is “Virus Song.”
But these aren’t the only songs Bobby Bullet has in the running this year.
He and his wife also produced several songs with Lac du Flambeau students, through their Music on the Go program.
“Right now, I’m sharing some of the music knowledge that I have,” Bullet says. “It started off with just guitars and the kids took to that for a while. But then, it morphed into songwriting and when it comes to songwriting, it really took off from there because the kids had a chance to voice what’s going on in their lives. So the songs were born from that.”
The Native American Music Awards introduced the Rising Star Award in 2019 to recognize young musicians.
A group of Lac du Flambeau elementary and middle school students won the award that year.
This year, the students are back with three songs nominated in the category: Changes, I Got Shoes, and I Wanna Cry – a song written about missing and murdered indigenous women.
“I started singing it myself and it didn’t sound right, it was kind of like a blues song,” Bullet says. “But then my wife Pam added a flute to it, and it became more of a tender song on the subject.”
In addition to Bobby Bullet and Pamela Nesbit’s work, Darren Thompson was also nominated for the category of Best Native Flute.
All of the songs nominated for this year’s Native American Music Awards can be found on their website. Voting takes place until March 31.
Winners will be announced during a virtual awards show in early spring.
