Black Lodge Singers

By Shine Salt

CHURCHROCK – Slowing down on the highway when his 12 sons were only children, Kenny Scabby Robe got wise and told his sons if they want to go back to the powwow, the only way they will is if they learn to sing.

“They would always want to buy things and there was so many of them,” Kenny laughed. “We got a drum and we sang every night for two to three hours a day. Finally they got the hang of it.”

Since 1982, the family has traveled from their home, White Swan, Wash. to almost all 50 states and out of the country. One place that stuck to Kenny was Africa where they had helped with a documentary.

“We performed there and there was a lot of indigenous people from all around the world,” said Kenny. “”It was something very new to them and it’s the first time they’ve ever heard Indians sing.”

As their name, Black Lodge spread to different tribes so did their new sound of powwow music. The group began to incorporate the Black Foot language into the older traditional powwow genre, which was hard for Algin Scabby Robe to grasp at first.

“To speak our language, Black Foot, my dad would give words to my older brothers to compose it to songs,” said Algin who’s the youngest son and the lead singer. “That was the hardest thing for me was to adjust my voice to the words and learning to shake my voice to the terms rather than just having the vocals as itself.”

As a father, Kenny tried to think of ways to teach his sons the Black Foot language, but having to teach the 12 of them face-to-face would be a challenge. Through the words, Algin said they finally got the terms and smiled to say they can now speak their language.

Since the songs had impacted his children, Kenny wanted to spread it to the youth to help preserve their language.

“It might be like here too, some of the Navajo kids don’t understand or talk their language and it’s the same with the Black Foot tribe,” Kenny said. “But through singing and going to powwows, a lot of the people are hearing the language and learning.”

What better way to do this but to resemble their songs to cartoon characters that the children are aware of.

“I started dancing when I was 13 and my mom bought the Black Lodge’s CD where the songs are for kids,” laughed Tyler Henry, who’s 18 years old. “I remember SpongeBob, Barbie, Elmo and the farm song. It was fun songs and they were creative.”

Kenny said he simply wanted to touch the kids’ heart with the music they produced. One song in particular called, Elmo’s World, is Henry’s favorite. He said it reminds him of his younger brother who always watched the show.

“A, B, C oh 1,2,3,” the song continues. “Elmo’s world.”

Kenny said many of the songs they developed are about prayers and asking the creator to bless the people. He remembered when he hosted a powwow in Canada a young man had told his parents to cook dinner and invite the Black Lodge to their home.

“He was given 6-weeks to live and he told us what was happening,” said Kenny. “His parents asked if we could pray and sing for him, so we did and one of the songs we sang talked about the creator to help, touch and be with him. To keep him safe.”

After 7 years, Kenny ran into the unrecognized man at the Denver March Powwow. Once he told Kenny of the prayer, he knew instantly who the young man was.

“Then he told me, I’m still living and I got all right,” Kenny smiled. “That made me feel good knowing that our music is something special. People say it deeply touched them.”

The group was nominated for various Native American Music awards, but the real award for Kenny is healing the people.

“When you’re done singing and you look around, you see young people standing by you,” said Kenny. “It draws thoughts, ‘Am I doing something for my Indian people? Am I blessing them through the songs?’ I want to keep doing this.”