Curatorial Corner – Reflections on Native American Heritage Month

This November, as we honor Native American Heritage Month, we at the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM) are more cognizant than ever of our mission: to preserve, document, and interpret the many threads that shape American music. While our work often connects to the legacy of Bruce Springsteen, it also serves a larger purpose—recognizing the countless voices, cultures, and histories that have influenced the soundscape of this country. Indigenous music and storytelling traditions are not just precursors to American music; they are foundational pillars.

Indigenous musical traditions have played a foundational—and often underacknowledged—role in shaping American music history. Long before commercial recording, Indigenous communities used music as a vessel for storytelling, ceremony, healing, and cultural memory, influencing the rhythmic structures, vocal techniques, and thematic expressions that would later emerge across American genres.

Elements such as call-and-response patterns, communal singing, percussive emphasis, and music’s connection to identity and land can be traced into folk, blues, country, and even contemporary pop and rock. While many contributions were historically overlooked, their impact remains embedded in the nation’s sonic DNA, reminding us that American music did not begin with Thomas Edison’s phonograph or record labels or popular culture—it began with the diverse, deeply rooted musical languages of Indigenous peoples.

We look forward to highlighting Native American contributions to American music history past, present, and future, throughout our new Center when we open next year.

We are grateful to have the support of talented advisors, like Claire Garland here in New Jersey and Tara Backhouse, Curator of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in Florida (we enjoy an especially close relationship with the Seminole Tribe, which owns Hard Rock, Inc., a global leader in entertainment, gaming and hospitality, which includes the Hard Rock Cafes throughout the United States.)

I had the honor of traveling to Florida in December 2024 to interview Seminole musicians, including the Battiest brothers.

Spencer Battiest and “Doc Native” (Zachary Battiest) are Seminole musicians from Florida who have gained recognition for creating socially conscious music rooted in Indigenous identity, storytelling, and cultural pride. Spencer is a soulful singer-songwriter, while “Doc Native” is a rapper and producer; together, they blend genres and perspectives to share narratives tied to heritage, struggle, and resilience. Their acclaimed works include “The Storm,” a tribute to the Seminole Tribe that won Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival, and “Dream,” their 2021 collaborative release that also earned top honors. Beyond music, they use their platform for advocacy and visibility—most notably through their involvement in the protest anthem “Stand Up / Stand N Rock,” which received an MTV Video Music Award—making them influential voices in both Indigenous art and activism.

In their oral history interview with me, the duo explored the duality of Indigenous musicians being both foundational to American music, and also at its cutting edge, noting:

It’s kind of hard because we [Native Americans] have been perceived as ancient, mythical creatures when really, we are modern people living in a modern world. Most people have seen us on TV as background characters and teepees and horses or some kind of magical thing that comes with us, but they don’t see us as modern people. And it’s kind of hard to break that, when it’s been ingrained in popular television for so long. But now we have seen a new lane for us in the, in many different industries—music, television, office, government office, things of that nature. Like we have representatives [in government]. We have… Emmy winning television shows of modern Indigenous people. We have many different… avenues for, like, … superhero movies and things like that. So now … that is one way that we can break down that barrier is to get more visibility on us as modern people and living in a modern world.

And I think the more opportunities that different creatives have at getting a chance at the table and sitting at the table with anything… like television, movies and politics, you know, then, we’re kind of a people that looks out for each other, too. So, there’s…if an artist has…or a director has a film coming out, or a television show, you know, typically I’ve noticed that they’ve reached for Indigenous artists to help do music or find Indigenous actors to play lead roles in their shows. And that’s a way to continue to break down that barrier and to get more Indigenous people in the room, is by inviting those other creatives to come together and help, you know, with whatever project they’re working on. I think we need more of that.

I think that’s what you know, we try to do also in our music is educate, in a modern way, with hip hop and pop music. And I always love it when at the end of our shows, somebody comes up to me and says something like, “oh, I thought I was coming to hear this type of music.” I’m like, well, you know, we’re capable of doing all, all different things, all different types of genres. And there’s just a lot of misinformation out there. So I think the main thing, the main barrier that we’re trying to break down ourselves is that, we’re here, we exist, and we’re capable of doing anything, and we have different styles and tastes, and although, you know, there is a certain part of us that is our traditional music and traditional teachings—there’s this other part of us, too, that, exists in the modern world of music and television and creativeness. And that’s something that all of us Indigenous creators have to just keep pushing forward until the general public and audiences know, you know, who we are and how we exist as a modern people.

And we’re tribal people. We have a very strong sense of community and not just within the community of our own tribes, but to all nations and tribes and band affiliates throughout all the Americas. When somebody has a project coming up, as a community, we feel that responsibility to get behind it and to help push it forward as far as we can. Because, I mean, when one of us succeeds, we all succeed.

At the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, we remain committed to listening to artists like the Battiest brothers—seeking out authentic perspectives that expand, complicate, and deepen what American music truly represents. Preserving history is only meaningful if it includes every voice that shaped it, and Indigenous creators are not only part of that story, but vital to its beginnings and its future.