TULALIP – A Grammy award-winning American Indian singer plans to speak out against drugs and alcohol in front of a crowd of tribal youth from around the region at the Tulalip Reservation on Thursday night.
Star Nayea was part of a collaboration with other Indian musicians on “Sacred Ground,” an album that won a Grammy in 2006 for Best Native American Music Album.
Nayea travels around the country to perform music inspired by the Motown sound of Detroit, where she grew up.
Nayea believes her most important duty is to discourage teens from using drugs and alcohol – two addictions she has overcome.
“I prayed this morning like I do every morning, and I said, ‘Creator, thank you for my past,’ ” Nayea said in a telephone interview on Monday. “If I didn’t endure that, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I wouldn’t be able to reach out.”
Nayea met several Tulalip teenagers when she performed at a Seattle Indian center last year.
“They were just so bright-eyed and wonderful and so interested in what I was saying,” Nayea said.
They asked Nayea to visit the Tulalip Reservation and share her story in an effort to help discourage drug use among Tulalip youth.
“We’re in difficult times with drugs and alcohol,” said Ricky Belmont of the Tulalip Youth Program. “This is another way to present information to our youth.”
Nayea was adopted by a non-Indian family when she was 2 months old. She doesn’t know which tribe she is from or where she was born. She said abuse from her adoptive family led to her use of drugs and alcohol.
“The only thing that got me through was music, and there was a reason for that,” she said.
Nayea believes she was divinely appointed to use her music to reach out to tribal teenagers. Six years ago, she created “The Healing Power of Music,” a program designed to use her songs and her story to reach out to tribal youth.
Hundreds of teenagers from Indian reservations throughout the region will travel by bus to join the Tulalip youth for Nayea’s Thursday night show. The show was created specifically for tribal youth and is not open to the public.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Find out more To find out about Grammy award-winning American Indian singer Star Nayea, and to hear samples of her music, go online to www.starnayea.com.
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