NDN Kars

Singer-songwriter Keith Secola expounds on Leonard’s life as a symbol for native rights and Indigenous sovereignty in an unplugged acoustic set, which includes an Anishinaabe flute blessing, the track “Innocent Man,” and a very special version of “NDN Kars,” the number one most requested song on tribal radio since 1992.

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LEONARD: Political Prisoner
Season 2 Episode 8:  NDN KARS

Keith Secola
This is a blessing song for Leonard and all the people who have been disenfranchised and forgotten and marginalized by this world. 

VO
That’s singer-songwriter, Keith Secola, from the Native Music Hall of Fame. His anthem, “NDN Kars,” has been the number one most requested song on tribal radio since 1992.

[FLUTE BLESSING SONG]

Keith Secola
It was a song I played for blessing for Leonard, for all the disenfranchised people, the marginalized, the forgotten. And it was a pipe-song variety-of-song, an Anishinaabe tradition, which, um, Leonard, we're part of the same tribe. Our pipe carriers, they'll load their pipe up when you play a flute song, an offering to the Great Spirit so that the prayers go far. And it was in that class of songs that I was playing. And just to make good feelings for people. But I'm praying for health and I'm praying for welfare and all those good things in life. The Anishinaabe, we're only allowed to pray for good. [MUSIC UP] Migwiech.

VO
You’re listening to LEONARD—a podcast series about Leonard Peltier, one of America’s longest-serving political prisoners. I’m Andrew Fuller. 

And I’m Rory Owen Delaney. We’ve spent the last four years working to share Leonard’s story with a new generation of people: who he is, how he ended up behind bars, and why we believe he deserves to go free.

This is Season 2, Episode 8, Indian Cars. In this chapter we chinwag with long time Peltier supporter, Keith Secola, who plays a couple tunes on his acoustic guitar for Leonard. 

Keith Secola
Buju. Keith Secola. [Anishinaabe] My name is Keith Secola. I'm from the Anishinaabe tribe of Northern Minnesota from the Boys Fort in the Couchiching reserves of Ontario and Northern Minnesota. And I grew up on an iron range and I grew up aware of our rights. Aware of what happened to our brother Leonard. And so today I'm on a podcast for Leonard, and we're gonna make him be free.

Keith Secola
Did the song come out alright?

Rory
It was great. That was beautiful. Keith, if you want to freestyle or if you want to play anything else, I’m open to suggestions.

Keith Secola
Yeah. I got my guitar with me. I'll tune it up in a bit if you wanna talk, and, and things. And um, we can, we can slip into that at any time. Actually. I should see if it's in tune.

Rory
Yeah. Go for it.

Keith Secola
This is an early song that we wrote for Leonard in the nineties and it's called “Innocent man.” 

[INNOCENT MAN SONG]

Keith Secola
And the song would go on and on. We would jam on it and some hard guitar breaks and flute and great, great singing and things. And it was a mantra of such, and, and we, and it became a symbol of native rights, which Leonard has become a symbol for native rights and sovereignty and all those things that are important to us. And it seems like Leonard's life and his work has become that. We could define our native rights by defining his. And so until we're all free, we're not free.

Keith Secola
And so that song was a very powerful song for us to play in the nineties. And even now when we play it, we can play it faster with a native chant and singing and things like that. Or we can play it slow. But the thing was a metaphoric symbolism of the disenfranchised and singing for people without power.

Keith Secola 
The guitar and writing songs became a form of activism for many songwriters and any songwriter who would write stuff that was important to the people would be important to the people. And Leonard's situation was always so important to us. It still is and I still feel for him in much emotion.

Keith Secola
You know, like when you're writing songs and, you know, when I first started writing in the late seventies I wrote "NDN Cars." It was a song that I wrote when I was living on an iron range, teaching in a town called Hibbing, Minnesota. And so there you always become aware of native rights and you become aware of the metaphysical understanding of native rights that you write yourself out of a song so it doesn't become so much about yourself as a songwriter but it belongs to our listeners.

Keith Secola
And I think that for many songwriters, native songwriters, you could look at a criteria. A four tier criteria. Number one: Is the song entertaining? Does it make people dance and sing? Number two: Is it philosophical? Does the song have a philosophical meaning? Number three: Is it spiritual? Does it have a spiritual meaning? And number four: Is it metaphysical? Did you write that song about my mother's car? Or did you write that song about my car? Or did you write that song about Leonard Peltier, you know? And a song like “Innocent Man,” it's entertaining because all the minor chords and the different journey through the progression, it is like a journey. And then the spiritual connotations of it, you know, like he's singing in a lonely room, like there's something real when you peel off everything, then you just come to this man in a room, singing, singing to the Great Spirit. And that is itself spiritual and metaphysical in a sense that he's singing to the universe, the metaverse, the whole multiverse of human existence and life.

Keith Secola
So I became aware at a very young age as many singer songwriters do of our genre of I call it Native Americana genre. You become aware of our situations and, and certainly, you know, I always say you can't be an angry Indian, you know, like bang against the – people get mad at you; they don't listen to you. But I can't be a Disneyland Indian either where I think everything is alright. And so like you let people bang for you, too. You knock on a door hard and I'll come in there with a nice song and sing and soothe people. And so that's been my approach. I remember writing with activist-writer, Floyd Westerman in the eighties and nineties and things.

VO
Floyd Westerman was a Dakota Sioux musician, political activist, and actor.  Westerman collaborated with Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Belafonte, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, and Buffy Sainte-Marie, among others. 

He also played "Chief Ten Bears" in “Dances with Wolves”, Jim Morrison’s "shaman" in The Doors, and "Uncle Ray" on Walker, Texas Ranger. 

Keith Secola
Floyd would say, “Well, in the old days, we would just kick 'em on the shins with truth, you know, just kick him right in the shin with the truth.” And he says, “Keith, you're kind of like a Pied Piper. You make 'em follow you.” And my approach has always been this way, a metaphysical approach. I say we lead people gently to a brutal truth and let them discover it. And I think that's what's gonna have to happen for Leonard. A lot of people are gonna have to come to this metaphysical understanding of what it is and why he is and what he's in jail for.

Rory
So I imagine you've played at a lot of different activist benefits over the years. What are some of your memories of some of the good times you’ve had?

Keith Secola
Well, you know, I guess you could say good times, because I remembered doing shows with Dennis Banks and all the people in San Francisco and playing at the Fillmore and things like that with Floyd and Taj Mahal and people that had come to gather to sing for him. And it was an odd feeling at these events where we felt a sanctuary almost. Like we created this sanctuary. And part of Leonard's spirit, knowing him on the inside is giving us that medicine on the outside of a different kind of freedom. A sanctuary of freedom. A place where it's safe. It's safe to say that you're a Native American. You stand up for our sovereignty, our rights and things like that.

Keith Secola
And so I remember shows from the late eighties to the early nineties all the way up until, um, Dennis Banks passed away a few years ago and Floyd maybe ten years ago, and playing in San Francisco, and people speaking eloquently about native rights and about the Peltier case. And it just seems like he should be free. He should be out right now enjoying the breeze by a lake in Northern Minnesota or where he’s from. We don't have to be afraid of Leonard being out. He's an elder. He needs to pray. He needs to be home.

Rory
All this activism that's been bubbling up – do you think that will, you know, get Leonard over the line here, or what are your feelings?

Keith Secola
Well, I think people like yourself with the hearts that you're pouring it out. You've been there. I seen you guys in South Dakota a few months ago when we did an AIM rally up there for Leonard, and, and native rights. I seen you guys up there listening. I seen all the native activism listening again. I was just in Albuquerque for the Gathering of Nations. And even though it's an entertainment gathering there are a lot of native people singing for our rights and not forgetting that we're only free as our brother is.

Keith Secola
And so I, I, I really do. I really feel like there's something that's more this time. That maybe it'll permeate more to convince more Americans that this tragedy is all of ours to share in. And it's also for us to make good with native histories and things like that. So I do feel there is an optimism. I feel like there is a consciousness now, even in spite of all the anti consciousness that's around. The consciousness is bigger than ever it was before. There's more people. There's less threat. There's more love. And I think that's what is a tide shifter is when love gets in our bolt. And love gets on our side. And I think that's gonna change the tide is the love for a fellow human being.

Rory
I also was just looking at your music, um, you know, recently, and I'd seen that Halluci Nation did a remix on your “NDN Kars.” That's pretty cool, huh?

Keith Secola
Yes. It was a nice thing. And the nicest thing is when you get royalty checks from these things, um, where, where you're acting sovereign, and you are sovereign. ‘Cuz it's important to me, not, not just to be a musician, but to be in the music business. You know, it's important for us natives to become better songwriters, better producers, better musicians. To understand the music business. To understand publishing. And that's where you allow other artists to cover your stuff. You publish it with ASCAP. I'm an ASCAP writer, songwriter. I publish my own music. I've made my own sovereignty that way of releasing my own music under my own label. And after all these years, I know how to do it. 

Keith Secola
I got this record company called Aquina Music. It's a Native American production cooperative, and we're gonna have our first release other than myself, a band called December Wind. Um, the album's called Hoka. And a couple of Iroquois songwriters from the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. And so you become sovereign and you know the business, so when Halluci Nation says, “We wanna cover your song, Keith.” I say, “Yes, I can publish it for you guys.” And it follows the line of the music business. And it's important for native artists to become good business people, too.

Rory
That's exciting about your label there. Good work, man. That's, that's a lot of work, but cool–

Keith Secola
It's a lot more than I thought it was gonna be. [Laughs] 

Keith Secola
I'm gonna play this little song for Leonard and the podcast. We'll play the acoustic version of “NDN Cars” with the electric. The 49. One, two, three, four.

[GUITAR PICKING]

Keith Secola
I call that electric 49 finger picking.

[NDN KARS SONG]

Keith Secola
Here's for you brother. (singing) I've been riding in my Indian car, the pound of the wheel in my brain. My dash is dusty. My plates are expired. Please, Mr. Officer, let me explain. I got to make it to a pow wow tonight. Singing 49 down by the riverside, looking for a sugar, riding in my Indian Car. Got my T-bird on a dashboard. Ain't got no spare. A feather from an eagle – I ain't got no care. Got a sticker; it says, “Free Leonard Peltier.” I stuck it on my bumper. It holds my car together. We're on a circuit of an Indian dream. We don't get old. We just get younger when we're flying down the highway riding in our Indian cars. In case, you didn't hear that one. I got a sticker says, “Free Leonard Peltier.” I'll be singing 49 down by the riverside. Free Leonard. Free Leonard. Free Leonard. [Chanting] Free Leonard Peltier! 

Andrew
That was brilliant. That was incredible.

Rory
Thanks, man. That was fun.

Keith Secola
And, you know, I would definitely come back, and I know you guys have a lot of legal minds that you really talk about, and, and you can share that aspect of this struggle. And so that's why I never, I didn't really get into the whole legal things, but just as a younger brother, you know, singing for his older brother, who's incarcerated. And I would go there and sing for him in his prison cell too. And I'd go through the United States and sing for the president too. And I would go anywhere to sing. And I would bring a message of love and hope.

NEWS AND NOTES

In the summer of 2022, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered ex-Black Panther, Sundiata Acoli, freed after 49 years behind bars.

Acoli, who is suffering from dementia, was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper back in 1973 and had been denied parole eight times because of the fear that he was a risk to reoffend.

However, the state’s top court declared the board’s parole denial “so wide of the mark and manifestly mistaken” that the court had to intervene to ensure the “interests of justice.”

With Acoli out, that may make Leonard Peltier officially the longest actively serving political prisoner in the United States, a distinction we hope President Biden will curtail as soon as possible.

CREDITS   

This podcast is produced, written, and edited on Tongva land by Rory-Owen Delaney and Andrew Fuller. 

Kevin McKiernan serves as our consulting producer. 

Thanks to Bobby Halvorson for the original music we’re using throughout this series. And thanks to Mike Cassintini at the Network Studios for his engineering assistance, and to Peter Lauridsen and Sycamore Sound for their audio mixing. 

Special thanks to Keith Secola for sharing his time and music with us. And thanks, most of all, to Leonard Peltier. To get involved and help Leonard, go to whoisleonardpeltier.info or find us on social media @leonard_pod on Twitter and Instagram, or facebook.com/leonardpodcast.

This podcast is a production of Man Bites Dog Films LLC. Free Leonard Peltier!