Delbert Anderson (Diné), Music Director of Welcome to Indian Country, is enjoying a music career as one of today's most forward-thinking trumpet players in the US. Recording, touring, music educational workshops, composing/arranging and guest appearances keep Anderson busy not only in his hometown of Farmington, New Mexico but worldwide. Anderson has been featured on NPR Tiny Desk Concert Top 10, Smithsonian Magazine, Yahoo/Mic.com, TEDx, FNX Television and more.
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Nokosee Fields (Osage) was born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, studying orchestral violin at a young age. After years of learning and performing classical music, Nokosee turned his attention to traditional American music, performing, teaching and touring professionally. As a bassist, he tours with the Country band Western Centuries, as well as the old time band Steam Machine. As a teacher, he has taught at the Augusta Heritage Center, tutored at Centrum's festival of American fiddle tunes, and was the artist in residence for the Portland old time gathering. He's placed in numerous fiddle contests and most notably took first place in the 2019 clifftop fiddle competition.
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Mali Obomsawin '18 is a musician, activist and citizen of the Abenaki First Nation at Odanak. She is a bassist, songwriter, composer and singer, with an eclectic background in pop, free/avant-garde music and American roots styles. Obomsawin tours internationally with her indie-folk-rock band Lula Wiles (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), and gigs as a freelance bassist in New York City where she resides. As an Indigenous liberation activist and scholar, she has most recently published her work in Smithsonian Folklife Magazine and the Boston Globe. She received a BA in Government and Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College in 2018.
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Adam Benham is a professional drummer, percussionist, and educator residing in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Spokane, WashingtonA, he holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Adam has performed and recorded with notable musicians such as Dave Liebman, John Medeski, John Lockwood, Tisziji Muñoz, Don Pate, Bob Moses, Billy Hart, Jon Benitez, Frank Wess, Victor Goins, Ryan Keberle, Julia Keefe, Bernie Senensky and others. Adam is also a drummer in the United States Air Force Band of the West Coast.
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Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), Assistant Director for Welcome to Indian Country, grew up on the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho and graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with an MA in Music Jazz Vocals program in 2019 and from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music in 2011. Pre-pandemic she made her living as a New York City-based professional jazz singer in both recorded tunes and live performances. She blends a quirky sense of humor with jazz of the 40s and 50s, creating a jovial marmalade of smooth vocals and rapier wit! She has had the honor of opening for jazz legends such as Tony Bennett and Esperanza Spalding. Her life's work is the revival and honoring of the Coeur d'Alene jazz musician, and legend Mildred Bailey and is the leader of the campaign to induct her into the Jazz Hall of Fame.
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Rena Priest is a poet and an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation. She has been appointed to serve as Washington State's Poet Laureate for the term of April 2021-2023. She is also the recipient of the Vadon Foundation Fellowship (2020), and an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award (2020). She has attended residencies at Hedgebrook, Mineral School and Hawthornden Castle. Her debut collection Patriarchy Blues was published by MoonPath Press and received an American Book Award. Her second collection, Sublime Subliminal is available from Floating Bridge Press. Individual poems are featured at Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, Pontoon Poetry, A Dozen Nothing, and elsewhere. Priest has also published non-fiction pieces in High Country News, YES! Magazine, Seattle Met, Adventures NW and Nautilus. She is a National Geographic Explorer (2018-2020) and a Jack Straw Writer (2019). She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
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