Family history-wise, my
Dad was a half-breed - half English and half Cheyenne River Sioux.
My grandfather, Matthew Bowker, was an Englishman and my grandmother was
a full-blood Sioux. On my mother's side, I am almost half Cherokee,
she being a 7/8 Cherokee from Oklahoma. She was born and raised
in Oklahoma and met dad at Haskell Institue in Lawrence, KS, which is an
all-Indian school, what we would call a junior college. Most Indians
going to high school or junior college in those days went to similar schools
throughout the country. Mom's maiden name was Raven, Gatsey Raven.
Her father was John L. Raven and her mother was Nancy Welch. Grandpa
Raven was a full-blood Cherokee and Grandma Raven was 3/4 Cherokee, thus
Mom was 7/8 Cherokee. I am not sure what constituted the other 1/4 of
Grandma Raven's heritage, but I do know it was "white" blood - Scotch, Irish
- who knows?!!
Grandma Raven died in childbirth
when mother was less than two years old. Grandpa Raven re-married and
had 5 other children, all full-blood Cherokees. Mom had an older brother
and an older sister.
I am 11/16 Indian, 1/4
Sioux and 7/16 Cherokee. You do the math.
I am an enrolled member
of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota with headquarters in Eagle
Butte, SD. It is called the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe because the
Cheyenne River is the southern border of the reservation. Many people
sometimes confuse me as being a "Cheyenne Indian" because of the name of
the Reservation, but the Cheyennes are a completely different tribe from
the Sioux. They are a good people, though, the Cheyenne.
I was raised on the Cheyenne
River Sioux Reservation, graduated High School from Gettysburg, SD, which
is off-reservation, attended college at the University of Vermont my freshman
year, and graduated college from Northern State College (now University)
in Aberdeen, SD.
I loved music as a child.
I took piano lessons for what seemed like forever and hated every minute
of it. I never did learn that much as I cheated everytime I could.
I had a good ear, so I could bluff my way through just about anything.
I picked things up, but didn't really learn the basic stuff. I switched
to the guitar in high school and that's when things started for me.