Most Americans couldn't name a single thing South Dakota's famous for, let alone finger the state on a map. The short hotlist for the average easy rider includes Mt. Rushmore, the annual Harley Davidson Rally at Sturgis and Wall Drug. Nary a tourist seems to care where Indigenous played their first club gig -- for now, that is. |

The group -- composed of siblings Mato Nanji (guitar, vocals), Ptcecha (bass) and Wanbdi (drums), and their cousin, Horse (percussion) -- hails from South Dakota's Nakota Nation and is currently the only Native American blues rock group on the scene. And though their race and family ties make for good copy, they're on the defensive about stressing rock over roots.

"We don't like to commercialize or record [traditional Indian] music," says lead singer and songwriter Mato on the phone during the group's first West Coast tour. "It's sacred to us and that's where we'd like to keep it, but it does come through in everything we do."

Everything they do -- some of which is explained on The Things We Do, the band's debut album on upstart record label Pachyderm -- is hammer out traditional blues rock, the kind Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix let drip from their guitars. It's the type of music that Mato's father, Greg Zephier, who played in a band called the Vanishing Americans more than twenty-five years ago, had his kids listen to while he taught them the basics. Over the years, Zephier would allow his children -- who were raised with traditional Native American values -- to practice their respective instruments, but kept them isolated from the discerning public until he felt their prowess was worthy of an audience.

"Our first show was back home at a bingo hall, which is now a casino," Mato says. "It was mostly in front of friends and family. It was scary, but it was OK." Since then, Indigenous have worked to distinguish themselves in other ways. Having criss-crossed the U.S. more than 300 times in the last two years, the quartet has attracted big-name fans to their shows, including Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and the Indigo Girls.

They've got the star-studded fanbase, a fresh look, a retro sound and even the timeless rock jargon down pat. "I think we'll keep on doing what we're doing no matter what," Mato says. "It's something we've always wanted to do. We just want to keep on making music."

ARI BENDERSKY(December 10, 1998)