Lakota hip-hop-artist Frank Waln raps about justice for Native American people and now the White House has joined the cause.
President Obama announced an initiative last week to promote opportunities for indigenous youth. The announcement accompanied the release of a federal report that outlines a "state of emergency" that Native youth face as the result of systemic poverty and centuries of suffering under European colonization.
Waln rapped about Native issues on his 2013 album AbOriginal. In the title track he says, "I've never seen a storm come with idle wind/ And so I'm Idle No More rap the plight of the poor/ Cuz educated warriors are vital to war."
When reached by phone after the announcement, Waln said, "I don't believe it's the only answer. But it's about time."
Waln, 25, had been in the nation's capital a few days earlier to screen the MTV series Rebel Music, in which he was featured for his art and environmental activism.
The plight of indigenous youth became the central theme of the Dec. 3 White House Tribal Nations Conference, where Obama spoke about visiting the Crow Nation in Montana while campaigning to become president, and his recent visit to the Lakota reservation at Standing Rock, N.D.
[For more of this story, written by Emilie Stigliani, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/...tive-obama/20208461/]
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