Welcome to Indian Country
Oyate (Oh-Yah-Tay) means "the people" in Lakota
For the past 30 years, producer Milt Lee, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, has been recording the voices and music of America's first nations. Our goal is to make many of the interviews and all of the programs available here as downloads. We will begin with one "free" download a month.
In 2010 Many Kites brought the Native American collection under its colorful umbrella. This area of the website contains the many voices of Indian country. The star collection here is Oyate Ta
Olowan--The Songs of the People, which was originally a 52-part public radio documentry series that played all over the world. There are also many other hour-long documentaries available plus short video clips (RealRez) and films (Video Letters from Prison).
About Oyate
The landmark documentary programs are still available on CD and will soon be made available (one by one) as downloads. Each CD contains not just the 30 minute original program but all of the featured songs uninterrupted on additonal tracks. You will hear bird songs, ceremony songs, songs of love and songs of death. You will hear what the land itself sounds like in the far reaches of the north from Canda, to the southern climes of Mexico, to the balmy Hawaian Islands.
Do yourself a favor. Spend time with this beautiful and uplifting view into America's first peoples. Sign up for our newsletter to recieve a monthly offer of a free download. We are so sure that you will love this series that you will want more and more of what the people have to say.
Click here to preview the many tribes of the Oyate family.
The Oyate series was produced by Milt Lee and written by Jamie Lee with major funding from The Corporation of Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Together the Lees visited the homelands of over 50 tribes to gather and collect their stories and songs. The series took five years to complete and led the Lees over 110,000 miles into Indian Country.
Committed to Preserving Native Cultures
Since beginning the Oyate series, many of our original authors have passed on. We feel that recording this voices is not just a nice goal but an essential goal. When the Elders pass on, they take with them valuable bits and pieces of cultures that once spread all over the north American continent. We hold them dear and mourn each one who is no longer with us.