Tribal Blues

The Satwiwa Native American Indian Cultural Center, nestled on a serene and sacred spot at the foot of Boney Mountain in Newbury Park, might seem like the wrong venue for a blues concert.

But it makes perfect sense to Tracy Lee Nelson and his group, Native Blues Band, who will perform there Saturday in a free outdoor concert from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Looking to his roots, Nelson puts a Native American spin on the blues when he picks up his acoustic guitar and laments the plight of Indians, then and now.

“Blues is a natural outlet of expression for my people,” he says, noting that Native Americans have been oppressed for more than 500 years. “It’s part of our culture and survival skills to be singing, making music.”

And the Satwiwa center, located in the grassy, rolling hills of Chumash country, is “a cool place to kick back and jam,” Nelson said. “There’s not a lot around there.”

Built two years ago at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa Park, the center is open weekends for visitors to peruse Indian artifacts and learn how local Indians lived off the land and sea thousands of years ago.

Outside they can see a reproduction of an ap, an Indian shelter made from willow trunks and reeds that thrive around a nearby pond.

Every Sunday the center features a different Native American host, explaining or showing some aspect of Indian life--from beadwork to storytelling.

Miles of hiking trails surround the center, which is located in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

For an unusual kind of Valentine’s Day, visitors can make a day of it, hiking and picnicking before the Native Blues Band performs.

Nelson, whose roots are in the Diegueno and Luiseno tribes, is originally from La Jolla Reservation at the foot of Palomar Mountain, near Escondido. He is getting ready to move back there from his Studio City home.

“Music runs through my family,” said Nelson, 33, who was enthralled with it as a young boy.

The blues isn’t his only musical outlet. He still performs with the noted Indian drum group, the Whitecloud Singers, hitting the powwow circuit.

But his musical career has taken some sharp turns. During rebellious years, he played rock ‘n’ roll and punk rock with such bands as Johnny and the Dingbats and the Madd Vampires.

Influenced by B.B. King, he has performed with an assortment of others--John Trudell, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Charlie Hill and the all-Indian band, Redbone.

It wasn’t until a year ago that he found his niche, he says, and formed the Native Blues Band, which includes Ben Klein and Donald Durham on guitars and Ryan Romas on harmonica.

The theme of his music is clear and relentless: the exploitation of Native Americans. His album, released last year, is titled “500 Years of the Blues.”

One of the songs, “Natives No Respect,” is getting some play on Indian stations, he says. It lashes out at exploitation through insensitive names such as baseball’s Red Skins and Jeep’s Cherokee.

The idea for the song came to him when he was confronted by a panhandling homeless person outside a video store. When Nelson said he didn’t have any money, the man screamed, “Damn foreigner--go back to your own country.”

“They don’t think about what Indians feel,” Nelson said. “A lot think Indians are all dead. But we’re still here. We just don’t speak out that much.”

Another song, “Native American Holocaust,” mournfully points to the mass killing of Indians over the centuries. At a concert it brought tears to the eyes of a Jewish woman who hadn’t thought of the slaughter of Native Americans that way, he said.

Another, “You’re Stepping on My Blues,” bitterly laments the loss of Indian lands: “When you’re driving in your car, you’re driving on me.” A more upbeat song, “Poor Little Indian,” immortalizes the beat-up pickup truck.

Nelson says one of his aims in forming the group was to promote a more positive image of Native Americans.

“People look at Indians as drunks,” he says. “They have that reputation. I never drank, I never took drugs.”

He delivers this message to kids, hoping to convince them that not all rock musicians abuse drugs and alcohol.

He says he travels frequently to perform, always wearing his black, straight-brimmed hat. It’s a special hat, and he wears it only during concerts. The white band on it was beaded by his mother before she died, and he says it’s a way of bringing her to his music.

BE THERE

Blues concert--Tracy Lee Nelson’s Native Blues Band will perform Saturday, 1:30-3:30 p.m., at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa Park on Potrero Road near Pinehill Street, Newbury Park. For information, call the National Park Service, (818) 597-9192.