Native Music's Big Night! 20 Photos from 15th Annual NAMA Awards Ceremony

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On November 14, the Native American Music Awards ceremony was held at the Seneca Allegany Events Center in Salamanca, New York. Hosted by Janice Marie Johnson (of A Taste of Honey fame), the show featured performances by many nominees and winners, including Dark Water Rising, Indigenous, Sihasin, and Lifetime Achievement honoree Jim Boyd. The proceedings were filmed and will be broadcast on FNX on Thanksgiving Day, via the Public Television Satellite System. Music lovers are advised to visit the FNX Big Things web page for more information on how to get it carried on a PBS station they receive.

For more information on the awards, and to hear music by the nominees and winners, visit nativeamericanmusicawards.com.

Here's a list of the winners of the 15th Annual Native American Music Awards

Artist of the Year
Mato Nanji
Vanishing Americans

Best Blues Recording
Vanishing Americans
Indigenous featuring Mato Nanji

Best Compilation Recording
Don’t Let Me Forget
Kelly Montijo Fink

Best Country Recording
Woman Of Red
Tracy Bone

Debut Artist of the Year
Leah Shenandoah
Spektra

Debut Group of the Year
Sihasin
Never Surrender

Best Female Artist
Rita Coolidge
A Rita Coolidge Christmas

Best Folk Recording
Keeper of the Dreams
Red Feather Woman

Flutist of the Year
Rona Yellowrobe
The Gathering

Best Inspirational Recording
Grace & Grit: Chapter I
Dark Water Rising

Group of the Year
Plenty Wolf Singers
Medicine Wolf

Best Historical/Linguistic Recording
Heart of the Buffalo
Richard Stepp & Rick McKee

Best Instrumental Recording
The Long Journey Home
Ryan Little Eagle Molina

Best Male Artist
Jimmy Wolf
A Tribute To Little Johnny Taylor

Best Native American Church Recording
Apache Peyote Songs
Joe Tohonnie Jr

Best New Age Recording
Bridge
Rushingwind & Mucklow

Best Pop Recording
Day After Day
Jamie Coon

Best Pow Wow Recording
Stoic
Tha Tribe

Best Producer
Kevin Chief
Honoring The Mazinikijik Singers

Best Rap Hip Hop Recording
One Tribe One Nation
The Council

Record of the Year
Romanze Songs of Tosti
Lawrence Harris

Best Rock Recording
Two Sons
The Ollivanders

Song of the Year
Witchi Tai-To – Water Spirits
Shadowyze, Caren Knight Pepper and Jim Pepper

Songwriter of the Year
Theresa "Bear" Fox
Diamond

Best Spoken Word Recording
Grandfather Speaks
Ken Quiet Hawk

Best Traditional Recording
Spirit of Thunderheart
Rising

Best Music Video
"Sisters (ft Northern Voice)"
A Tribe Called Red

Best Waila Recording
In Loving Memory of Our Beloved Father & Uncle
Family Pride

Best World Music Recording
Nature Dance
Joanne Shenandoah

Native Heart
Lex Nichols
The Long Road

Lifetime Achievement
Jim Boyd

Rising Star
Garreth Laffely