It took eight years for Tiana Spotted Thunder to release her second album. She’s a Lakota musician who grew up in Oglala South Dakota. Her album is called Meadowlark. It’s a tribute to her Native culture and her father. He passed away this summer from cancer. Spotted Thunder says her father had a special connection with birds. And so does she.
“I heard something rustling around on the ground. And so I knelt down and I look, and here it was a bird. So I picked it up. And I was holding it, touching it. It was really a surreal experience. It just made me feel overwhelmed, and so overcome with emotion, that I burst out in tears. I felt like I released a lot of that grief in that moment. I think it was a sign from my dad.”
Spotted Thunder says working on the album helped her process the grief over her father’s death. It also reminded her of the confidence and pride she has as an I Indigenous woman.
“We really need strong feminine energy right now. I feel like our women have been experiencing so much through the years. I felt like this is the epitome of expressing that pride.”
Meadowlark is now available to stream.
-Contact SDPB’s Megan Feighery by email.