Aedan Nolan let's start with what you said earlier about the languages, because I didn't know their names. I didn't know they had names, I'll be honest. So tell me about those one more time. Sandy Korba Okay. Where are we starting at? The languages are being taught, specifically the medicine songs in each language. And the most language used, I would say, is Lakota. But there is Lakota, and Hopi, and Navajo. There's many, many more, but these are the major. Okay, Navajo-Dine, and Apache, and Cherokee, And the Cherokee is Eastern and Western. There's 2 dialects there. And then that's just a few. But I use those because most of the ceremony that is done is done with those languages and it is done with those songs. Okay, they are called medicine songs. And They are sung, there are specific songs sung for the sun dance when they dance around the tree for four days in prayer, which shows you that everything that natives does do is spiritual. Because when they dance around the tree for sun dance ceremony, they are dancing and praying for the people, all the people. And they do that for four days, three nights, four days and four nights, something like that, around the tree. And that tree, I think, is a, what is that tree? Now like a poplar. I think that's a poplar tree that they use. But anyway, and then the other ceremony that is mainly used is the sweat lodge. And the sweat lodge also is very much a Lakota ceremony, even though many of the other tribes have used that ceremony. Most of the time, it is recognized as a Lakota ceremony. And all of the songs that are sung and drummed, the drum is used in these ceremonies, are mostly Lakota. Now, the sweat lodge that I did, I am Cherokee Choctaw. So because I was gifted the prayer pipe by the Lakota people, I recognize the Lakota Nation and their medicine. So I incorporate Lakota medicine and Cherokee medicine in the songs that I sing in my sweat lodge. So I honor both people in my sweat lodge. But in a regular sweat lodge, most of the time, they're all Lakota songs. Although I do know a Navajo Dene person who has incorporated some Cherokee songs in his sweat lodge. And his name is Tamo. So we were talking about the drums. So first, the difference between the powwow drum and the hand drum. The powwow drum is a very large drum that is used at powwows, and there are many drummers who sit at the drum and sing sacred songs, and only they know those songs. I don't, and I guess they teach, they mentor some and teach them those songs. The hand drum that we're talking about is a handheld drum, and this can be covered with many different types of rawhide. It can be deer, it can be goat, it can be buffalo, but the top is covered with rawhide and tightened tightly. And on the back, if you look at an authentic native drum, you will find that all sacred four directions are honored the way that it is tied. When you talk to your grandma Sue, she can get more into that because she makes these drums. I've never attempted to make a drum, but she has made them before and they're wonderful and they're beautiful. And so she can teach you maybe a little bit more about that. But the way that it is tied and stretched over the face of the wood is honoring all four directions in the way that it's tied. Aedan Nolan Yeah. What are those four directions, by the way, if I might ask? Sandy Korba It's north-south, it goes north, east, south, and west. And they are symbolic. Those directions are symbolic of your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical self. We have 4 aspects of self, and each direction is symbolic of those aspects of self. They also symbolize everything that is in the world, everything. There are 36 stones in a medicine wheel, and those are the directions that we're talking about. And that's why the four sacred directions are honored when you build a drum, because that is going to be a medicine tool. When you beat that drum, it is the heartbeat of Mother Earth, and the songs that you sing while you're beating the drum are all prayers. Everyone is prayers. and you sing every verse four times to honor the four directions. So everything revolves around the medicine wheel because all of these tools are our medicine. And I am a medicine woman and I have been taught these ways of my people. Aedan Nolan That's why we love you, Grandma. Sandy Korba And that's why I love you guys. You are native. You are all native to me. Aedan Nolan I don't look it. Sandy Korba Yeah, you look it more than you think you do. Aedan Nolan I guess I wouldn't know. One of the main points I'll reiterate was spirituality, because I understand that drums have a very important part of both native culture and their spirituality. And they also have a very unique, a unique way of expressing their spirituality. Their beliefs are very, very unique. And I'd love to explore like how they, what's the word, how they are used in expressing their spirituality and why, you might not know this one, why the drum specifically was chosen for this form of expression. Sandy Korba The drum was chosen because it is symbolic of the heartbeat of Mother Earth. It's truly that simple. It is the heartbeat of Mother Earth. And when we drum, those are prayers going up. When we smoke the prayer pipe, those are our prayers going up. When we sing, those are our prayers going up. All of those things are prayers going to Creator. And we honor all things. That's why there's 36 stones in the medicine wheel. Those 36 stones honor any and everything in our world. And that means in the Earth Walk, it honors everything above us in the Sky Nation. It honors everything below us, which is Mother Earth. It honors everything and all directions, everything within us, because Creator is literally within us and with us. And we believe spiritually that each direction on the medicine wheel is symbolic of our mental self, of our spiritual self, of our physical self, and our emotional self. And we wholeheartedly believe in the songs and the prayers, and that they do get answered. We can't be certain of how Creator will answer them, but He hears our heart. We recognize that. And every single thing around us, the standing people, are the trees. And then we have the air, the breath that we breathe. And then water is life. So water is absolutely important. The fire is also important. We always have this Cherokee, have a sacred fire that goes all year long that burns in the east. And that's where the sacred fire lives. And they rekindle it at wintertime, and then they come back and rekindle it again in the at summertime or at spring at each equinox. And what they do is they distinguish it, extinguish it, and save the ashes. And they use those ashes to start the next sacred fire. When you do a sweat lodge, you have to build a sacred fire. So earth, air, fire, water, all is directly connected to all of our medicine and all of our medicine songs. Aedan Nolan I like that. By the way, I thought you should say that. Sandy Korba Absolutely. Aedan Nolan I was going to ask you about the cultural identity, the cultural identity about native songwriting, the tribal connection between each tribe and how they share and the craftsmanship, but you kind of already did that before I asked those questions. So I'm going to go ahead and skip to the last part. And this one is, I want to say the least important, but it is to my understanding that each drum is handmade and each handmade drum has various symbols and methods of construction that make it unique to a specific individual, like not just designed in a way to express a certain spirituality. Like, I don't know, if there are drums that are designed to express certain prayers better or worse than others. I don't know if that's a thing. Sandy Korba No, that would not be a thing. What is, they are designed to have a different vibration, and sound. If you purchase a small drum, those are harder to be made and they don't have a deep voice. So that would be maybe a 10 inch or a 12 inch drum. A beautiful voice is more of a 16 or 18 inch drum. That's just a beautiful sounding drum. The larger drums, which are like 24 inches, there are drums that large. They're very deep in their voice. And so they're not one of my favorites. I do like the middle of the road size. But authentic native drums are all handmade. Yes, sir, you are correct in that. They are all handmade. I'm sure there's some places for sale factor or whatever that are made by automated or whatever. And those are pretty evident that they're not authentic. Aedan Nolan I could never imagine someone playing a song with a robot made. It takes away from a lot of the connection, I think. Sandy Korba Absolutely, you are so correct in that there's no connection at all. You would have to bless that drum. In fact, anytime you receive a drum, you have to make a connection with it. And the way that you do that is you drums need to be respected. So you never turn them upside down ever. They always are face up. These are the rules with drums. And when you get a drum, you pray with it, you take tobacco and you rub the tobacco and say prayers with your drum with that tobacco on the face of the drum any drum that you or your grand your other grandmother or your mother your father we've all prayed with our drums and gone through this ritual so those drums become theirs and when you do that It's magical because it's like the drum knows that it's you, and that's my drum. I have a drum that I've had for years, and I've played other drums, but I always go back to that one because that is my drum. And it sings for me, and I sing with it, and I know medicine comes out of that drum. Your cousin, Sydney, has a drum. And that used to be your grandfather's drum, John's drum. And the only one who can play it and make it work is your cousin Sydney. She has prayed with that drum and she has taken it on as her own. So she is using the medicine that John used. with that drum. And so now she is making more medicine with that same drum and it will sing for her. It sounds beautiful. But if I pick her drum up and I beat that drum, it will make the sourest sound you've ever heard. It just, it drums flat. It makes a flat noise. And, but when she drums it, it's beautiful. And so that's how utilizing that drum for medicine works. Does that make sense for you? Does that answer your question? Aedan Nolan Of course. Sandy Korba Okay. Cause I go rogue every once in a while when I start talking about the medicine. So sometimes. Aedan Nolan I would want you to. Sandy Korba So, but that is, I mean, it's so, there's nothing about the drum except that it's beautiful and it's full of medicine. and it sends up prayers when it's played by the right person with the right intention. The drum makes magic. Aedan Nolan You know why I find this kind of beautiful in a sense. Sandy Korba I'd love to know. Aedan Nolan It sounds like seasoning a cast iron pot. That's what it sounds like. Sandy Korba It's so very much like that. Aedan Nolan Because it sounds like it's played in whatever way it is to be played. And that changes the way, especially the person who plays it changes the way the drum sounds. And this evolves over time as more and more layers of healing become a part of the drum, that it plays a completely different song than when it was first made. And that sounds beautiful. Sandy Korba That sounds, yes, perfect explanation, Aidan. It's a beautiful explanation. And it's exactly what happens with the drum. And it is like an iron pan. Because you cook food in an iron pan that has not been seasoned, it won't be that good. But when you season that pan and you season that pan, that food gets better and better because of all the seasoning and the love that was put in that pan. I'll tell you what else is the same way, and that is the medicine bowls that they used to have. There's something called a medicine bowl, and the medicine people would grind up their herbs in a wooden medicine bowl, and they always kept it wrapped in red cloth. That bowl was not used for anything but working medicine. And so they would unwrap it and they would process their herbs or their medicine teas. That medicine back then was done through harvesting in the meadow and harvesting chamomile and lemon balm and all of these different herbs. And that medicine bowl was used. So over the years, that medicine bowl was considered sacred and it was passed down through all of through the grandmothers to other medicine people. And the younger people were taught how to work the medicine. I've worked very closely with you guys, specifically the girls, in teaching them how to make the medicine. It's really so very important. And the reason why I taught the girls is because it is through the female line, linen, of the grandmothers and the granddaughters that this is taught. And it's passed down through the females in the tribes. Aedan Nolan I find that interesting that the females pass this kind of thing down the line, but it's the males in some tribes that are the ones that are allowed to play. Sandy Korba That is interesting, isn't it? They are the only ones who are allowed to play in the Lakota tribe. Aedan Nolan Yes, sorry. Sandy Korba Okay. That only allows the women are given rattles. So that's part of their sacred music. And the men play the drums. So they have a part in that. And the dances are the same way. You know, if you pay attention to a powwow dance, you see the women have a certain step and they're the outside circle and the men are usually in the inside circle. And so, and that doesn't mean that men or women are better than the others. They recognize what their strengths are. And so the men were warriors. The men rode the horses, fought the battles. But did you know that the women, they didn't fight any battle without a woman telling them which one to fight? The women were always used. Their wisdom was always used. They were always honored and respected, and specifically their voice. And specifically with the Cherokee. The Cherokee truly honored All of the women were honored, but the Cherokee would never have a battle unless the grandmothers said, yes, it's time to fight. Isn't that amazing? Aedan Nolan That's interesting. Sandy Korba Yeah, so there was no one above or below the other. They all just recognized what their strengths were and held that sacred. Aedan Nolan Hmm. Sandy Korba It was a beautiful working mechanism back then. Any other questions? Aedan Nolan None relevant to this interview. I also want you to know in the last one minute and 30 seconds that we have left in this meeting that you are an incredibly valuable person, not just to me, but if you don't know, you have an oral tradition that isn't written down in any, many, if any places. at all. And I'm very glad that I could have this conversation with you. Even on or off record, it doesn't matter. This is the kind of thing that I really need to learn about. And that people need to learn about, because I think you and I both know that a lot of history for Native Americans have just been erased based on the people coming into the Americas, you know? Sandy Korba You are absolutely correct. They tried to erase us, Aiden. They tried to genocide us. They tried to get rid of us, poison us, kill us. And guess who still is here? Aedan Nolan Me. Sandy Korba We're still here. Blood flowing, red blood flowing. I am grateful that Creator saved our peoples. And I say our peoples because a lot of people think that if you speak in a native language that we're all saying the same language and we are not. It's all different languages, but we can't all come together and our hearts join.