- Hello, my relatives.

(Lakhota language) Hello, my relatives in English.

My name is Thomas Draskovic.

In Lakhota, I'm called Brave Hawk.

♪ I was born Portland town ♪ ♪ I was born Portland town ♪ I'm an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Nation (foreign language) I am a full-time educator, and teach my Lakhota language and culture.

I'm also a lead singer and songwriter for a band called Pretendians which is an all native rock band based in Minneapolis.

I'm also an actor, artist and activist.

Yeah.

You're the only person that I've actually let touch my hair besides my wife.

- That's what my mom said.

- Yeah, we as part of our tradition is, part of our hair culture is you only let very select few people work with your hair.

So that's part of why I felt comfortable going to you since I'm so close to your mom.

I kind of feel like you're almost like a niece.

- Yeah.

- And then also a lot of that, like hair teaching too, I think about when I talk to my students, cause a lot of them come from cultures where men don't have long hair.

And so they're always like, "Oh, you look like a girl, or you have hair like a girl."

And I'm like, "No, I have Warrior hair."

You know, cause in our culture we gain strength from our hair and we'd only really cut it really short in times of loss and in times of great grief.

To show kind of the suffering that you're going through and the kind of how weak that you feel at that point.

My sophomore year of college, I went back to the reservation I lived in with my mom over on Standing Rock and worked housing.

And one of our rituals in the morning is doing this.

I would sit at the table and eat my breakfast and it was still dark out and she would still come out and braid my hair every morning - And she can speak love and prayer into each braid.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

And so it's nice to feel that attention and that love cause a lot of times you kind of put yourself away from that when you're trying to make money or trying to make your way in the world and trying to establish yourself in any type of way.

You kind of sometimes disconnect from that and it's nice to be pulled back to your roots and to be pulled back to what really means something to you.

That connection.

- You've got a show?

- Yeah.

Today we have a show at Lake Harriet or (Lakota language) "The Other Lake" and it's part of an ongoing winter kind of show carnival type thing.

And so we'll be playing on Lake Harriet.

It makes sense that we're gonna be on one of our ancestral lakes in our ancestral land (Lakhota language) that we get to actually debut a new song that talks about the importance of water to our life.

(hair dryer noises) - [Female Voice] Beautiful.

Thank you so much.

- [Hairdresser] All right.

You are good to go.

- Excellent.

Thank you.

- [Hairdresser] Those luscious curls.

- Yes.

This is actually beaded by one of my former students Naomi Bergland and I'm very proud of this fact is that I started to teach her when she was in fourth grade.

They created this for us because part of why we're called Pretendians is that we're trying to craft a different narrative around what it means to be an indigenous person and what it means to be an outwardly spoken indigenous person that speaks from a a current cultural lens rather than always something from the past.

And so, to be able to make sure that you connect yourself to your indigenous teachings and your cultural teachings but to also provide that as a space to move forward and to be progressive in how we present ourselves.

This piece here is actually from my principal at school Dr. Brown, who's Ojibwe.

And he's also a graphic artist.

And if you really understand what this symbolizes, it symbolizes that we've been here before America was even a concept as a country.

And to understand that we're still here long after it's either gonna be progressing forward or not but we're always gonna be a part of that.

And we always have been a part of that.

And I think I love what that represents.

(upbeat music) - No.

- Oh that's theirs?

- They said there was a problem yesterday with the other bands.

- Yeah.

- They were missing a mic stand and a mic.

So I had Jill bring a mic stand and a mic and a cable and stuff.

- Lake Harriet.

(loud rock music) ♪ Can you see me because I am pushing through ♪ ♪ Can you hear me now I am talking to you ♪ Our genre that we play in, with rock and kind of punk influence is a lot of that is kind of breaking down barriers.

But punk is very raw, very visceral.

About being the most based part of who you are and to be open to that and to let that just flow out.

And so for us culturally, it produces a space for me to be really really true about what I believe and what I stand for.

(loud punk music) ♪ Can you take me because I am here to stay ♪ ♪ Will you embrace me or push me away?

So ♪ ♪ To make it here you have to earn your keep ♪ ♪ To make it here you have to cut your teeth ♪ ♪ What's your name ♪ ♪ What'd you say ♪ ♪ Sounds the same ♪ ♪ As the rest to me ♪ - Well, we're here at Stone Arch Bridge, right above the Mississippi River because in (Lakhota language) Minnesota is a birthplace of the Lakhota people.

I like to kind of think about that when I walk through this area.

How many generations of my people lived right in this area that we're at today and how many generations have actually just passed on their knowledge?

To remind myself that (Lakhota language) water is life.

- [Thomas's Mom] Hello?

- Hello mom, how are you doing?

- (Lakhota language) - Yeah.

We're on (Lakhota language) We're on the Mississippi River right now.

You're a huge source of inspiration and strength for me.

So I wanted to make sure that you're a part of this too, because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.

- [Thomas's Mom] Oh, right.

- So I hope I make you proud and hope when you see this, it'll bring a smile to your face - [Thomas's Mom] I am proud of you, Tom, for all the stuff you doing.

Very proud of you.

- Thank you.

(Lakhota language) All right, I'll talk to you soon.