[Ed introduces himself in his native language] My name is Ed Kabotie, and you're listening to Playlist 48 on Arizona PBS, oh oh oh!

[Music] What does it mean to acknowledge a land that's been raped and plundered by the greed of man what do you mean when you speak our name while still you occupy the lies that your fathers claimed why remind us that your cities and towns were built on places we call hallowed ground remember the people acknowledge the land acknowledge the blood that stains our hearts and hands 50 million women, children and men sacrificed to buy you your religious freedom destroy our lives, strip away our pride send us out of sight, out of mind to die Another butcher in the lands of our reservation to build their instruments of devastation remember the people, acknowledge the land, acknowledge the blood that stains our hearts and hands your American Dream was never what it seemed We can try but we can never deny the racist roots of this country but this land was never yours or mine we've been gifted to live in this space and time the one who made all things can bring both endings as well as new beginnings Rend your heart see through the veil of lies, re-learn to live within the circle of life and then remember the people acknowledge the land acknowledge the blood that stains our hearts and hands your words never seem to me to comprehend the atrocity words will never be a way to heal the guilt of this country your American dream was never what it seemed sacrilegious manifested blasphemous disastrous destiny The first song that I played is called Land Acknowledgment, and the song is written as a reaction to this new kind of movement that we have of giving land acknowledgments.

When I hear them I'm often not sure how to react to it.

You know, as an Indigenous person, you know, you're you're living on the lands of your ancestors that goes back not hundreds of years but millennia To look at the history of this country and then being given a land acknowledgment, it seems like there's a great chasm of understanding our experience with those words My band is called Tha Yoties because we're howling Bob Marley and the Wailers was actually Bob Marley and the Wailing Wailers because they're howling, they're crying out for their people.

Same situation.

You know, we're howling about 500 open pit uranium mines that still exist from the Cold War on Navajo Nation.

We're howling about the fact that in the world's largest strip mining operation that was on the joint use lands of Navajo and Hopi here in the state of Arizona, the world's largest strip mining, 45 billion gallons of water was sucked up from underneath our feet so that big cities like this and the excesses of the Las Vegas strip could be powered up yet our people many of them even today don't have running water or electricity in their homes, and if you do have running water in your home in Hopi, you still have to haul water because of the arsenic contamination that's in the water.

The only operating uranium mine in the state of Arizona that continues to operate is the Grand Canyon Mine aka the Pinyon Plain Mine it only threatens the water systems of one group of people and that's the Havasupai nation that were kicked out of the Grand Canyon in 1918 so that we could have a national park in 1919.

We're howling you know for these situations and the purpose of the tour was to carry this message to a larger audience.

Do we recognize how recent this history is and do we recognize that it's not in only in our past, it's our heritage and it's our present and it needs to change, you know, we need to take a very heartfelt look at who we are, what we are in this country, we need to face it with mourning and with hope, you know, but first we need to take a really hard strong look at it.

That's what the song's about.

She's got a smile of sweet soft glowing and a touch of loving care She got a wisdom and a knowing and a long dark flowing hair yeah her eyes dance with laughter, her voice is a seasoned song my heart around her beats faster and I'm longing, longing for your love, sunflower girl I'm longing for your love, sunflower girl The sweet sensation of her nation, she walks in beauty every day yes she heals me when I'm breaking and whispers grace in her sweet way I can't escape a disaster in my life without her love I'll follow her ever after until I make my way to the stars above she's my sunflower girl I'm longing for your love, sunflower girl She's got a smile of sweet soft glowing and a touch of loving care She got a wisdom and a knowing and a long dark flowing hair yeah her eyes dance with laughter, her voice is a seasoned song my heart around her beats faster and I'm longing, longing for your love, sunflower girl I'm longing for your love, sunflower girl I'm longing for your love, sunflower girl, sunflower girl, yeah yeah you know I love you, you know I need you I really love you baby yes sunflower girl you know I love you, you know I need you, I really love you baby