History

Tha Tribe is n newly formed Northern style drum group hailing out of Lawrence, Kansas. This group is very unique in many ways. The origin of Tha Tribe is unique in itself. It all started in January 1997 when a bunch of young college students, from different parts of Indian Country, enrolled at Haskell Indian Nations Universtiy. These individuals just sort of clicked together with one basic common interest............Pow-Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon after, they decided just to get together for a jam session to pass the time. After that first song was cracked out, each and every person's face just lit up with excitement for they knew that something extravagant was in the making. It was only a few weeks until these individuals started traveling together, as a group, to pow-wows. During the midst of this beginning, two of the founding members started composing songs left and right for this group.

The first original members of Tha Tribe are: Lead Singer-Wayne Silas Jr.-John Teller Jr.-Adrian Harjo-Hepi Crowfeather-Nasaca Hale-Chris Plumage-Eddie Padilla-Jeremy Shields-Jon Grant-Shannon Ross-Jason Crow-Philip"FBI"Daw-Terrie Brockie. Later on that fall season, Tha Tribe added their second lead singer-Kenneth Coriz to the roster, along with Robert Dess, Gabe Cleveland, and Jancita Warrington. As time passed new members joined up and made great contributions to Tha Tribe such as language and songs. Some of these individuals include: Wambli Williams, Jimmy Peters, Zahay Grant, Ruben Littlehead, Lakota Clairmont, Emery Jay Pewaush, Roland Barker, Ronnie Preston, Hardin Dovel, Nathan Coriz, Paulie Molina, Pete KingIII, Sateko Danforth, Rusty Diamond, Verlin Johnson, and Mike King.

Another distinctive feature about Tha Tribe is the tribal diversity within the group. Native American Indian Nations are represented within this group from all of the four sacred directions of Indian Country. This allows them to possess capabilities of composing and singing songs in many various Native languages. This key factor is probably what makes this group of young singers so popular. The nations represented by members of Tha Tribe include: Menominee, Oneida, Pueblo, Navajo, Blackfeet, Ojibway, Sioux, Ho-Chunk, Cherokee, Sac&Fox, Cheyenne, Apache, Crow, Potowatomie, and Kickapoo.

Tha Tribe has made many great accomplishments and strive to continue on this path for many years to come. They have completed three professional recordings with Canyon Records and and contributed on three compilations recordings as well with Soar Records entitled Gathering of Nations 1998, 1999, and 2000. The three recordings with Canyon Records are titled T2K, Live from Tornado Alley, and their latest one set for release in Summer 200l called In Action. Just recently, they were awared with a Grammy for the Best Native American Album along with several other groups for their contribution to the compilation recording previously listed entitled Gathering of Nations.

Over the years, this group has grown together into something exciting, not only for the surrounding Indian community of Lawrence, Kansas..............but for Indian communities all over this continent. Tha Tribe has been invited to sing for many Indian communities across the U.S. and Canada, serving as Host and Invited Drum, and they are always extremely content to do so. So be on the lookout for this fine group of very talented youg singers to be "Rockin'tha House" at a pow-wow near you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!