by Kathryn Retzler

Zuni, New Mexico [Summer 2001]

"Native American performers have voiced their concerns to me. Our concerns are the same. So we [Knifewing Segura, a Chiricahua Apache and his wife Bev, a Navajo] found a way we can all work together. We started Native Stars as a way to speak to booking agencies, managers, to establish contacts, find venues."
 

Knifewing Segura

Operating out of their studio in Gallup, from their home in Zuni Pueblo (where they are raising his two sons) and from their website, www.nativestars.com, Knifewing and Bev have created a growing network that can book everything from traditional Fancy Dancers to contemporary bands. For groups without a stage or sound system, Native Stars can provide it. "We have a 30’ X 56’ stage, a DXL-enhanced curtain, we’re ready to roll out fully self-contained. We even have our own generator!" Knifewing says proudly.

The pride is well deserved. In six short months they have put Native Stars together and begun booking acts. Although the agency part is new, Knifewing’s musical and performance prowess is not. He began as a musician in a pickup garage group. After intervals exploring a variety of other avocations, Knifewing came back to music, this time as an on-stage professional, in the 1990s. Of that first musical experience, Knifewing says, "We did OK, but before long I moved on to other things."

Like martial arts (Knifewing rose to state champion in kickboxing and for a while had his own dojo. And law enforcement. (He served as a Native American policeman in Zuni, then a patrol officer in Gallup and eventually worked in federal law enforcement.) Nourishing his creative side, he also became a partner and jeweler in the well-known Ray Tracey-Knifewing Jewelers business. He even tried a stint as an actor, making a few movies. But eventually, Knifewing came full circle, back to music, and music became his main interest.

It happened more by accident than design. "We were going to a trade show in Arlington, Texas with our jewelry," he explains, "when the opportunity came up to perform. I did a voice audition over the telephone—after staying up all night to write two songs, ‘Indian and Eagle’ and ‘Warrior of the Past.’ The next thing I knew, I was on stage, performing my own music. I was sweating bullets. It wasn’t like performing with a teen group. Then I realized people were clapping. The response was overwhelming." He laughs. "Still, when it was over, I just wanted to duck out the back way and go home."

He went home, but before long he was back, with a bigger band, better stage sets, more new original music. "That’s why I quit the first time," he says. "I didn’t want to perform other people’s music." Now he performs his own, and other people do too. And the response is still overwhelming. But like most Native Americans, Knifewing is not a prima donna. He wants to share his success, to help others achieve their own. Hence Native Stars. It is a way to give back to his people, to help them gain bookings and exposure, and to achieve success as musicians. The next step? "I’d like to see a Grammy for Native American music."

With his encouragement and support, it will probably happen. For Knifewing lives the legend from whence comes his name. The legendary Knifewing is a half-man, half eagle sort of deity with knife-like feathers. He is an ultimate sort of warrior who "comes down to his ethereal plateau to bestow wisdom, strength and courage...only revealing himself to the warriors who serve as protectors of the village," according to Knifewing biographer Susan Strom-Tsosie, Santa Fe, NM*. Even today, the Knifewing emblem is emblazoned on the shields of the Zuni fire and police departments. He is known throughout the winter pueblos of Zuni, a time when stories are told by the fire. While those stories of old were being related, the present-day Knifewing was born to a career military officer and his wife, his father naming him for the legend, never knowing that one day his son would dwell in Zuni, and through his own courage and wisdom and strength, bring the legend to life.

*For more on Knifewing by Susan Strom-Tsosie, see her story online at www.knifewing.com/bio/

To contact Knifewing and Native Stars, for booking or information, call 1-877-764-8601.