Datil Singer to Ride Float in Rose Parade

By Anne Sullivan
For the Mountain Mail

Windwalker Dorn is walking on air these days. And she has great tidings of joy for Datil and environs. She and her husband, Edoal Spirit Buffalo, and their 14-year-old daughter, Anagqus, will be riding on the One Nations float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day.

How did this honor come about? According to Windwalker, “We were invited by Group Drule because in November we were winners of the Single Song of the Year Award at the Native American Music Awards held in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The song was called ‘Grandfather’ and it’s from our new album. We’ve won for two consecutive years. In 2009, we won the Gospel Inspiration Award for ‘Amazing Grace’ in Cherokee.”
Windwalker and family, who came to Datil from Pennsylvania six years ago, are what you could call multi-Tribal Native Americans. They belong to the Micmac Tribe from Maine and Canada, and they’re Cherokee from North Carolina and Lanape from Pennsylvania and New York.
Windwalker can be described as a singer with a stunning a cappella voice, a drummer, a story teller, a song writer, a masseuse, and a Generational Medicine Woman. Asked which was the most important to her, she challenged with, “You pick.” Having heard her sing, I pick the first.
She can also be described as a bubbling-over enthusiast. Flashing her enormous blue eyes which are becomingly set off by her jet-black hair, and scarcely pausing for breath, she had this to say: “I just learned that we’re – the whole family – going on a 10-day European Tour in July 2011. We’ll perform in England and Amsterdam and France, and some other cities, and we’ll end up in Germany. Oh, and we’re playing at the Old Taos Inn on Dec. 26. And we were just given a new tour bus. I was just in Socorro getting the paperwork settled on that.”
It looks like Windwalker and family are on their way. Come New Year’s Day, I’ll be looking for them in the Rose Bowl Parade.

Pictured: Edoal Spirit Buffalo and Windwalker at Pie Town

Photo by John Larson

Datil Singer to Ride Float in Rose Parade