A guitar line at the Concert for Bangladesh. A cedar flute album that crossed the million-sales mark. A powwow drum group walking onto a Grammy stage. Indigenous musicians have shaped rock, blues, film scores, roots music, studio production and the sound of the powwow trail.
This editorial countdown brings together Native American and First Nations Grammy winners, nominees, producers and recording innovators. It rewards cross-genre influence, studio breakthroughs and distinct musical vision.
Who are some of the best-known Indigenous artists recognized by the Grammys? The list includes two-time winners Mary Youngblood, Bill Miller and Tom Bee; Grammy-winning Black Eagle Singers, Micki Free and Robert Mirabal; 11-time nominee R. Carlos Nakai; nine-time nominee Northern Cree; five-time nominee Robbie Robertson; and studio great Jesse Ed Davis.
10. Black Eagle Singers: a Grammy carried home to Jemez Pueblo
Black Eagle began in 1989 after group leader Malcom Yepa returned to Jemez Pueblo inspired by the powwow singing he had heard in Montana. The group built its own sound, recorded original material and brought the Towa language of Jemez into its work.
Flying Free won the 2004 Grammy for Best Native American Music Album. That victory followed a nomination for Life Goes On and preceded two more, giving Black Eagle one win from four nominations. Their story is a reminder that technical experimentation and cultural continuity do not cancel each other out: the group used modern studio tools to make the drum feel immediate while keeping its music rooted in community. See the Recording Academy record and the Black Eagle Singers biography.
9. Northern Cree: nine nominations and one unmistakable sound
From Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, Northern Cree has spent decades making northern-style powwow and round dance singing audible far beyond the communities where the music lives. Founded in 1980 by members of the Wood family, the group has built a deep catalogue of live recordings and songs shared across generations.
The Recording Academy lists nine Grammy nominations, from Rockin’ the Rez in 2002 to When It’s Cold: Cree Round Dance Songs in 2020. Northern Cree also performed during the 2017 Grammy Premiere Ceremony. Their presence matters because it places a living community sound on an international stage without asking it to become pop music first. For more context on the music heard in the arena, read Powwow Times’ guide to traditional and contemporary powwow music and dance.
Jesse Ed Davis rarely occupied the centre of the album cover, but his guitar could change the temperature of a session. The Oklahoma-born musician, with Kiowa, Comanche and Muscogee roots, became a trusted collaborator for Taj Mahal and went on to record with John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne and many others.
At the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, Davis stood alongside Harrison and Clapton. In the studio, his slide playing brought precision without losing its bite. He also produced records, including Gene Clark’s White Light, and later worked with John Trudell on AKA Graffiti Man. The Smithsonian’s account of Native roots in popular music captures why musicians still speak of Davis with such awe: he made famous songs better, often without becoming famous himself.
7. R. Carlos Nakai: the cedar flute on a platinum path
R. Carlos Nakai did not inherit an easy route into a recording career. Trained first in trumpet and music theory, he turned toward the cedar flute after an injury changed what was physically possible. The result was one of the most expansive recording careers associated with the instrument.
Nakai, of Navajo-Ute heritage, has released more than 50 albums, including 40 with Canyon Records. His official biography credits him with 11 Grammy nominations and more than four million album sales over the course of his career. In 2014, Canyon Trilogy became the first traditional solo Native American flute album to be certified platinum. His collaborations range across jazz, classical music and global traditions, while his notation system helped other players study the instrument. Explore Nakai’s official biography and Powwow Times’ overview of the Native American flute.
6. Robert Mirabal: Taos Pueblo storytelling in motion
Robert Mirabal builds flutes, writes songs, performs theatre, tells stories and composes music that can move from breathy solo passages to percussion-heavy world fusion. He has done that work from Taos Pueblo, where land, language and family remain part of the artistic centre rather than scenery around it.
The Recording Academy lists one Grammy win and two nominations connected to his Johnny Whitehorse recordings, including the 2008 winner Totemic Flute Chants. Mirabal also reached a broad public through Music from a Painted Cave, the PBS concert special and soundtrack that combined music, dance and theatrical staging. His achievement is not simply crossover. It is the creation of a performance language large enough to hold poetry, rock rhythm, flute and Pueblo place together. View his Grammy record.
5. Mary Youngblood: two Grammy wins led by the flute
Mary Youngblood’s recordings placed the Native American flute at the front of richly arranged contemporary instrumental music. A musician of Seminole and Aleut heritage, she pairs flute with guitar, cello, piano and percussion while keeping the breath and phrasing of the instrument at the emotional centre.
The Recording Academy credits Youngblood with two wins from three nominations: Beneath the Raven Moon won in 2003 and Dance With the Wind won in 2007. Those awards made her one of the defining artists of the short-lived Best Native American Music Album category. Her work also opened space for women in a commercial flute field that had often been marketed around men.
4. Bill Miller: a voice that crosses folk, flute and orchestra
Bill Miller, a citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, is the kind of musician whose catalogue resists a single shelf. He is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, flutist and visual artist whose work can feel intimate enough for a coffeehouse and broad enough for a symphonic stage.
Miller won Best Native American Music Album for Cedar Dream Songs in 2005 and Spirit Wind North in 2010. The Recording Academy lists two wins from two nominations. Across tours with artists including Tori Amos and Pearl Jam, he brought stories of identity, loss, recovery and spiritual endurance into mainstream folk-rock spaces without sanding away their source.
3. Micki Free: from Shalamar funk to blues-rock fire
Micki Free’s career moves at stage volume. The guitarist found a global audience with the R&B group Shalamar, then built a long life in rock, blues, production and collaboration. His playing connects hard-edged electric guitar with Native flute and a wide-open showman’s sense of performance.
Free, who identifies Comanche and Cherokee heritage, shares the 1986 Grammy for the Beverly Hills Cop score soundtrack. The Recording Academy lists one win from one nomination. He has worked with artists including Prince, Carlos Santana and Billy Gibbons, but his most memorable contribution may be his refusal to treat Indigenous identity as a genre restriction. Funk, blues, rock and flute all belong in the same career because he makes them belong.
2. Tom Bee: the producer who built the infrastructure
Tom Bee understood that making a strong record was only half the battle. Indigenous artists also needed labels, distribution, promotion and people behind the console who understood the music on its own terms. The Dakota musician and producer founded Sound of America Records, better known as SOAR, and helped build a route from independent Native recording sessions to a wider market.
Before the label, Bee led the pioneering rock band XIT, whose work reached Motown in the 1970s. Behind the scenes, he advocated for Grammy recognition of Native music and produced recordings that proved the category’s depth. The Recording Academy credits him with two wins from three nominations, for Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in 2001 and Black Eagle’s Flying Free in 2004. His legacy is not one trophy. It is the system he helped create so other artists could be recorded, distributed and heard.
1. Robbie Robertson: from The Band to the language of film
Robbie Robertson’s guitar and songwriting helped define The Band, but his influence did not stop when the group’s classic run ended. The musician, who drew on Mohawk and Cayuga roots connected to Six Nations of the Grand River, became one of director Martin Scorsese’s most important musical collaborators.
Robertson wrote standards including “The Weight” and “Up on Cripple Creek,” then brought his ear for story into films such as Raging Bull, Casino, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon. As a solo artist, the Recording Academy lists five Grammy nominations; with The Band, he received the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Albums such as Music for the Native Americans and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy also made Indigenous history and contemporary voice central to his later work.
Robertson sits at number one because his career reveals the full reach of the list: songwriter, guitarist, producer, bandleader and film-music architect. He changed what roots rock sounded like, then helped decide how some of modern cinema would sound when memory, danger and history entered the frame.
Why did the Best Native American Music Album Grammy end?
The Recording Academy presented Best Native American Music Album from 2001 through 2011. Beginning with the 2012 awards, it was combined with other regional roots traditions in the broader Best Regional Roots Music Album category. The earlier category created a visible run of winners, but its end did not end Indigenous participation at the Grammys. Artists have continued to appear across regional roots, folk, rock, soundtrack and other fields.
What this list leaves ringing
There is no single “Indigenous sound.” A powwow drum recorded live, a film cue built in a scoring room, a blues solo, a flute improvisation and a rock anthem carry different histories and responsibilities. Putting them together is useful only when their differences stay audible.
The best way to honour that range is to listen beyond the familiar names: buy music from artists and Indigenous-focused labels, follow new releases, and attend performances when musicians come through your community. Powwow Times readers can also explore why powwows matter to community, culture, dance and music and meet a new generation through the story of Tia Wood’s move into the mainstream recording industry.
Frequently asked questions
Who has won the Grammy for Best Native American Music Album?
Winners during the category’s 2001-2011 run included Tom Bee and Douglas Spotted Eagle, Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike, Mary Youngblood, Black Eagle, Bill Miller, Jim Wilson, Johnny Whitehorse, Thomas A. Wasinger, and producers Derek, Lita and Melonie Mathews for the 2010 Gathering of Nations recording.
How many Grammy nominations does Northern Cree have?
The Recording Academy lists Northern Cree with nine nominations and no wins, covering both Best Native American Music Album and Best Regional Roots Music Album.
Was Robbie Robertson a Grammy winner?
The Recording Academy lists Robbie Robertson with five competitive nominations and no individual competitive win. The Band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, which Robertson accepted with fellow members and representatives of those who had died.
