Meet Dakota Yazzie | Producer, Songwriter, & Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dakota Yazzie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dakota, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I grew up around artists and creators of all sorts; jewelers, weavers, painters, sculptors, community minded folks. Creativity is simply another language for a lot of indigenous people. It’s ingrained into the fabric of our society, you’d be hard pressed to find someone’s auntie who isn’t a beader, weaver, farmer, or creative of some sort. My great grandmother was a Dine’ rug weaver and my dad a sculptor, my grandma on my dad’s side was also a gospel singer. Over time these ruminated in my mind and I had to create, somehow and anyway, it’s what I saw

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Earth Surface People came from a need to tell Indigenous stories, places, history, attitude. It’s something I saw a lack of growing up in rural Arizona. I grew up around my traditional people: farmers, storytellers, medicine people, jewelers, weavers, artists, revolutionaries, creatives. I found a lot of solace in their stories of survival and their stories of triumph, how some overcame extraordinary odds with minimal resources. In the world’s epics from Greek to Zimbabwe their heroes are all common folk who’s story’s came to be because of storytellers. And through myself I hope to keep my people’s stories alive. Alive because the culture is alive: it’s not some dead thing in a museum, it’s when a youth picks up a paintbrush or when an elder plants a seed or when a reconnecting relative speaks in their mother tongue. I hope that Earth Surface People will be a reminder of that.

ESP has been through its fair share of discrimination and financial challenges too. Arizona doesn’t respect Native arts and music, it’s a symptom leftover from colonialism. I hope that our band can challenge this status quo and hopefully make it easier for future Indigenous artists/creatives/musicians in Arizona. But there is a huge shift within the youth, they see and feel the energy we bring and really rock with it, which I’m grateful for. It’s something we don’t take for granted.

As for the brand, we’ve collaborated with over 40 native creatives in our career as a band. We take native creatives seriously. We’re always looking to innovate and push our aesthetics, the ESP you see today is not the one you’ll see next year! Employ and pay indigenous creators and find those not highly published or hyped, that’s where the real talent is! That’s where we start for the most part, we’re as grassroots as it gets.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hmmm.. if you’re in Oodham lands you ought to eat at Espiritu, have some coffee at Cartel, and check out what’s happening at Cahokia! I’m an art person, so I really dug the Frank Lloyd Wright spot and the PHX art museum. And if you need a local watering spot after a long day in the sun, cool at Gracie’s Tax Bar

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My great grandmother, Tiana Bighorse, left us with a legacy of books she wrote: “Working With The Wool,” “Navajo Weaving Way,” and “Bighorse the Warrior.” Through these publications I build my own legacy on and for other Diné people striving to chase their potential as nihookááʼ diyin dineʼ. My family has always supported me and the band heavily, very humble and community oriented people. Love for all Diné people, we’re a beautiful, hard working people.

I was also mentored and inspired by my fellow native musicians: Mildred Bailey, Xit, Redbone, Buffy St. Marie, Delbert Anderson, Ehren Kee Natay.

Honestly anyone who’s been in honest conversation with me and who has a love for the people and their liberation, I owe my storytelling to you

Website: https://linktr.ee/earthsurfacepeople

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthsurfacepeople/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Skb5pPZSR8D27gFIaDQDQ

Image Credits
Cheyenne Weston