Yellow Hammer

At a early age most of the men in our group entered the arena as fancy dancers. During the 60' and 70's there were no drum groups in our area so we danced to the traditional songs of our respective tribes, the Ponca and Otoe-Missouria. Through dancing it enabled us to gain a valuable knowledge of our tribal songs as well as the understanding and concept of a good drum beat. Our elders taught us that we should not sing for ourselves, but instead, sing for the dancers and the people. Our belief is that the "drum" itself has the power to heal and make a person feel good when they hear it. By the late 80's most of the older members of our group had already retired from the fancy dance category and established themselves within the ranks of the drum with our elders. Those lessons that we learned from our dancing days followed us to our seat at the drum. In the early 90's we traveled to different parts of the country to sing at powwows but had yet to establish ourselves as a bonafide singing group. It was not until 1993 the we reorganized and selected the name "Yellowhammer". We are very fortunate and proud to have won the "World Championship" of the southern singing category at Schemitzun for the years 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, and 2004. For these many blessings we thank God. May he bless you as well. AH-HO !!!