May 10, 2006

Combining Cultures

Brulé Featured at Dutch Festival  

Street scrubbing, wooden shoes, brilliant tulips, tribal dancing and music…One of these doesn’t belong. Or does it?

Orange City’s 66^th annual Tulip Festival will feature the traditional Dutch elements, plus not-so-traditional performances. For the second year in a row, the Native American musical group Brulé will be performing their original songs and dances Friday afternoon and Saturday, as a featured element of the Festival’s ArtBurst.  Paul LaRoche, founder of Brule, said, “We are honored and proud to come…represent our culture in a positive light.”

LaRoche, who was adopted off the Lower Brulé Sioux Indian Reservation at birth, grew up in Worthington, Minnesota. At a young age, probably 6 or 7, his adopted parents took him to Orange City for the Tulip Festival. “It made an impression on me,” said LaRoche.

Last spring, LaRoche returned to the Festival, where he says he received a very gracious welcome. “It stirred up old sentimental memories,” he said.

Brulé’s performance and LaRoche’s story are an amazing demonstration of Native American culture. On Thanksgiving Day 1993, after the death of his adoptive parents, LaRoche was reunited with his birth family on the Lower Brulé Sioux Indian Reservation. His wife and two children witnessed this life-changing experience and according to LaRoche, “they have taken ownership of what this is all about.”

After moving from Minneapolis to the reservation, the LaRoche family began collaborating musically. Based on his life-changing experience, LaRoche composed the songs on Brulé’s best-selling CD, “We the People.” Brulé’s music is a new genre, pioneering one of the last musical frontiers. LaRoche describes the style as contemporary Native American music. Sioux City Journal staff writer Bruce R. Miller describes Brulé’s sound as “incredible.”

“I pull from life experience,” said LaRoche. Since he grew up in mainstream America and was introduced to his Native American roots so late in life, he combines the two worlds and cultures into one style of music.

During their live shows, Brulé features traditional Native American dancers. LaRoche says they are 100% traditional, the choreography and their dress is “the same as if you went to a pow wow in South Dakota,” said LaRoche. In the Journal, Miller called their performance “just the introduction non-Native Americans need to a beautiful culture.”

This idea embraces the mission of LaRoche’s music and performance, which he said is to “work on bridging cultures and bringing Native America into the mainstream. It is important for some of us [Native Americans] to be in the mainstream part of the world.”

Brulé is a family group, featuring LaRoche, his son and daughter, and two friends. LaRoche plays the piano, synthesizers and electronic keyboards. His daughter Nicole, age 25, plays the classical and Native American wood flutes. His son Shane, age 26, plays lead, rhythm and classical guitars. “We are very honored that we can travel and perform as a family,” said LaRoche. “A lot of people take joy in seeing a family work together, especially in a world where broken families are prevalent.”

Rounding out the group are the percussionists. John Lone Eagle, a member of the Apache Nation, plays traditional Native American drums and percussion. Most recently, the group added their second drummer, Moses Bringsplenty, from the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribe.

“He’s the real deal, a genuine article,” said LaRoche. “He brings a lot to the performances. He is the only one in the group who knows and understands the old styles. He grew up on the reservation, [so he’s] lived through the trials and tribulations,” said LaRoche. “He brings that element into the group.”

LaRoche couldn’t contain his excitement about Brulé’s return to Orange City and his gratitude to the people for inviting the group back. He said that being asked to return was the most endearing kind of compliment.

“I’d like to thank everybody for having us back,” he said. “I speak very highly of being a part of the Dutch festival,” he continued. When he travels with the group and tells others about Orange City’s Tulip Festival and his performance there, he says it carries positive elements for the group.

“I felt honored to be a part of bringing [our] culture into an area where it hadn’t been,” said LaRoche. “It is a neat way to share the cultural exchange.”

LaRoche looks forward to bringing new material to this year’s performance. He encourages Tulip Festival goers to “come up, meet us [and] talk with us.”

Brulé will perform Friday following the afternoon parade, from approximately 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. They will perform again Saturday morning as a part of ArtBurst, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again following the afternoon parade, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. All performances will take place near the west end of the Straatmarket on Sioux County Courthouse lawn, and are free to the public. For details on Brulé, go to www.brulerecords.com, for additional details on the Orange City Tulip Festival, go to www.octulipfestival.com.

Written by: Bethany A. Kroeze

RETURN TO PRESS ROOM

Copyright © 2009 Tulip Festival Steering Committee