Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks!
Saturday, October 7, 2023 from 10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
(Rain Date Sunday, October 8, 2023)
Town of Stowe Stowe Events Fields, Weeks Hill Rd.
Stowe Vibrancy is honored to have partnered with Chief Don Stevens and the Nulhegan Abenaki for the Annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks. We are so grateful to all of you: our partners, sponsors, musicians, educators, vendors, exhibitors, and volunteers for making it possible to launch this celebration in collaboration with local tribes in Vermont.
With the vision of the IPD Rocks founders we were able to bring the Annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks into being. It is with much appreciation that we now pass this event and celebration on to the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks Foundation to continue this yearly tradition with the State of Vermont.
And, as they say in the Abenaki tradition…
Waolowzi (Be Very Well)
We dedicated the 2022 celebration to the late Joanne Shenandoah, Grammy Award winner and Iroquois recording artist, our first headline singer for the inaugural 2020 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks! The daylong program presented Native American culture, education, and live Indigenous musical performances, culminating in a rousing rock-and-roll concert with The Dave Keller Band, DC’s Queen of Blues~Carly Harvey, and the incomparable Blues Hall of Fame inductee Joe Louis Walker. Click here for more details.
You can read more about the upcoming event on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/1QD8fTKr6
Thank you to the Vermont Department of Health for offering COVID and Flu vaccines to the public 
A HUGE thank you to our sponsors and partners, the generous contributions of our 2022 donors, the amazing Joe Louis Walker, members of the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, musicians and performers, and you the attendees of this event.
Fire Keepers (Gifts of $1000+)
John Fusco and Richela Renkun
Jim and Deb Baum
Barr Law Group
Stowe Land Trust
NOBULL
Mitzie Laidlaw
Judy & Gregg Hamerschlag
Allies (Gifts of $500 – $1000)
Manitouabeouich Art
turtlefur
Magic Mann
Smugglers’ Notch
Butternut Mountain Farm
Commodities
Everybody Water
Concept2
Shaw’s
Friends (Gifts up to $500)
Hinda Miller
Creative Concept
Sun & Ski Inn
Grunts Move Junk
Stowe Bee Bakery
The Stowe Village Inn
UniFirst
“a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues.”
The Akwesasne Women singers were formed in 1999 by four inspired and inspiring women: 
Bear Fox, Katsitsionni Fox, Elizabeth Nanitcoke and Iawentas Nanticoke. The women were driven by the need to protect and preserve the Kanienkeha (Mohawk Language), traditional Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk People) customs and stories, as well as the oral traditions that are passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. It was founded on the principle that songs are the easiest way to pass on the language and culture to future generations. Blessed with beautiful singing voices, the women put their talents and their messages together to form a singing group that writes and performs traditional Kanienkeha:ka songs. Since their inception, the Akwesasne Women Singers have brought their beautiful and powerful music to the community of Ahkwesasne.
Members of the group are in various stages of their lives – grandmothers, mothers, aunts, daughters, sisters and cousins. They are teachers, environmental researchers, social workers and students. They assist their community whenever possible. The women fundraise and provide assistance to individual community members. Aside from singing Haudenosaunee social songs, some members of Kontiwennenhawi are song writers, though they work with Elders and fluent speakers from Akwesasne to ensure the correct usage and spelling of words. These songs contain their own messages that they believe are important for the Mohawk people to know and remember. Their songs honor Elders, Kanienkehaka teachers, Mother Earth, Grandmother Moon, and Grandfather Thunder. Kontiwennenhawi is committed to continuing the traditions of our ancestors and preserving language and culture through their beautiful songs and inspiring efforts.
Carly Harvey (Tsalagi and Tuscarora descent) combines Blues, Jazz, Soul and Americana 
roots styles to create a unique sound that calls to mind Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, and Nina Simone, with a little Ella Fitzgerald thrown in for good measure. In July 2018, Carly was featured in Big City Blues Magazine as one of the youngest Blues artists to watch. She has had the privilege of sharing the stage with iconic musicians including Annika Chambers, Ron Holloway, Kebbie Williams, Ephraim Owens, Cory Henry, Kofi Burbridge, Junior Marvin, and Susan Tedeschi – an artist whose work has been foundational to her musical evolution.
Carly is a two-time D.C. Blues Society Battle of the Bands Winner (Duo – 2016, Band – 2018) and proclaimed D.C.’s Queen of the Blues. Her band, Kiss & Ride represented Washington D.C. in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2019. That same year, Carly released a new EP titled Kiss & Ride: Vol. 1, and the hit single, “She Ain’t Me” is now charting on regional blues radio stations. In 2021, Carly was nominated 7 times and won the WAMMIE award for Best Blues Artist/Band. Her international crossover album titled “Among The Stars” and an EP titled “Y.A.M.W.A.O.” with Italian producer/composer Taste of Dream is an additional project allowing Carly to explore an element of her musicianship beyond the Blues.
It is her belief that Blues not only comes from the African American experience but is actually directly influenced by Indigenous American Minor Pentatonic Melodies and Stomp Dance Songs. She occasionally offers master classes to educate people about the music that gives her so much pride in her Afro-Indigenous heritage.
Jesse Bowman Bruchac, is a Nulhegan Abenaki citizen, traditional storyteller, musician, and Abenaki language instructor. As one of the last fluent speakers of Western Abenaki, he works vigorously to revitalize the language and culture. His efforts have led to the creation of a Western Abenaki website, Youtube channel, Facebook group, and a number of bilingual publications.
As a musician he has produced several albums of Abenaki music, including traditional drum, rattle and flute. He has opened for The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and performed at Woodstock ’94. He won the Best Storyteller Competition at Indian Summer in Milwaukee in 1995. Jesse has also acted as consultant, translator, composer, and language coach for programs on AMC, National Geographic, and PBS.
Jesse began learning stories, songs, and language as a child from elders and his father Joseph. He has traveled throughout the United States visiting schools and universities to share Northeastern Native American traditional stories, music, language, history and culture for over two decades. He continues to learn and teach the language, including at the University of Southern Maine.
brings 10,000 year old traditions of music and performance into a 21st century setting. A contemporary song may be sung in an Algonquian language, or a traditional pow wow song might be fused with a Euro American musicology. His music is the continuation of millenniums of music tradition of the land that flourished before America was America. Beautiful music and Abenaki heritage combine to create one of New England’s most original artists.
earning two nominations for a Blues Music Award for Best Soul/Blues Album, winning the International Blues Challenge ‘Best Self-Released CD Award’, and being chosen for Downbeat Magazine’s ‘Best Recordings of the Year’.
has written more than a dozen major-motion pictures, including Crossroads,Young Guns, Thunderheart, Hidalgo, the Academy Award-nominated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, the Netflix Original hit The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, and the Netflix series Marco Polo.
