Native American Music Association Releases CD To Benefit Wolves

The Native American Music Association, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) has just released a special benefit CD entitled, WOLF, featuring songs from award-winning and nominated recording artists in an effort to honor and pay tribute to the wolf, especially the Gray Wolf which may become delisted as an endangered species.

The WOLF CD is being released nationally on Thursday, January 16th or during a full Wolf Moon referred to by Native Peoples because wolves could be heard howling and echoing on the clear moonlit snow-covered nights of January. The WOLF CD retails for $9.99 and is available nationally for purchase through Amazon.com. The CD is also available on the NAMA website www.NAMALIVE.com as a digital download or hard copy.

WOLF features songs by various tribal nation voices and wolf clan members including; Jack Gladstone (Blackfeet), Jimmy Lee Young (Mayan) & international Swiss artist Davide Buzzi, Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida), Joe Firecrow (Northern Cheyenne), Lee Plentywolf & The PlentyWolf Singers (Lakota), The Gray Wolf Blues Band (Yaqui), Jan Michael Looking Wolf (Grand Ronde), Bobby Bullet St Germaine (Lac du Flambeau), Austrian group Big City Indians, world music duo Painted Raven, Rushingwind & Mucklow (Cashuilla/Opata), Silverwolf (Cherokee), a special bonus track for the download version by Wade Fernandez (Menominee) and more including artist Cal Silverfox’s (Apache’) own little set of howling wolf pups he’s helping to raise which can be heard on the CD.

The CD which aims to honor and pay tribute to the wolf, will be donated as a fundraiser for the NY Wolf Conservation Center (http://www.nywolf.org) and other wildlife organizations who fear that a delisting of the Gray Wolf’s endangerd species protection by the US Fish & Wildlife service is premature in its recovery and will leave it subject to recreational hunting and trapping.

The concept behind the CD was sparked when NAMA Founder, Ellen Bello, was invited by the Endangered Species Coalition (www.endangeredspecies.org) to contribute to their celebratory book, Wild Success, The Endangered Species Act at 40, and following a visit with Ambassador Wolf, Atka, at the NY Wolf Conservation Center who was recently featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Native American music was distinctly born outdoors and is expressly connected to the nature world and all related living things. Many animals of which have become endangered species, including the Gray wolf, are revered and respected and continue to be sung about.

Wildlife organizations and wholesalers interested in selling the CD should contact NAMA. The Native American Music Association which also presents the annual Native American Music Awards is the world’s largest professional membership-based organization for contemporary and traditional Native American music initiatives. The NY Times has stated that Bello and the Native American Music Association “are devoted to bringing Native American music to the world’s consciousness”.

Currently the Idaho Fish and Game Commission will vote Jan. 16 on the state elk management plan and calls for hiring a hunter-trapper to eliminate two of six packs of gray wolves. In 1995-96, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced 35 wolves into Idaho, augmenting several lone wolves living in the state. By 2002, Idaho had 300 wolves and the number was growing; the Legislature approved a state management plan. In 2011, Congress removed wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington and northern Utah from the threatened species list. Wolf advocates are fighting to stop the intended killing of the two wolf packs.