ST. PAUL, Minn. - Singer/songwriter/activist Mitch Walking Elk took the top honors in the Best Blues CD category at the recent Indian Summer Music Awards for his release ''Time for a Woman.'' He recently gave insight from his past to his present-day activities and future plans.
Taking a break from his hectic schedule with the Indigenous People's Network and his latest musical pursuits, Walking Elk spoke from his home in St. Paul in an exclusive and candid interview about his remarkable life and love affair with music. By itself, it's a story worthy of several blues songs.
A member of the Arapaho tribe of Oklahoma (with Cheyenne heritage), Walking Elk grew up among his people. He said, ''I am inspired by life, love, and the failure of it. The early part of my life was really hard.
''I grew up in the white man's institutions. No father figure in the home, and my mother was handicapped. When I was six, I was shipped to the boarding school. My mother, even with all her challenges, knew the right thing to do was to send us so she wouldn't lose custody of us.
When he was 16, he spent time in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He learned guitar while there and between stints in the Oklahoma State Reformatory. A brief taste of freedom came when he was 19. ''I went back to the state pen when I was 20. When I was 22 I was sentenced to 50 years in Ohio for armed robbery. I had intermittent periods of being released, or else I would escape long enough to get into some real trouble. Those survivor skills were being honed all the time.
He is currently employed by the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, which is an HIV/AIDS prevention project within the Native community of the Twin Cities. ''I work for the people on a daily basis. I do outreach, dispense thousands of condoms and safe-sex information. I do trainings about the issues of HIV/AIDS and, at large, do HIV testing. I've been at this job for a year and a half now and it has been a very educational experience!'' He tours on the pow wow circuit in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the summer, and his display table draws smiles from people at each gathering.
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