Watchlist: ‘The Halluci Nation Puts a New Spin On a Traditional Beat’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

“We’ll throw up our light and then people will gather,” Tim Hill (Mohawk Tribe), also known as “2oolman” says in a PBS video published in October 2023. Hill and Ehren Thomas (Cayuga First Nation), who goes by, “Bear Witness,” are the duo behind the well-known sound of “The Halluci Nation.”

Songs you may have heard by “The Halluci Nation” are “Electric Pow Wow Drum” and “R.E.D.” In these songs you’ll hear traditional Native American drumming and singing mixed with electronic beats.

“We have helped in building community,” Thomas says. “But we’re part of the wave, not leading it. We react to where people are at.”

In the video, Thomas and Hill agree that the live music they perform helps bring existing Indigenous communities together. In the PBS video, they are playing a show in Brooklyn, New York and the room is packed with people. As they perform, a young woman in regalia joins them on stage to perform a traditional hoop dance to their music.

 “With the history that we have had in the past 500 years, it’s become really hard to want to share who we are and representation of Indigenous people has always been through the lens of the other, we have never had control of our own image,” Thomas says. “It’s about us taking that power for ourselves, representing ourselves in the way we see ourselves.”

Their music mixes traditional songs with samples of contemporary sounds like eagle cries and Indigenous pop culture references.

One song shown in the video uses audio from the movie, “The Addams Family.” In the scene, Wednesday Addams goes off-script from her stereotyped Thanksgiving play to tell the Natives, “Do not trust the pilgrims.”

During their high energy performances, the audience is dancing to the same rhythm.

“When I look out in our show and see people from all different nations, all different backgrounds, they are feeling those beats,” Hill says. “They experience what we experience. That’s a common experience.”

You can hear more from “The Halluci Nation” in the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUtNoDl5cDY or find it linked on our “Watchlist” Playlist on YouTube.