Historically, most if not all Native peoples used to dream or pray for songs to come to them. These songs represented truth to the world that surrounded them and offered medicines to help them navigate that world. These songs would be offered by the spirits, the natural world, as well as the beings that they were surrounded by. These songs were stories, chants, anthems, and ideas that served the purpose of keeping our ancestors lives in balance. The songs served to honor the world and spirits as well as offer insights on how to deal with the negativity that they would sometimes encounter. These songs served as strength before certain activities, be it hunting, preparing for battle, or preparation for other strenuous tasks. These were our warrior songs and our power songs. Certain songs would be sung while cooking and while gathering as well as during times of celebration. We possessed blessing songs as well as hardship and grieving songs that would allow for us to deal with losses and stress and/or depression. These were our condolence songs. We were not limited in the songs that were offered to us as every activity of our life had a song that pertained and maintained relevance. These songs were our connection to the truth and the medicine that kept our community healthy. These songs were reminders of who we were and where we came from. These songs/music/prayers we are blessed to create are a continuation of those messages that were given to us to keep our communities healthy. These songs were offered in dreams and through prayers. These songs are the stories, prayers, anthems and ideas that are offered to our people through us. This is not merely hip hop. This is not merely a genre of music. These are preparations for battle. A battle that has been waged against our Native people since Columbus first landed on the shores of what they have come to call the New World and began the systematic genocide of our peoples and cultures. These are songs of celebration that remind us that we are still here, not only through bloodlines, but also though traditions and cultures that once guided us to be healthy and happy communities. These are the insights on how to deal with the constant negativity imposed upon our people. These are the reminders of who we are, who we can be, and who we are meant become. These are songs of condolences for the losses that we have experienced and continue to experience. The truth and the medicine is an alternative to the lies that continue pushing our people away from our songs, away from our connection to the spirits that have guided us to maintain healthy communities. These songs of the Truth and Medicine album call for and offer guidance to return to those songs that we once had that kept us connected to the truth and medicine; songs that we have lost; songs that have been forgotten; songs that are still there waiting to be listened to and sung again. We must get healthy and begin to recognize who we are again in order to begin rebuilding our communities otherwise we will rebuild with some of the unhealthy ideals that are continuing to be forced upon us. We must first recognize our current situation and revitalize the knowledge of our ancestors that helped us deal with, and heal from atrocities. We live in a time where our people are told and forced to believe that being anything other than who we are born to be and who we were meant to be is what we are supposed to be. This has created an identity crisis that affects all of our people, especially the youth. Our focus has turned to political and economical growth and stimulus in our communities and through that focus our community’s traditional mental, spiritual, and therefore physical health has suffered. We have focused on Nation building while our community health and well being has suffered because of our continued ignorance towards those cultural/traditional values that used to keep our people healthy. This is not merely an observance or something that is an opinion through experience but a fact that can be seen in the statistics that continue to document the failing health of our communities. Native youth have the highest rates of substance abuse, suicide, school dropout, violence, incarceration, and teen pregnancy. They are also the victims of crime, and suffer from high levels of venereal diseases, fetal alcohol syndrome, and identity loss. These socially problematic statistics continue in even many if not all of the politically and economically nation built communities. What does this tell us? The fact is that our people are continuing to suffer and struggle and it is our obligation to work to end that suffering and those struggles by any means necessary. This music, these songs, and this message are just a small piece of a very large puzzle. For every song that is pushed through mainstream music that suggests, promotes, and feeds things and ideas that are detrimental to our people we must offer an alternative of positives. We must offer songs of hope, songs that remind our people of our beauty and our love but we must also remind them of how we came to get to this state of being and possible solutions on how to return to where we once were. For every song that suggests ideals counter to our traditional belief systems such as individualism, disrespect for women, disrespect for ourselves through substance abuse, among other things, we must counter with songs that suggest that our belief systems or just being a Native person is a powerful and beautiful thing. We must remind our people that they are loved. We must remind our people that it is alright to dream, to pray, and to believe the values that have been taught to be wrong. We must remind our people it is alright to be a Native person in these modern times. It is said that the most revolutionary act in this time is to be a human being. We must allow ourselves to be open to learn how to be human beings again. To be the human beings that from time immemorial kept our community and our surrounding world healthy. We must be who we were born to be, not who we are told to be. This message is no different than the oral traditions of our people in which messages were offered through stories and songs that were continuously told or sung for the purpose of maintaining the message and medicine within. We all have shared experiences of a continuous repetitive theme of having ideals of disrespect and disregard of our peoples and cultures being constantly shoved in our faces and down our throats as Native people; of being force fed the messages of individualism and not be reminded of our communal beliefs. For every year of colonization there must be a year of decolonization. For every message of despair there must be a message of hope. For every message that tells us being Native is ugly or bad, be it consciously or subconsciously, there must be a message that reminds us that being a Native is beautiful and good. It’s quite simple really. The truth is in the medicine, no, the truth is the medicine. If we constantly feed our people with messages of beauty, hopefulness, and empowerment then we are also feeding them messages of staying sober, of treating women and children with respect, of respecting mother earth and all the beings placed upon her, of being humble and respectful because that is what being a Native person through culture and belief is defined by. Yes, the truth is the medicine.