Hailing all the way from Flagstaff, Arizona, Sihasin, a globally-acclaimed brother and sister duo, will perform on August 10th at 6:00pm with music that potently blends punk rock, folk, and Diné cultural traditions to promote social and environmental justice. Check them out at https://sihasin.com/. Make sure to grab your dinner and sweet treat from Tacos Martinez and Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream, whose food trucks will be onsite at each concert this summer. ALMA will once again be collecting food items for the Alamosa Food Pantry, so please bring your non-perishable items.
“Sihasin” is a Diné name that translates to hope and assurance, which is nothing short of what the band’s music brings to this world as their work promotes equality, community, and social and environmental justice. The band, a brother and sister duo, consists of Clayson and Jeneda Benally. The siblings were familiar with indigenous oppression and exploitation from an early age as they grew up during the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 in northern Arizona, a time of forced relocation, assimilation policies, and destructive resource extraction. The act divided 1.8 million acres of jointly owned Navajo-Hopi land, which forced ten to fifteen-thousand Navajo (Diné) families to relocate. Under the guise of a solution to a “tense” land dispute between Navajo and Hopi nations, the act achieved the goal of gaining mining access to the natural resources of the Black Mesa area, a sacred site to both Hopi and Navajo people alike.
Born in the middle of such an atrocity, the Benally siblings felt an obligation to make music as a call to action from a young age. They took inspiration from the marches and protests happening in their backyard, as well as from their mother, Berta Benally, who was a folk singer and political activist, as well as their grandfather, who was a traditional singer; this made the siblings third generations singers, or Hataałii. When Clasyon and Jeneda were teenagers, they formed a punk rock band called “Blackfire” with their brother Klee, a band influenced by their anger. Though the band broke up in 2011, Clasyon and Jeneda created Sihasin; a band intended to empower and inspire change. The band has released two studio albums, Never Surrender and Fight Like a Woman, both of which combine rock, punk, and traditional Native elements into an authentic sound with solely a bass, drums, vocals, and a message that invites the listener to revere the past, stay vigilant in the present, and to be the change of the future. The band has accomplished an array of accolades, including “Best Rock Recording” for their album Fight Like a Woman in 2019 during the Native American Music Awards and being selected by American Music Abroad in 2021, a U.S. Department of State-sponsored cultural diplomacy program that shares American music internationally, to perform international virtual tours.
