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To this American Indian rap artist, word to your mother has a more serious meaning

Frank Waln, a 26-year-old Sicangu Lakota, has appeared on MTV and made a name as a hip-hop artist who raps about modern-day struggles of American Indians.

If anyone can appreciate the power of a strong matriarchal influence on American Indian culture, it's Frank Waln.

Waln, a 26-year-old Sicangu Lakota, has appeared on MTV and made a name as a hip-hop artist who raps about modern-day struggles of American Indians. He'll perform Saturday at the American Indian Heritage Day of Texas celebration at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie.

The nonprofit that organized the event has titled its fourth annual celebration, "Mothers (of) Wisdom," which is a recognition of matriarchal influences on American Indians. One of Waln's signature singles is "My Stone", a song written for his mother, a single mom, on her birthday.

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"I am the product of strong native women, and I wouldn't be even here in Texas without them," Waln said Friday, just before he was to speak before a youth empowerment conference at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center.

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"It's been important to our culture to protect women. We had chiefs and leaders, but day-to-day life was very matriarchal. Women were the gravity from which our whole universe rotated. I was raised by my mom, my aunties and my grandma on a ranch run by women.

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"And just even in my own work, I get help from a lot of Native women. That's the point I'll be driving home whenever I perform."

Waln grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. He's a recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship and attended Columbia College Chicago where he received a bachelor's degree in Audio Arts and Acoustics.

Waln has won three Native American Music Awards, the National Center for American Indian Development 2014 Native American 40 Under 40 and the 2014 Chicago Mayor's Award for Civic Engagement. He's released three albums and five singles.

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His appearance is sponsored by the Ignite Arts Dallas and the SMU Meadows School of the Arts, where he lectured to the Musical Pathways class Friday. He also participated in a meet-and-greet at the Urban Inter-Tribal Center in Dallas.

Waln discussed his appearance in the Dallas area with GuideLive.

GL: Some of your singles touch on depression and suicide among American Indian youth. Who do you target your story toward? 

Waln: "I just share my personal story of getting to where I'm at because it wasn't easy. I grew up in one of the poorest places in the country, raised by a single parent. Now, I am a college graduate, getting to travel around the world and do what I love and make a living off it. It was quite the journey. A lot of failures. A lot of rerouting. Just a lot of struggle, so I share that story in hopes of providing inspiration. And through my music and telling my stories, I hope to help people be proud of who they are and where they come from." 

GL: Your work is current, but it doesn't seem to come from anger. How do you explain that? 

Waln: "I just write songs the way I speak and how I was raised to respect people and respect everything. Even though there are songs about the things are endangering my home, the land, the water, the people I love, these things that are forced upon our people. It's all coming from a place of love and respect for my people and my tribe and my culture."

GL: Your work touches on genocide and current events such as the Keystone XL pipeline controversy. Considering where race relations are now, has the American Indian experience improved or changed? 

Waln: "I would say in my lifetime, probably in the last few years, I've definitely seen change. As a small example of that, in 2014, I was on MTV [Rebel Music Native America]. When I was growing up, I did not ever see a Native artist, especially from a reservation, on TV being true to who we are as people and not acting out a stereotype to get that opportunity. In my lifetime, I've definitely see slow change. I think the internet has been a great tool for us to get our stories and who we are as a people out to the world. That's been a big part of my career -- using the internet as a tool to do that, to counteract that imbalance that has existed as far as non-Native people telling the world our stories and doing it in a skewed way."

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