Sihasin

Genre: Alter-Native

Artist Homepage

Sihasin

Genre: Alter-Native

Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Group Size: 3 members

Artist Homepage: https://sihasin.com/

Biography

Sihasin is a family of multi-award-winning musicians, Jeneda, Clayson, and their father, Jones Benally, from the (Diné) Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona.

Sihasin tours throughout the world playing music, facilitating youth empowerment workshops and striving to build bridges of respect between communities, cultures, and our relationship with the environment. They have released two albums, both produced by Ed Stasium (The Ramones, Talking Heads, Living Colour, Joan Jett, Mick Jagger). Both album releases, “Never Surrender” and “Fight like a Woman” won Native American Awards, Global Music Awards, and Indian summer Music Awards. In 2016, they collaborated with The Okee Dokee Brothers on a song called “Sister Moon and Brother Sun” on the album “A Western Adventure Album” which received a Grammy Nomination. In 2017-2018’s Winter season, Sihasin’s rendition of “Winter Wonderland” (Cleopatra Records, “Punk Rock Christmas”) was used in Hyundai’s car commercial “Naughty or Nice”alongside legendary singer Tony Bennett. They recently collaborated with Peruvian band, Uchpa, to create a song titled, “Freedom”. Their song “Shine” spent 18 weeks on Sirius XM’S Aboriginal Countdown reaching the #1 spot and they were highlighted by WFMT as “Native Musicians to Know”.

In their three decades of playing music and touring, they have performed on many stages including The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Tanz n Folk Fest, L’Oympia Theatre, Worldfest, The Woody Guthrie Center, The Amerind Museum, for the US Embassy in Peru, and on many Indigenous Reservations throughout The United States.

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Meet the Band

Clayson Benally

Clayson Benally is an internationally acclaimed multi talented performer, singer, hoop dancer, horse whisperer, educator, silversmith and traditional Navajo medicine practitioner amongst many other talents.

Clayson performs drums, percussion and sings with his sister Jeneda Benally in their multi award winning duo Sihasin. Clayson has been featured on NPR, PBS, ARTE TV, National Geographic and countless documentaries, news stories, magazines, television and radio shows.

Clayson has been touring internationally and nationally since 1990 with his family’s traditional Navajo dance troupe The Jones Benally Family, their initial band Blackfire and Sihasin.
Clayson Benally has toured throughout the world to share his Dine’ (Navajo) culture as a means to build respect, unity and understanding for Indigenous Nations.

Both Clayson and Jeneda have collaborated with musicians from all over the world sharing their cultures.

Benally is also well-known for his work as an advocate for human rights, sacred sites, youth empowerment, and environmental preservation. Besides the youth workshops, he facilitates horse connection workshops. Clayson is fostering, training, and adopting rescue dogs with the nonprofit group Mountain Girl Rescue.
Benally is the vice chair of Mountain Community Resources, which is a nonprofit organization that provides firewood, and home repair for families in need within the Colorado Plateau area, as well as skill training for post correctional inmates.

Jeneda Benally

Jeneda Benally plays bass and sings with her brother Clayson Benally in the multi-award-winning duo Sihasin. In 2012, they formed Sihasin, the Navajo word for “hope”, releasing their Ed Stasium-produced debut album, Never Surrender, in 2012 to critical acclaim and numerous awards on the American Indian Music scene. Sihasin’s latest album “FIGHT LIKE A WOMAN” has also won numerous awards internationally and nationally. They also collaborated on the song “Sister Moon and Brother Sun” for the 2017 Grammy-nominated album by roots children’s duo The Okee Dokee Brothers. Their punk rock version of the Christmas classic, “Winter Wonderland” was featured in an ad campaign with Tony Bennet for Hyundai. Jeneda has had a long musical career that first began with her brothers in the Native American iconic punk band “Blackfire” formed in 1990.

Jeneda Benally also performs in the internationally acclaimed family’s dance troupe, The Jones Benally Family. Benally has toured throughout the world to share her Dine’ (Navajo) culture as a means to build respect and understanding for Indigenous Nations. Not only does Jeneda advocate for indigenous teachings, she is a traditional practitioner of Navajo medicine and works alongside her father, Jones Benally, a Navajo medicine man.

Benally is also well-known for her work as an advocate for human rights, sacred sites, youth empowerment, and environmental preservation. Jeneda was part of the Delos Convention for the United Nations in Greece and was a plaintiff in the federal court case against reclaimed wastewater in order to bring attention to the protection of the Holy Sacred San Francisco Peaks. Benally has been featured on NPR, as an actress in Nanobah Becker’s film The Sixth World, and has appeared in numerous TV specials and in national and international media formats. Jeneda also is a traditional Navajo cultural consultant. She has consulted to the Pioneer Museum, Museum of Northern Arizona, and the comic book “Zaadii: The Legend of Z-Hawk”.

She is also the Creator and Executive Producer of Indigenous YOUth Nation, a tween/teen radio show created to “Celebrate Culture”, “Empower Youth”, “Nourish Knowledge” and build strong roots for our future generations. Indigenous YOUth Nation has currently been broadcast on 19 stations within The United States and Canada.

Jones Benally

Jones Benally is a respected elder of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. For many decades he has excelled as a performer and educator strengthening appreciation for and knowledge of Navajo culture among pan-Native and non-Native audiences. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, Jones traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to help promote American goods throughout the world. His skill as a hoop dancer has won him world-wide acclaim and multiple world champion titles as well as the first Heard Museum Hoop Dance Legacy Award. Jones was featured as a singer in the 1993 film Geronimo. On the Navajo Nation, he is revered as a healer and Hataałii (medicine man). He was among the first traditional medical practitioners to be employed by a “Western” medical facility, where he worked for nearly 20 years. Jones Benally is also recognized by the state of Arizona as an Arizona Indian Living Treasure. He is considered to be a wisdom keeper and loves to share his culture. He is also the father of Jeneda and Clayson.