The Grammy Awards eliminated the "Best Native American Music Album" category after a decade. This disappointed many in the Native American music community as it provided recognition and mainstream exposure. While the Grammys said the restructuring was to streamline categories, others felt Native American music would get lost among more popular genres in combined categories. The removal ignored concerns from Native artists who felt their unique music wouldn't be properly judged against distinct genres like Cajun or Hawaiian. The category had celebrated the diversity of Native American music and artists who went on to wider success.

1. Native American Music Category
Cut From the Grammy Awards
this year
Carissa Epperson
November 4, 2011

2. Grammy Awards
Music’s Biggest Night

3. The Grammy Awards is a ceremony
created by The National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize
outstanding musical achievements. The
Grammy Award was established in 1958.
Originally the award was called the
Gramophone Awards. The Award
Ceremony was promoted to be the daddy
of all award shows.

4. The first ceremony was held on May 4, 1959 to honor musicians
for their accomplishments for the previous year. There were
only 26 categories the first year.
Best Vocal Performance, Male Best Vocal Performance, Female
Perry Como – Catch A Fallen Star Ella Fitzgerald- Duke of Ellingotn Song Book

5. The categories have grown over the
years from 26-109

6. 2001 Grammy Award for Best Native
American Music Album

7. The Grammy Award for Best
Native American Music Album is
an award presented at the 43rd
Grammy Awards Ceremony (2001)
to recording artists for quality
albums in the Native American
music genre.

8. Ellen Bello, founder of the Native
American Music Awards and the Native
American Music Association fought
three years to get Native American
Music as a category. Previous to 2001
Native American Music was not
represented as its’ own category.

9. According to the category description guide
for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award is
presented to "vocal or instrumental Native
American music albums containing at least
51% playing time of newly recorded
music", with the intent to honor recordings
of a more "traditional nature".

10. Per Allbusiness.com 2001
The creation of a Native American music
category for the 43rd annual Grammy Awards
in 2001 brought long overdue mainstream
recognition to one of the most vital and
diverse genres in contemporary music.
“Today, Native American pop is standing in the
wings," says j. poet, who has written
extensively on the subject for the National
Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences
(NARAS). "It's a position not dissimilar to that
of alternative rock at the end of the '80s, and
there are several Native artists ready to take
the music to the next level.

11. Bill Miller, Native
American Artist
Won 2 Grammys since
2001

12. Mary Youngblood
Northern California Native
American Flutist
She won 2 Grammy Awards

13. The Native American Music Awards also
known as the “Nammies” has been
celebrating the accomplishments of
Native American Artist since 1998

14. Melissa Sanchez , co-owner of Emergence Productions
answered in an interview with Albi.com
What did it mean to people when the Native American
category was introduced in 2001?
I think it was a coup. It was really exciting because it would
be a recognition of the types of Native American music that
are out there. It's so diverse. It was also in a few of our
minds in the industry: How will this carry through because
of the diversity? You have traditional music, traditional
mixed with contemporary—it just goes on and on. Those
were some of the first questions, but overall, the category
being included was a victory

15. The Native American Grammy
Award Category lasted a decade.
The removal of the category
stunned many people.

16. The La Times Reported
“All categories will remain, they'll just be found in different genres,"
said President and Chief Executive Neil Portnow. "The message isn't
about cutting, it's about changing the way we present the awards.
We welcome all artists who make music in the Grammy process, it's
just going to look a little different."
Since 1959, the number of award categories has expanded from an
original 28, evolving one category at a time on a piecemeal basis
and "without an overall vision," Portnow said. The result has been
more of a "collage," he said, "without a continuity across the
various genre fields." The restructuring, he said, would give the
Grammys a more cohesive structure that better mirrors the current
musical landscape.
Cont.

17. Academy officials said that the restructuring process
began in 2009, when the organization initiated a
comprehensive evaluation of both the award
categories and voting procedures. The awards and
nominations committee spent more than a year on
the review, said five-time Grammy Award-winner
and songwriter/record producer Jimmy Jam. It then
submitted its recommendations to the Recording
Academy's board of trustees.
"We tried to make the numbers match up and be fair
across the board," said Jam, who was chairman of
the board of trustees at that time and also served on
the awards and nominations committee

18. Neil Portnon said at the press
conference
“Diligent research, careful
analysis, and thoughtful
discussion of all Fields resulted
in an overarching framework
and a restructuring of Categories
to 78, and ensures that every
submission continues to have a
home”

19. According to the Trading Post
It’s disappointing to hear that they’re
taking these,” said Bill Birdsong Miller, a
Native American artist who has won three
GRAMMYS (in 2005, 2006, and 2010) and
was in town last week to participate in a
formal effort by NARAS members to ask
the Academy to reconsider its
decision.”We weren’t alerted to the fact
that they were about to change our
categories. We weren’t asked if it
mattered to us. It just happened.”
Cont.

20. “It doesn’t work,” said Miller, who
has performed with the likes ofTori
Amos, Pearl Jam and the BoDeans.
“Our categories was one of the
most strange, to me, categories. If
you put every Hawaiian music CD
ever made next to every native
one, they wouldn’t even match.
They’re not the same. They don’t
use our native flutes, they don’t
use our language. The same with
Zydeco and Cajun.”

21. “It ups the game in terms of what it takes
to receive a GRAMMY and preserves the
great esteem (with) which it’s held in the
creative community, which is the most
important element,” Academy President
and CEO Neil Portnow told the Associated
Press. “That’s appropriate. We are talking
about the most prestigious, coveted
award and it should be a high bar in terms
of the measurement of receiving that.”

22. Miller, who plays native flute and guitar
and writes his own songs, says the
competition will devolve into a numbers
game.
“What’s going to happen in our
category, it’s voting by numbers,” Miller
said. “So let’s say Zydeco or Cajun get
more votes that year than Hawaiian or
native, then that will be the top
category and the rest will not get any
Grammys. So we’re sort of fighting
against each other. We’re all trying to
outdo each other. Which we don’t want
to do.”
Miller said it’s similar to moves he has
seen regarding native communities
throughout history.

23. In response to the elimination of the Native
American category
“As a Native American person, I am intimately
aware - and continually reminded - of the lack of
understanding about Native people and culture
by mainstream American society. This lack
extends to the perceptions of our music as
well, and I have spent my entire career battling
against unbelievable
misconceptions, stereotypes and even outright
racism.”
Author unknown
Notwithstanding the above quote, most people including Native
American do not believe the removal was not based on race.

24. Native Americans can still compete in
any category for the Grammy award
based on genre. It is believed that
this new classification will make it
more difficult and more competitive.

25. In conclusion, Native American music has been around for
a long time. Being honored and recognized as its own for
one decade, helped to bring Native American to the main
streem venue.
Although many are disappointed in the removal of the
category, I personally like the idea of reduced categories.
At some point one has to question the prestige of the
award when so many people are receiving them. Some
people in the music industry are believing the award has
become a promotion for the music industry.
Looking back at the creation of the award, only 26 artist
were recognized.

26. Woks Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2011, from allbusiness.com:
http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-
not/4665655-1.html
(n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2011, from enotes:
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Native_American_Music
_Album
DeMarco, M. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2011, from Albi:
http://alibi.com/feature/36918/Grammys-Ditch-the-Native-American-
Category.html
Grammies 1958. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2011, from Infoplease:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0150535.html
Trading Post. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2011, from
http://blog.theautry.org/2011/06/15/native-american-music-and-the-grammy-
awards/
Wild, D. (2007). And the Grammy Goes To.... Ann Arbor: State Street Press.