Hip-hop beats and positive lyrics filled Billy Mills Middle School’s main gymnasium Tuesday morning during an all-school assembly led by Supaman, the Indigenous rapper and fancy dancer.
Christian Parrish Takes Gun, Apsáalooke Nation, is widely known by his professional monikers “Supaman” and “Billy ills.”
Parrish Takes Gun used spoken word, song and dance on Tuesday to share stories from his upbringing and lessons he’s learned throughout life. Interwoven throughout were lessons on Indigenous culture, history, tradition, language, family, regalia and dance.
Behind Parrish Takes Gun, Logan Howard, Pima from the Salt River Indian Reservation, supplied beats as DJ Element.
Parrish Takes Gun urged the crowd to find their voice and make positive choices. He encouraged them to read books and to take agency in achieving the highest quality of life.
“And don’t stop gaining information and gaining a perspective, learning and unlearning in life, you know, because you are the author of your experience here on Earth,” Parrish Takes Gun said. “The world ain’t pushing you around now, the world ain’t happening to you. You’re creating your reality. That is the power that you have.”
Messages about resilience resonated. Parrish Takes Gun asked the crowd to applaud all Indigenous students, teachers and attendees present.
“Every breath that they take is in defiance to a system that didn’t want them here carrying on the legacy of this very land,” he said. “So it’s a beautiful thing that we have our relatives here today.”
Parrish Takes Gun spoke about his difficult childhood, where he grew up on the reservation at Crow Agency in Montana in a home mired in addiction and abuse. When he was 10, he lost his father to suicide. That was a wakeup call for his mother, according to Parrish Takes Gun. He asked the crowd to celebrate his now 82-year-old mother, who chose sobriety then and has remained sober ever since.
During the interactive assembly, Parrish Takes Gun gave the crowd a quick overview of Fancy Dance tradition and its origins with the Ponca Tribe in Oklahoma. He recalled how the 1926 Haskell Powwow, held in Lawrence, is known as the first World Championship of Fancy Dancing.
Parrish Takes Gun invited a Billy Mills Middle School student to demonstrate the Grass Dance style. Sixth-grader Donovan Azure-Saldana, Meskwaki, Oneida and Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, danced for the crowd.
Students were given multiple opportunities to engage with Parrish Takes Gun. They participated in a loudest scream contest to win Supaman’s “Medicine Bundle” CD and some helped Parrish Takes Gun and Howard create a beat mix.
Educators had an opportunity to showcase their own dance moves. Parrish Takes Gun asked the crowd to interact with their neighbors and share words of encouragement with each other.
The assembly was held in coordination with Native American Heritage Month at BMMS, which also hosted Supaman a year ago. Members of the Indigenous community and students from across Lawrence schools and Kickapoo Nation School in Powhattan attended. Sponsors of the event were Haskell Indian Nations University College of Business and KNS.
KNS student Correna Padilla, Navajo, expressed love for Supaman and the assembly afterward.
“At first, when I got here, I was tired,” Correna said. “Then when I was here, I’m so hyped up.”
BMMS student support facilitator Eva McCrary, Apsáalooke Nation, said she worked with students in preparation for the assembly by holding classroom circles and talking about Parrish Takes Gun’s message that dancing is an inclusive family event.
“Like, dance for those who are in wheelchairs, those that are sick, it’s like, everybody’s watching you, your ancestors, your families. I started off with that quote,” McCrary said. “Just encourage the kids like when they’re walking in the hallways, you might not be dancers, but when you’re walking in hallways, you can carry that same sentiment of who you are and who you represent.”
Parrish Takes Gun said in an interview he views Lawrence as “a good spot, you know, where Natives come together and representation is always in the forefront.”
“So to be invited back, it’s awesome just to see everybody again,” he said. “And, you know, Billy Mills and Haskell and Natives and fancy dancing, you know, the championship was here in Lawrence, just that, all of that put together. It’s a happy day. Yeah, it’s a good day.”
Supaman was also set to perform at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium at Haskell Indian Nations University. The event is free and open to the public.
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Post updated at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12 to add video
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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