Tony Redhouse
A world-renowned motivational speaker, sound healer, musician, professional hoop dancer, expert on Native Art, and five-time Native American Music Award-winning recording artist, he is also a Spiritual Coach. He works with those who suffer from alcohol and drug addiction.
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His life lessons have brought him to where he is today, and with all that knowledge and experience, he feels the need to give back, teach, heal, comfort, and empower others. And so he offers to those in need, including the tiniest, most defenseless animals that are caged in shelters.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Monterey, California. My dad was in the U.S. Army and based mainly in California. We stayed in (Fort Ord, CA.) the Monterey Bay until I was 17. He then got transferred to Fort Huachuca in Arizona, so we moved to Tucson. My father was originally from the Navajo Reservation, where he was born and raised. He was the son of a medicine man.
Are both your parents Native American?
No. My mother is Filipino. During World War II, my father was in the Philippines, where he met her. My mom’s family was large—12 kids—and they were suffering financially after the Japanese invasion, so their parents decided to open up a G.I. honky-tonk bar called Three Sisters. My mom was the piano player playing honky-tonk piano, entertaining the soldiers. He saw her and fell in love with her as soon as they met.
Because my father and his family were very traditional Navajo, after World War II, my father had to go back to the reservation to ask permission from my grandfather to see if he could marry outside the traditional religion and also to move and begin a family in California, where he was in the civil service.
My mother suffered the horrors of war and the Japanese invasion, and that included having her whole family split up. My dad got her out of that and brought her to the States, where they had six children. We are all musicians.
Do, you get your musical genes from your mother.
Yes. She had us around the piano when we were children. She taught us to sing harmonies for Christmas carols. We had our little choir, and we performed. My dad had us dance the Native American dance. We were a family dance troupe and went to elementary schools where we shared cultural awareness, parades, and other things. We began at a very young age in both song and dance.
I was placed on stage in Monterey, California, at an international children’s pageant when I was five. Because of the racism and prejudice that my dad was experiencing in the civil service, he wanted me to represent Native American culture. My mom and dad made Native American regalia, dressed me in it, and put a drum in my hand. That was in the 1960s, before the Black Civil Rights Movement began. He was like a pioneer because Native Americans were not like that back then– we didn’t have a voice.
Is there a precious piece of advice one of your elders gave you that you use in life?
My elders taught me about the circle of life and looking at life as a circle. Not a square, triangle, or line, but as a circle. My dad raised me to be a hoop dancer, and I have been using those circles of life and interconnecting them. It’s a very symbolic story of how all of our lives interconnect. The circle of life they taught me was to have the four directions or areas that make up the circle of life and create completeness and balance: the mind, the body, the soul, and relationships. That has stuck with me for my life.
I’ve been teaching that in drug addiction centers and use those teachings in everything I do. We must find that personal balance we need in this modern society. We need to have our minds clear and healthy, not stressed and not pulled in different directions, and our bodies healthy, taking care of ourselves, nourishing ourselves, getting rest, self-care, and our soul, and, of course, having some spiritual belief system. Then, our relationships, making peace, and resolving conflict with our relationships all create a circle.
Is there anyone in particular who has had influenced on you?
I don’t think there’s been a particular person. There are people in different genres of music and art that have affected me. They have helped shape me. What I believe is that for Native Americans, all of our songs, dances, and music are a story. We’re not just dancing for the heck of it when we dance. Everything has a meaning. Everything tells a story, from the dancing, the particular singing we do with our voices, and the use of the drum.
I’ve learned to tell my story through my dancing, voice, songs, and flute music, to reveal my experience on this earth, and to touch other people with that. There are Cuban conga drummers and percussionists from Cuba who came to the U.S. and to whom I’ve listened, and they have impacted my playing as a conga drummer. I’m a Latin percussionist. I play with salsa bands, funk, soul, and R&B.
There are Native American visual artists. My cousin was one. My older cousin stayed with us in
California for a little while, and I was mesmerized by his artwork. That’s what woke up my desire to be a painter. My dad was instrumental in teaching me his traditional ways and the simplicity of how I wanted my life to be.
Getting back to whom that one particular person might be. I guess I have to say my dad probably helped shape my path the most. Just as he put me on stage when I was five years old, he was the one who pushed me into the spotlight.
That was a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I became a performer, but you don’t have a reservoir when you’re five and put on stage. You don’t know what your worth is. You have not begun to create self-esteem. You don’t know who you are. I found that it was very traumatic for me to be on stage. I was a very shy little boy and did not want to be on stage in front of all those people. My mom told me I tried to hide in the house mainly because I would be wearing very little clothing – a loincloth and vest and Native American regalia – and I felt like I was going to be half naked.
I felt my family was not protecting me. I did not feel safe. I was being put into the public arena and didn’t know how to deal with it. I understand how people like Michael Jackson and different artists are put on stage at a young age before they know who they are. It can be traumatic.
How did you feel when you received the applause?
That’s what happens. You begin to look for the applause. That’s how you receive your validation. But I had to go backward on this. To make you fully understand what I mean, here is what I do now.
I teach about the eagle and how the baby eagle sits in the nest 90 feet high in a pine tree, safe and secure. It has a refuge and is safe from predators. Mom and Dad Eagle will feed that baby and make it comfortable in that nest, put down feathers, and make it home, and it won’t have any fear. They will come to feed it and take care of it. All it needs to do is cry, and they’ll attend to it, and it will feel at peace. When the young eagle becomes a teenager and its wings develop, the mom and dad eagle will fly by the nest, and they will try to encourage it to leave. It might be standing on the edge of the nest. They’ll fly by with a rabbit in their mouth. They’ll stop feeding it. Soon, it will become hungry, and finally, it will jump. It will make the leap because it’s ready. Its wings and feathers are developed enough to begin to fly on its own.
And just like that, my dad pushed me out on stage when I was a young baby eagle. I was pushed out of the nest at five years old, 90 feet in the air, down onto the earth, and during that time on the earth, I lived in this jungle, and my wings had to grow, learning to live in this world, before my wings had fully grown. I spent 40 years with addiction, drugs, and alcohol. That was my jungle. I had to create my wings. They had to grow and develop, and finally, I was able to fly from the earth. Not from a nest, from the earth and all the craziness down here in the darkness and fly up to the heavens and then find my own nest.
What is your relationship, and that of the Indigenous people, with animals?
When I talk about the circle of life, that’s the beginning. Our personal circle is finding that balance of mind, body, soul, and relationships. Healing each of those areas and then having that perfect balance. The circle goes around in a balanced way and very smoothly. When you start thinking about the universe, and when you begin to find personal balance, then you connect with the birds, animals, trees, sun, moon, stars, earth, water, fire, and every other human being, every different culture, and then you all create and connect, and that’s the story of the hoop dance.
When we all come together, it creates universal harmony. But it all begins with us. We are responsible for healing ourselves, finding that beautiful balance, and connecting to our children, loved ones, neighbors, the eagle, hawk, sparrow, robin, all life around us, the kitty cats, and the puppy dogs.
If you think about the birds of prey, the eagle is the old Cadillac that used to float down the freeway. The eagle is the Cadillac of the birds of prey. It goes slower, it takes off slower, it cannot maneuver very quickly, but it’s able to soar, and it only flaps its wings five times an hour. The rest of the time, it simply floats in the air. We look to the eagle as the one that is wise and able to learn, to let go and learn to spread our wings, and then we’re able to see everything from the heavens and look at life objectively.
The hawk is the sports car of birds of prey. It’s swift and very accurate. It takes off quickly, lands quickly, and makes quick maneuvers and sharp turns. The hawk is the quicker sports car of the birds of prey. What I teach is that every animal has attributes. Everything has strengths and gifts. If we are all creating with all circles of life, then we are part of that energy. We can be like the eagle or the hawk and connect with all these energetic forces in the universe.
We use an eagle feather in our prayers. Everything is about symbolism. For Native Americans and all indigenous cultures, symbolism is a picture story. If you look at a hoop, if you look at a circle that says, “Oh, that is what I want my circle of life to be.” It’s looking at a picture story and saying, “Okay, that’s what I want.” When we look at these symbols, they have meaning. When you understand the meaning, it can apply to your daily life in contemporary society.
You visit animal shelters and play music for caged animals. How did this idea come about? And what impact has this musical initiative had on the well-being of the animals?
I was doing a concert by the first animal shelter in Pinal County in Eloy, Arizona. I’d been out dancing, playing music, and doing interactive activities with the audience. When I was done, a friend, Lisa Benedito, who also took pictures, asked me if I would like to go to the animal shelter. I said, “Yes, I would.” She told me an overflow of animals needed to be released because many of them would die.
I said, “Okay, I’m going to go, and I’m going to do a prayer and a blessing for all those dogs and cats to get released and find homes.” The staff allowed me in. I went down to every kennel and knelt beside each of the dogs, and I used my heartbeat drum, which I use for meditation music and transition.
Initially, I used my heartbeat drum in hospice to help people to die because if someone needs peace in their life and to let go of everything that’s a conflict in their life, then they want to make peace to be able to make the transition.
I thought, “This is another form of hospice. Everything is about transitions and life and death. We’re all transitioning one way or another. I want to make a way for these dogs and cats to feel that beautiful peace because they can sense that they’re on death row.” I went to each kennel, used a heartbeat drum, and sang a chant, a hum-like lullaby, like the one I use in my spiritual sessions.
I had the drum so close to the chain link of the kennel gate of this one little chihuahua. He was licking my drum because he was so moved and comforted. We feel the heartbeat of love as young children. We’re being held in those loving arms by someone who supports us, wants us, and cherishes us, and we feel that heartbeat in their chest. That is the safest place in the world for any human, dog, or other animal.
Note: Unlock the insights and inspiration of Tony Redhorse’s exclusive interview in our April 2024 issue.
Our special Thank you to
Tony Redhouse
Photogrpahy by:
Beth Forester
Bryan Thompson
Kris Davidson
Hurray, P. Tauzin,
Diane Lopez Wilson,
Alyssa Branscombe,
Lisa Benedetto.
“When I talk about
the circle of life,
that’s the beginning.
Our personal circle is finding
that balance of mind,
body, soul, and relationships.
Healing each of those areas and
then having that perfect balance.“
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