FLOYD WESTERMAN

Born on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation in Northeast South Dakota, Floyd Westerman began his music career as a country-folk singer in mid-'60s Denver. His first album, 1970's Custer Died for Your Sins, took its name from an influential book by Santee Sioux author and activist Vine Deloria, Jr., and both were stinging rebukes of America's destructive Indian policy. Westerman's second album, 1982's This Land is Your Mother, is a brilliant example of his bitter, biting songwriting. Constantly touring to support activist groups such as the American Indian Movement, Westerman became a favorite of other socially conscious musicians, performing with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson, and opening for Sting on his worldwide tour in support of the Amazon Rainforest. In 1989 Westerman took up acting, eventually winning critical acclaim for his role as Ten Bears in Dances With Wolves.

Courtesy of palmpictures.com

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