Dakota Music Tour featured in the Winona Post!

Meld of Native, classical music at Unity Park Saturday
By Cynthya Porter (06/01/2011)

The mellifluous timbre of a flute will drift through the air at Unity Park Saturday, lifted up by the sound of violins and an unusual accompaniment: Native American drums and singers telling the story of indigenous people. The concert is a stop on the Dakota Music Tour, a one-of-a-kind event that weaves traditional orchestral music together with traditional Indian music. Performing on the Dakota Music Tour is the Mankato Symphony Orchestra along with Maza Kute, a renowned Dakota drum group from Santee, Nebraska...
The Dakota Music Tour is ... an example of how people from all lineages can integrate their many diverse parts into their lives, something more and more necessary as society becomes homogenized with many races... “It was designed as a way for Dakota people to have a voice,” Davids said. “Minnesota was founded on genocide. No one wants to go back and look at it, but they are ignoring the Dakota people if they won’t.” The music brings people to the event, but the healing comes from the dialog that happens, Davids said, kind of like the Mary Poppins saying, he said. “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” he said. “The concert is the sugar.”