Native American Pedal Steel Players????

[Mike Ormsby]

I have just taken up the lap steel....and I am part Ojibway (Anishinaabe)....a good friend wondered why I didn't just play pedal steel (I explained easier to play lap steel & easier to carry)....and he also doesn't think there are are any Native American pedal steel players....I'm sure there are but couldn't think of anyone? SO my question is:

any Native American pedal steel players?

[Terry Wood]

Yes my Good Jimmy Dreadfulwater is Cherokee and lives near Talequah Oklahoma. He is a Great entertainer. He plays Pedal Steel Guitar, Guitar and Fiddle. He also Sings quite well. I'm part Cherokee and there are others. Glad your playing Steel Guitar. I build GFI Steel Guitars too. If you decide on a Pedal Steel Guitar later I can help you locate one. Best regards!

[Frank Freniere]

Haven’t seen him on Midwest Country (RFD-TV) in a while but I believe Joe Savage is part Native American. I think he calls himself a “Finndian.”

[David Ball]

There was Chief Mack Thomas and family with Mack playing his Bigsby back in the old days. I don't know which Native American people he was part of though.
Dave

[Larry Dering]

My dad and his family was Native American Indian, Cherokee and Choctaw. However my mother was Irish and Italian. So I'm only partially native American Indian. The fiddle was my grandfather's instrument. Dad played guitar and harmonica. I began guitar in my teens and lap steel in my 20s. Pedal steel was finally in my life in my 30s. No turning back now. I love the steel guitar. Have fun with it.

[john buffington]

I am part Cherokee and have a roll number.

[Keith Hilton]

Mixed blood Cherokee and Choctaw. My Grandmother is on the Dawes Rolls.

[Stu Schulman]

Chief Thomas Mac was an incredible pedal steel guitar player,Who I met in Anchorage Alaska,He was working on the North Slope for one of the "Big Oil"companies.There are Records by the "Mac Family Band"out there.

[Dylan Keating]

I am also part Ojibwe--- my grandfather is from Couchiching First Nation in Northern Ontario, but he eventually moved to Thunder Bay.

[John McClung]

Chief Mack Thomas' son John Thomas was a student of mine in 2011, studying pedal steel.

[Darvin Willhoite]

Mack Thomas was in Claremore, Oklahoma in the early '70s. He worked with my uncle that owned a music store there. I had just started playing the steel and his playing blew me away, and was part of the reason I got hooked on steel. He was playing a D10 that had been custom built, about the only thing I remember about it is that it had ball bearings on the pedal shafts, and it supposedly cost him $6000. He was probably there only about 6 months, I don't know where he went from there.

[Bob Hoffnar]

I remember seeing a very cool Pedalsteel player at Scotty’s convention in maybe 1988 who did a ton of behind the bar finger pulls. I’m pretty sure he was a Native American. If there is a record of who played written down I’m sure I could figure out who he was.

[Dennis Lee]

My long time friend, Wilson Gillette, Lakota, living in Arizona for many years now. Plays a D10 Franklin.
I was his bass player when he was inducted into the North and South Dakota Music HOF back in 2012. First steel player I ever worked in a band with when he lived in Oregon. He has chops I only wish I had!
Love ya Brother Wil

[Paul Pearson]

I am a member of poach band of creek Indians I do have a roll number I play southern gospel music

[Marty Holmes]

I think Jason Bolands steel player was native American though i cant remember his name.

[Jeremiah Wade]

My great grandmother was Cherokee from Oklahoma.Makes me 1/8 but I don't look anything like a Native American.

[Joe Goldmark]

Pee Wee Whitewing https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wayma-p ... 0002298609

I'm not positive that he was part Native American but since he was born in Oklahoma with that name, I assume so. A great player who sometimes played twin steels with Bobby Black in various bands.

[J R Rose]

My Great Grandmother was full blood Cherokee and came here on the Trail of Tears. Her name and my Grandmother's are in the Dawes Book with a Roll Number but they did not go back and resign so I am not able to get a number. Some political scheme. And to look at me you would never know I am part Cherokee. My Dad was a tall, slender man with cold black hair and dark brown skin. I took after my Mother, English/Irish. But I would like to get a roll number, I am Proud of that heritage. J.R. Rose

[Glenn Shankle]

I think Jason Bolands steel player was native American though i cant remember his name.

I think that was Roger Ray.

[George Macdonald]

I knew Mack Thomas when we lived in Orange County Calif. in the 70s. At that time Mack was playing a D11 ZB into a Standell amp. He was a terrific steel player, and was with a Gospel group at that time, [not the Thomas Family]. He introduced me to another Gospel group in the area that was looking for a steel player. Mack's younger brother John played drums in our group. I played with that group for almost 10 years and we made 5 albums over the years, before we moved back to Canada. By the way, Mack told me that he and his Family were Seminole.

[Duane Brown]

I am a descendant (one of many) of the last Comanche war chief and the first US Congressman from Oklahoma Quanah Parker but so far removed that I could never own a casino.

[John McClung]

Duane: hello and how you doing? Sure loved your playing and getting to know you at our induction into the Northwest Western Swing Music Society Hall of Fame!

[Darrell Criswell]

Yes my Good Jimmy Dreadfulwater is Cherokee and lives near Talequah Oklahoma. He is a Great entertainer. He plays Pedal Steel Guitar, Guitar and Fiddle. He also Sings quite well. I'm part Cherokee and there are others. Glad your playing Steel Guitar. I build GFI Steel Guitars too. If you decide on a Pedal Steel Guitar later I can help you locate one. Best regards!

Jimmy Dreadfulwater is a great entertainer, he refuses to call himself "Native American" saying he is an Indian. He tells a lot of ethnic jokes about his ancestry. He also has a bass player often with him who can sing some great Ray Price songs. If you have a chance to hear him you are in for a treat.

[Vic Lawson]

Just enough Choctaw to have a card!

[Wesley Medlen]

My great great grandfather was a full blood Choctaw if iremember right is supposed to be buried around Tallequaw his last name was Parker his son my great grand father was Clarence Parker from Ponca City Ok. I knew him well. SoI have a wee bit of native America in me. From my dad back thru my Grand dad Jesse Medlen and my grand mother Grace Parker all played music around Copn, Fewey and Coffeville, Ks but I am the first on steel. Wes