James Edmund Greeley

James Edmund Greeley lives on the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon. His ancestry is Warm Springs, Wasco, Nez Perce and Hopi. He plays Native flutes and bone whistles, performing in a wide variety of settings.

Artist statement:

“Native flute music has been here 3,000 years plus. Long ago, the Deity Kokopa (aka Kokopelli) crossed paths with my Hopi Nations in the Southwest of America. His melodies and chants were from various wooden flutes and bone whistles. The rain would fall and bring harvest and fertility among the Hopi people.

“Poof! Here I am on another Tour through the Universe! Today I perform to enlighten and bring back my heritage for all nations and to all my relations.

“I’m also here from the Northwest with the Warm Springs Wasco & Nez Perce Nations – people from today’s Columbia River before the Dalles Dam flooded Celilo Falls in 1957 and the Wild Salmon runs, a way of life for 10,000 years, were taken away. Before the American Dream got here.

“I thank my ancestors and what they sacrificed for all of us to be here as one people today! Welcome to a trip back in time as the echoes take you on a ride to infinity & back!” (Source: Artist’s website)

His 2017 cd Before America won Best Traditional Recording at the Native American Music Awards. His songs range from contemporary traditional to those reaching back thousands of years on these lands and in these rivers.

For example, no place in Oregon is arguably more important than Celilo Falls on the Nche’ Wana (Columbia River). The historic falls were flooded by The Dalles dam in 1957, destroying a way of life that had thrived for more than 12,000 years, the center of a vast trading network.

Celilo Village remains the oldest continuously-occupied settlement in North America. James reached back and recorded this song to begin his album. Sahaptin is a language spoken here since time immemorial.

He has performed as a guest artist with classical pianist Hunter Noah a number of times since 2018 for Hunter’s In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild series. Hunter has taken his 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano, mounted on a trailer, to perform more than 200 locations throughout the U.S, including the Warm Springs Reservation.

James recorded with five-time Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding on her Formwela 2 album, which won 2021 Best Vocal Jazz Grammy, with his eagle bone whistle.

1997 to present

Traditional, Classical, jazz, hip hop, EDM

Musician, Songwriter

Flute