by Sean Aaron Cruz

Katherine Paul is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community on the Puget Sound in Washington. Her music reflects her upbringing, the land and the water, and traditional Native music as well as alt rock and grunge.

She began learning to play the piano at a young age and played flute in her school band. Later, she taught herself to play drums and guitar.

In 2007, she moved to Portland, Oregon, to attend college at Lewis & Clark College. While in Portland, she became involved with the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls.

She performed at the 2017 Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival. We invited her the same day that we heard her debut album Mother of My Children, where she played all the instruments and did all of the singing.

She moved home to her tribal community on the Salish Sea in 2020.

She has released an EP and three albums under her band name Black Belt Eagle Scout. The band has toured extensively across North America, Europe and Australia, and she contributed two songs for the Reservation Dogs soundtrack.

"Katherine Paul grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community on the Puget Sound in Washington. Her earliest musical experiences included listening to and singing indigenous music of the Coast Salish. She was a jingle dress dancer at regional pow wows with her family’s drum group, the Skagit Valley Singers. At a young age, Paul began learning to play the piano and played the flute in her school band. Her interest in the guitar and drums began when she came into the possession of some bootleg VHS tapes of Hole and Nirvana, from which she taught herself to play those two instruments by pausing the tapes and studying the musicians’ fingerings and techniques.

“During high school Paul became involved in the small DIY music scene in Anacortes, Washington near the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, driving her parents’ car to attend shows at the Department of Safety venue. The venue, located in an old firehouse, is where she met Canadian artist and musician Geneviève Castrée who became a mentor to Paul. An inspiration of Paul’s, Castrée would attend her early performances, encouraging her and praising her for her playing. “In 2007, Paul moved from Washington to Portland, Oregon to attend college at Lewis & Clark College. While in Portland she became involved with the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls, and later contributed guitar, drums, and vocals for Portland-based bands Forest Park and Genders. (Source: Wikipedia)

“If you can imagine all of the best things that the Pacific Northwest has brought us—Mount Eerie, Grunge, Sleater-Kinney, The Girls Rock Camp, and lush mountain ranges—reimagined and told through the perspective of an Indigenous Swinomish/Iñupiaq woman; if you can imagine the magic that would bring to your life then you can imagine Black Belt Eagle Scout.”

— She Shreds Magazine

2014 – Present

Alternative rock, Pacific Northwest Indie Rock, traditional

Bandleader, songwriter, musician, producer

Drums, Guitar, Piano, Vocals