Watchlist: ‘The Indigenous punk band 1876 rocks Portland and beyond’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

Sometimes when Gabe Colhoff (Northern Cheyenne and Blackfeet) gets stuck creating music for his band, he brings out photos of family members and Tribal chiefs to ask what they would like him to say.

Colhoff’s band, called 1876, is an Indigenous punk band based in Portland with a message of unification.

“I want to help teach about my people, help teach about who came here before everybody else was here,” Colhoff said in an Oregon Art Beat video on the Oregon Public Broadcasting’s YouTube channel. “It’s not in a way to wag a finger. It’s more like, if you know the truth and I know the truth, let’s move forward.”

Like traditional punk bands, the video shows the six-person band rehearsing in a garage. Unlike other punk bands, they play with feathers hanging off the guitars, incorporate a powwow drum in their music and sing in their Native language.

“Everything that punk rock is supposed to be about, it’s what we are,” Colhoff said. “We tell the truth in our music when we speak, that’s punk.”

Colhoff explains the inspiration behind his band’s name: 1876 was the Battle of Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Big Horn) fought in 1876, when Tribes combined forces to defeat the U.S. Army. 

“It’s a message to Indian Country, we have to stick together,” Colhoff said.

For more about 1876, you can go to their website, 1876band.com.

To watch the Oregon Art Beat video on the band, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJlB0atRNiw.