Lawrence Toya started the Cloud Eagle Seasonal Dance Group, a Native American music group consisting of Toya family members, nearly 35 years ago with the aim of sustaining their love of song and dance and sharing their culture and language. That goal has soared to new heights, now that Cloud Eagle’s music is available for licensing to film, television, and other media.
“Never!” says Cloud Eagle member Glendon Toya, when asked if this is ever where he and his family imagined their music taking them. “Although our music has won us two New Mexico Music Awards in 2014 and 2015, we did not expect our music to be available for licensing on film and TV. This is great.”
Cloud Eagle persevered through many of the obstacles that the COVID pandemic presented and decided to use technology and social media as a tool during that time. Reaching Indigenous peoples from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe and the positive responses they received further inspired their music and mission.
The three albums available for licensing are self- produced and feature authentic sounds, instruments, and voices from the Pueblos of Jemez and Zuni in the native languages of Towa, Zuni, Keres, and Hopi.
These albums have been made available by ALIBI Music, a music licensing library based in Los Angeles. Jeffrey Parks, ALIBI’s chief operating officer, met Glendon’s uncle, John Toya, in 2000 after he came across a mural John created at the Jemez Pueblo visitor center and invited him to the art and music festival Parks’ Pennsylvania art organization hosted at the time. John completed an artist-in-residency program at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t until late 2023 that the opportunity for this partnership became fully realized.
Parks says a demand for authentic Native American music in the film and TV industry became apparent as more Native American stories were being told, and clients began requesting authentic music for commercial use to complement their storytelling.
“Music is a big part of storytelling,” Parks says. “Most people don’t actually realize that unless they think about it. But music is used to develop emotion. ... It really does help the storytellers do a better job of telling their story. So we realized that now there is more interest in Native American culture and Native American stories, and we wanted to be able to fulfill this need for storytellers to use true Native American music in Native American tongues.”
A unique aspect of the partnership with Cloud Eagle is the purpose of sharing it for commercial use. Cloud Eagle’s music promotes their members’ culture, languages, and uplifting prayers, but it is not using traditional sacred songs, which Parks says is important to avoid for commercial use.
Authentic Native American music created for the purpose of sharing with the masses is a rarity in the music licensing and film and TV worlds, making this partnership a significant step for Native American music and storytelling.
Parks says ALIBI and their clients are interested in partnering with more Native American artists to continue building their libraries with music that is authentic and rich in culture. “We want to be able to publish more of that and have it available for the storytellers who are focusing on Native American groups,” says Parks, who adds that music from artists from the Navajo Nation is next on their wish list.
Cloud Eagle, which is now on its third generation of dancers and singers and consists of four members of the Toya family, is excited about this partnership and hopeful about its impact on the Indigenous community.
“It is very humbling and rewarding that we can inspire our youth to follow,” Glendon says. “I’m hopeful that our music will create positive content not only for traditional and cultural purposes but for the things influencing our Native communities negatively, such as our missing and murdered Indigenous brothers and sisters, drugs and alcohol plaguing our people. We are hopeful that we can be a part of the awareness to love one another.”
