Goodshield Aguilar is a Turtle Island Native Oglala Lakota and Pasqua Yoeme heritage.
From a young age, art and music had always played a major role in his observations and expressions of the world around him. Culture and Identity were always important to him, having grown up in California; far from his regional ancestral lands, he has successfully faced the challenge of keeping strong cultural ties.
Music has taken him all over Turtle Island, introducing him to the beauty and diversity of the many nations across this land, and also the struggles and plights continuing today, from sacred site desecration, to revoked water rights, to contamination of the environment, and the slaughtering of buffalo.
By his mid 20’s, he had devoted his music and energy to speaking for the buffalo in Yellowstone and the salmon on the Klamath river in Northern California. Music had become a way to bring awareness and consciousness rather than just entertainment.
Aguilar’s styles range from traditional drumming to acoustic melodies with spoken word, from funky dance grooves to hard rock. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing drums, guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, flute, and piano. He is best known for his solo acoustic performances, strumming an acoustic guitar while pounding on a bass drum and belting out Indigenous chants, singing and spoken word. At times, you can catch him playing with a band called 7th Generation Rise, with band members Johnny Martinez on Drums, Rico von Rabenau on electric guitar and Mignon Geli on flute.
When Goodshield isn’t traveling with music or with the Buffalo Field Campaign, he builds straw bale homes, is a lover of the outdoors and is a blessed father of three beautiful young men.
