Grammy performance by OutKast member angers American Indians

<p>George Toya of the Jemez Pueblo powow group Black Eagle was happy when he heard the American Indian chant that opened the final performance at the Grammy Awards show. He thought he was was about to see a fellow American Indian group perform.</p><p>It was a Navajo song that I recognized, and I got a little excited, said Toya, who along with the other members of the group were at the ceremony Sunday to pick up a Grammy for Best Native American Music Album.</p><p>But the drumming was actually the intro to a performance of the song Hey Ya! by Andre 3000 Benjamin of the hip-hop group OutKast. Benjamin and some women danced around a giant green teepee while wearing war paint, feathers and fringed costumes.</p><p>Toya couldnt believe it.</p><p>I told my wife who was sitting beside me, Somebody is going to be (angry) about this, he said.</p><p>American Indians across the country were angered by the performance, which they say was disrespectful to their culture and a perpetuation of tomahawk-and-teepee stereotypes.</p><p>I like OutKast. I like their music, said Albuquerque record producer and musician Tom Bee, who was nominated for this years Native American Music Grammy and was also sitting in the audience. But I thought the show was not correct. It was degrading.</p><p>The San Francisco-based Native American Cultural Center is calling for a boycott of OutKast, which won three Grammys at the show; Arista, their record company; the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that sponsors the Grammys; and CBS, the network that aired the show.</p><p>The center has also filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.</p><p>The Oneida Nation and a former Miss Indian World criticized the performance on Tuesday.</p><p>Indianz.com has launched an online petition calling for an apology from Benjamin. By Wednesday night, there were 2,500 signatures on it.</p><p>I dont think you meant to offend, but you hurt us, wrote a petition signer named Megan Jones. Please acknowledge our feelings and apologize.</p><p>Arista Records did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment.</p><p>CBS issued an apology on its Web site that stopped short of saying Benjamins performance was insulting to the 2.3 million American Indians in the country.</p><p>So far Benjamin and Antoine Big Boi Patton, the other half of OutKast, have been silent.</p><p>Bee was particularly angered by the fact that the dancers who accompanied Benjamin wore feathers, a sacred symbol for Natives.</p><p>The use of them for a costume is offensive, he said. Its like using a Torah as a prop.</p>