I want to thank and acknowledge those who have inspired, trained, mentored and coached me, most of all accepted me. That is the reason...
Buz Daney, Choctaw, born in the Sisters of Providence Hospital, Anchorage, Territory of Alaska to Gilbert and Joyce Daney, all of whom are members of the
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. His mother retired from the Indian Health Service, Anchorage Service Unit.
His paternal grandfather, Gilbert W. Daney, served as Atoka County Judge for nineteen years and his paternal grandmother, Marjorie McCollum served as a teacher for over fifty years, including ten of them in the Alaska village communities of Cordova, Wrangell and Craig.
His maternal Grandparents are Agnes Pauline McCurtain Colbert and George Walker. Both his mother and father's side includes lineage to four Principal Chiefs of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Buz began singing with the First Baptist Church congregation, witnessing both his mom and Dad in the Choir, then later, as a member of the Abbott Loop Community Chapel choir. Both he and his dad volunteered to record sermons plus a multitude of religious events. Before, during and after, his dad, with help from Buz recorded Anchorage Community Chorus/Orchestra concerts, both East & West High School Bands/Choirs and many, many other community events. His father, as producer for many original tape recordings and Record (LP) albums, has an impressive collection on archive at the University of Alaska, Anchorage Consortium Library.
Upon graduation from West Anchorage High school, and profoundly influenced by choir director Cam McCarrey, Buz joined America’s Youth in Concert Choir and spent a month on tour performing throughout Europe, beginning in Rome, Italy and ending in London, England. Later, as he began attending Anchorage Community College, (ACC), he followed a prolific family friend, Elvera Voth, the ACC Choral Conductor, wherever she was involved, including: Anchorage Opera, Basically Bach Festival, Anchorage Community Chorus and a multitude of other community events. Buz received vocal instruction from ACC instructors Michael Moore and Gloria Marinaci during that time. He later joined the Trattoria Singers for a few summer engagements at the Hilton Hotel.
Buz began working for Southcentral Foundation in 1989 and is currently manager of Traditional Healing Clinic at the
Alaska Native Primary Care Center. He also teaches classes
as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA)
in the Human Service and Psychology departments. He has a graduate
Public Health degree from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa
In late 1989, Buz met and began traveling with Uncle Walter Austin. As Department of Corrections Prison Ministry volunteer lay leaders and clergy, they visited several of the institutions throughout Alaska.
Buz is lead singer and a founding member of Mt. Susitna Singers, also known as Sleeping Lady Singers, an Intertribal drum group with a foundation in sobriety which began as early as 1991. Led by Jim Kayotawape, Drumkeeper, they are known for sharing, restoring and inspiring Indigenous Cultural Renewal. During the mid nineties, they performed at the Anchorage Performing Arts Center for the Heart of the Earth Tour featuring the Indigo Girls. Mt. Susitna Singers have been involved with several movies and video projects, including the moving environmental film, More Than Words about the Native People of Eyak, featuring his friend, Chief Marie Smith Jones.
Early in the new millennium, Mt Susitna Singers, collaborated
with MedicineDream & several other well known Alaska
Native groups for Surreal Studio’s production of Alaska
Gathering, garnering a 2001 Native American
Music Award nomination (NAMA), for best Historical Recording.
On this unique and absorbing album, Buz joins his wife, Linda to sing
with Miracle Dancers, led by James Afcan of St. Mary’s
village. Buz collaborated on over half of the songs with additional
bridge melodies on this CD. Featured storytellers are Uncle Walter Austin
and Lucille Davis from Kodiak, Alaska.
In 1993, his family, led by father-in-law, Joseph Ayagarak
Sr., were invited by friends, Marie and William Tyson to join
Greatland Dancers of Anchorage and performed at Mr. Tyson’s
last performance at Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)
Quyana Night in October of that year. Soon after, he and his
wife Linda & family were instrumental in founding a new group called,
Kicaput (pronounced, Gee jaw boot meaning Our
Anchor), with Cupik & Yupik Eskimo origins, led by David Chanar
& Ben Snowball, with Buz as their first male dancer.
As Kicaput Theatre, led by Ossie Kairaiuak and coordinated
by his wife, Linda, they were the first Alaska Native Dance group to
perform at the Merrie Monarch Festival, in 2002, Hilo,
Hawai’i.
Buz has had the pleasure of performing with fellow NAMA winner’s Pamyua, an original Alaska Native performance group, who began in 1996, by first supporting them in their creation, and joining them
for several concerts over the years, most notably, 2002 All America
Best City, where Anchorage was declared a winner.
Buz is currently a founding member and lead singer/drummer with
Cupiit Yurartet (pronounced, chu-peet u-ach-det,
meaning Cupik Dancers), a Cupik family dance group established
in 2004 with an emphasis on young Native People, that includes several
Cupik families from Chevak, an Indigenous village located off
the Bering Sea in Western Alaska. They are blessed with an abundance
of original songs that have been shared from their families also known
as Qissnamiut. In April of 2006, they had their first tour of
Hawai'i, co-sponsored by Hawaiian Vacations and coordinated
by his wife, Linda. Both of them have been involved with the Alaska
Hawaiian Cultural Foundation since before and after that time.
In 1999, as a function of his work at Southcentral Foundation’s
Behavioral Health Services, Buz was invited by the SCF BHS Vice President
to work on their domestic violence programs by traveling to the Southcentral
area villages to sing and drum with the young Native People. Due to
the overwhelming sexual violence of Alaska Native women in the Southcentral
region, Buz was also invited that same year to join the newly formed
Alaska Native Women’s Sexual Assault Committee (ANWSAC) as
a community based effort to stem the harm and death of Native Women
during Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Convention that year and
took a leadership role in the now highly successful Meet and
Greet Campaign. From the beginning, led by Denise Morris
and Cindy Pennington, ANWSAC has been joined by many local,
state and federal agencies, including the FBI in their organizational
roster. In 2003, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) chose this
group to be featured in their video entitled, Sexual Violence
Prevention web cast http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/phtn/
Buz’s wife Linda introduced the World Peace and Prayer Day Ceremony to Alaska in 1996. These annual ceremonies have included their family, friends and many of the members of the community drum groups mentioned above every following year. The Daney family as members of the Chief Arvol Looking Horse Native American delegation traveled globally. They traveled with MedicineDream to Ireland for the 2001 WPPD Ceremonies, Durban, South Africa, 2002, at the invitation of Ela Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s Grand-daughter, Australia in 2003, and Mt. Fuji, Japan, 2004, as a family. In 2005, the Wopila ceremony in the Black Hills of South Dakota, attended by Linda and niece Abigail. In 2006 after a ten-year culmination of planning the Alaska World Peace and Prayer Day Ceremony occurred in Native Village of Eklutna, Alaska during their annual Powwow. A special Wiping of the Tears ceremony was held the second day for the orphans, a significant event for the many Alaska Natives who have endured their own Boarding/Residential school experiences. As part of the Eklutna Powwow Planning Committee for through the decades, both Linda and Buz were honored with their fellow members by the Bridge Builders of Alaska Volunteer Award at a special banquet held later that year.
Recently, in May, 2008,Buz and his family were invited back to Durban, to present at the South Africa Society for Cooperative EducationConference with Ela Gandhi where they also entertained at the main banquet. He also represented SCF in Kauai, Hawai’i during June, 2008 for the protocol of PRIDOC, Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress, as well as facilitated a circle of Traditional Healers in attendance.
Buz, his wife Linda, Susan Duck, Steven Alvarez and Ted Mala are founders of the community
based Fur Rondezvous MultiTribal Gathering now in it’s
third year as a highly popular aspect of this event. The idea, inspired
by Buz’s director, Dr. Ted Mala, has been a keystone to restoring
Fur Rondy as it is known locally, to its current nationwide status
as a premier USA Winter Festival.
As a founding member of Medicine Dream, Buz is
the lead indigenous vocalist, and continues to sing in Native People’s
communities.