June 23, 2026 • 10 mins
Today we're spotlighting the work of Katherine Paul, also known as Black Belt Eagle Scout, an indigenous, queer musician.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Come welcome to stuff
when I never told your production of I Heard Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And for today's activists around the world, we are talking
about the works and art from Katherine Paul. So. Catherine Paul,
also known as black Belt Eagle Scout in the music
world and industry, is an Indigenous queer musician who has
always been surrounded by music and now uses her talent
(00:37):
as a way to celebrate her indigenous voice and culture.
There was a part in one of our articles which
I don't mention later, so I we've mentioned now where
she talks about the fact that she's not afraid to
be pigeonholed as a Native artist because that's who she is,
and I'm like that. She said that there's not enough representation,
not enough talking about it, especially those who are both
(00:58):
Native and queer. So she is cool and happy to
be a voice for that, and so are we. Because
if you get a chance, you should definitely go to
black Belt Eagle Scout dot com check out her music
because it's incredible. So it kind of reminds me of
some of that Portland slash West Coast sound that I
grew up hearing. If you're a part of the alternative world.
(01:21):
Very cool, cool sound as well as great message. It
does feel like it speaks to you if you get
a chance to listen. She's not gonna be a part
of my rotation because I really do like her music.
Her first song, soft SuDS, she calls it her qua anthem. Yeah,
you gotta love it.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I really enjoyed it too.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think you're gonna put this in your like writing list.
I have a feeling.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Do you have playlists? Yeah, yeah, I probably will because
it kind of has that like you can chill while
listening to it, but also it's very emotional.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah but calm, but it feels like you're connecting to
like the environment around you too. I feel like it's
gonna definitely be part of your playlist. But so yes,
if you want to take some time to go and
listen to that before jumping in about who she is,
or you want to do it after, that's fine. But
either way, listeners, you should be listening to this music,
so back to it. She is a part of the
(02:14):
Swinnamish Indian travel community from her father's side, as well
as the part of the native of Katsabou in Alaska.
As her mother was from the Annabach community, so she
grew up in the Swinnamish reservation in the northern Washington area,
and her family has always been involved in music as well.
In fact, she was a jingle dress dancer with them
when they would go to the regional ceremonies or powows.
(02:36):
A bit more about that from Audio music dot Com.
Music was embedded in her upbringing. Her family taught her
coastal Salis music, drumming, in jingle dress dance, and when
she goes back to the reservation, the tight knit community
is very proud of her in a lot of ways.
She's paying this forward her music. I love that that's
been a part of her culture and something that she
(02:57):
always has taken to heart. And obviously, again we've talked
about Native Indigenous dancing and how important it is in
their culture and how important it is to tell stories,
so obviously it's something that's been in her life. And
she continued her musical journey by playing flute and piano
in her school band and then going on to learn
the guitar and drums by watching old VHS tapes of
(03:19):
Nirvana and Whole and just teaching herself which Anye we
talked about. You did this with Green.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Day, Yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I feel like this is the right of way, like
the ride of passage for many young people who really
get into music like that. This would eventually lead her
to finding her artists and musician community like she would
travel around. Eventually she moved to Portland, Oregon to go
to school where she would get involved with rock and
roll Camp for girls, which we have a version of that,
the rock camp for young girls here who get a
(03:48):
chance to play music, form bands together and really thrive
in that type of culture. And of course she got
involved in different bands around the area and through her
growth and her continuing music career, always held fast to
her indigenous heritage. She released her first EP album as
Black Belt Eagle Scout in twenty fourteen, and then went
on to release her debut album, Mother of My Children
(04:11):
in twenty seventeen. Here's a bit from their site, black
Belt Eaglescout dot com quote this land runs through Catherine
Paul's blood, and it called to her in dreams that
she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When
the land calls, you listen, and KP found herself far
from her ancestral lands during the time of collect the trauma,
(04:32):
when the world was wounded and in need of healing.
In twenty twenty, she made the journey from Portland back
to the Scatchet River, back to the cedar trees that
stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide
flats and the mountains, back to Swinnemish. It is a
powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands, and oftentimes
the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents,
(04:52):
like the tide as it crawls the shore. This is
a story of return. It is the call and response.
It is the outstretched arm of the people who came
before welcomed her home. The land, the water, the sky.
Is a celebration of lineage and strength, even in its
deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a
world wrought with colonial violence and pain. The songs remind
(05:15):
us that if we slow down, if we listen to
the waves in the wind, through the trees, we will
remember to breathe. There is a through line of story
in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a
gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a
reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and
a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity and what it
(05:36):
means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.
And even though this is more about her last album,
this is obviously something that she holds tight even throughout
her life, and the through line has always been a
part of her She has talked about her past experience
in music. Back to that audio music dot com article,
here's what they wrote. Black Belt Eagle Scout sees KP
(05:59):
embraced the creative freedom and control of being a solo artist,
especially after navigating the predominantly white, male, straight music world.
She honed her skills playing in a bunch of bands,
including Genders and Forest Park in Portland. She moved there
in two thousand and seven to attend Lewis and Clark
College after also playing in Portland's Rock and Roll Camp
for Girls, and learned the business side of things working
(06:20):
for Mississippi Studios. In high school, she'd drive her parents
car to nearby town and a court to catch DIY shows.
The intimacies of place and sense of community among fellow
indigenous and queer people and people of color are integral
parts of her music. With the expansiveness of her melancholy sound,
she creates room for intense grief and heartbreak and personal
(06:42):
as well as generational trauma, and comes back to the
ways the power of friendships and relationships ground her. And
she talks about not feeling like she's a lyricist, but
obviously just in her descriptors alone, she absolutely is. She
is a storyteller in a modern way, in a modern take,
which is what oftentimes is needed and is a reminder
(07:03):
of where music began. Oftenimes where we see the beginning
of how tradition and sounds come forward and who actually
can carry these and I feel like represent it well,
it's oftentimes the black and Indigenous communities and she is
the prime example of that and they. As for her
last album, Paul talks about returning home to the Swinhamish
Indian tribal community. She spoke about this with Premier Guitar
(07:26):
dot Com, saying the writing of this album, Paul's third
full length release, started as far back as twenty twenty,
when she moved back home to the Swinhamish Indian travel
community in Skatget County, Washington, from where she'd been living
in Portland, Oregon. She says, I tend to write about times,
and this record has a lot to do with the
last couple of years of moving from one place to another,
(07:46):
says Paul, particularly moving back home to where I was
born and raised and where my people have been since
time immemorial. There's the theme of a journey. It was
this journey of coming back home. When I was there,
just being in my community, being with theatre, I had
this epiphany where I was like, this is where I'm
meant to be. I'm meant to be here in this
exact moment, in this exact place. It kind of rejuvenated
(08:08):
the awareness of how my mental health and how I
live within this world is linked to that connection I
have to where I'm from, to my homeland. And there
was a moment in her life that she had a
really scary experience where she was hospitalized near death and
had to even do a whole GoFundMe to raise and
get all of the help that she needed. And so
I'm sure returning home for her in this time was
(08:31):
very important to healing both mentally and physically. So we
definitely know there's a lot. She is still touring and
making music. I think there's a couple of shows coming
up if you're in the Portland area as well as
a British Columbia area, So if you get an opportunity,
I think this is a show that's worth seeing. She
is fantastic and making sure she's acknowledging the indigenous and
(08:52):
queer people that attend her shows, because again, to be
represented means everything, and she knows that and recognizes that
to highlight that during our shows and sees that as
something as being important, and we love that and kudos
to that. Again, if you need new music, here's a
recommendation right here. Even though her last album was released
in twenty twenty three, still worth listening. I think it
(09:14):
holds over time.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yes, absolutely, and listeners as always, If you have any
music recommendations, any thoughts about this, we would love to
hear from you. You can email us at Hello at
Stuff Fromneverteld You dot com. You can find us on
blue skot at mom Stuff podcast are on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff we Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
(09:38):
We have some merchandise atcom Bureau and we have a
book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
to our super producer, whoever they may have been. We're
in a period of transition, but thanks to the team
Casey Chandler and Darima who were excited to introduce Yes,
Yes because they've all helped during this time. And as always,
(10:00):
thanks to our executive producer Maya Yes, thank you, and
thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never Told you his
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, you
can check out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast or
where you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Come welcome to stuff
when I never told your production of I Heard Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And for today's activists around the world, we are talking
about the works and art from Katherine Paul. So. Catherine Paul,
also known as black Belt Eagle Scout in the music
world and industry, is an Indigenous queer musician who has
always been surrounded by music and now uses her talent
(00:37):
as a way to celebrate her indigenous voice and culture.
There was a part in one of our articles which
I don't mention later, so I we've mentioned now where
she talks about the fact that she's not afraid to
be pigeonholed as a Native artist because that's who she is,
and I'm like that. She said that there's not enough representation,
not enough talking about it, especially those who are both
(00:58):
Native and queer. So she is cool and happy to
be a voice for that, and so are we. Because
if you get a chance, you should definitely go to
black Belt Eagle Scout dot com check out her music
because it's incredible. So it kind of reminds me of
some of that Portland slash West Coast sound that I
grew up hearing. If you're a part of the alternative world.
(01:21):
Very cool, cool sound as well as great message. It
does feel like it speaks to you if you get
a chance to listen. She's not gonna be a part
of my rotation because I really do like her music.
Her first song, soft SuDS, she calls it her qua anthem. Yeah,
you gotta love it.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I really enjoyed it too.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think you're gonna put this in your like writing list.
I have a feeling.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Do you have playlists? Yeah, yeah, I probably will because
it kind of has that like you can chill while
listening to it, but also it's very emotional.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah but calm, but it feels like you're connecting to
like the environment around you too. I feel like it's
gonna definitely be part of your playlist. But so yes,
if you want to take some time to go and
listen to that before jumping in about who she is,
or you want to do it after, that's fine. But
either way, listeners, you should be listening to this music,
so back to it. She is a part of the
(02:14):
Swinnamish Indian travel community from her father's side, as well
as the part of the native of Katsabou in Alaska.
As her mother was from the Annabach community, so she
grew up in the Swinnamish reservation in the northern Washington area,
and her family has always been involved in music as well.
In fact, she was a jingle dress dancer with them
when they would go to the regional ceremonies or powows.
(02:36):
A bit more about that from Audio music dot Com.
Music was embedded in her upbringing. Her family taught her
coastal Salis music, drumming, in jingle dress dance, and when
she goes back to the reservation, the tight knit community
is very proud of her in a lot of ways.
She's paying this forward her music. I love that that's
been a part of her culture and something that she
(02:57):
always has taken to heart. And obviously, again we've talked
about Native Indigenous dancing and how important it is in
their culture and how important it is to tell stories,
so obviously it's something that's been in her life. And
she continued her musical journey by playing flute and piano
in her school band and then going on to learn
the guitar and drums by watching old VHS tapes of
(03:19):
Nirvana and Whole and just teaching herself which Anye we
talked about. You did this with Green.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Day, Yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I feel like this is the right of way, like
the ride of passage for many young people who really
get into music like that. This would eventually lead her
to finding her artists and musician community like she would
travel around. Eventually she moved to Portland, Oregon to go
to school where she would get involved with rock and
roll Camp for girls, which we have a version of that,
the rock camp for young girls here who get a
(03:48):
chance to play music, form bands together and really thrive
in that type of culture. And of course she got
involved in different bands around the area and through her
growth and her continuing music career, always held fast to
her indigenous heritage. She released her first EP album as
Black Belt Eagle Scout in twenty fourteen, and then went
on to release her debut album, Mother of My Children
(04:11):
in twenty seventeen. Here's a bit from their site, black
Belt Eaglescout dot com quote this land runs through Catherine
Paul's blood, and it called to her in dreams that
she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When
the land calls, you listen, and KP found herself far
from her ancestral lands during the time of collect the trauma,
(04:32):
when the world was wounded and in need of healing.
In twenty twenty, she made the journey from Portland back
to the Scatchet River, back to the cedar trees that
stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide
flats and the mountains, back to Swinnemish. It is a
powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands, and oftentimes
the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents,
(04:52):
like the tide as it crawls the shore. This is
a story of return. It is the call and response.
It is the outstretched arm of the people who came
before welcomed her home. The land, the water, the sky.
Is a celebration of lineage and strength, even in its
deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a
world wrought with colonial violence and pain. The songs remind
(05:15):
us that if we slow down, if we listen to
the waves in the wind, through the trees, we will
remember to breathe. There is a through line of story
in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a
gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a
reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and
a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity and what it
(05:36):
means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.
And even though this is more about her last album,
this is obviously something that she holds tight even throughout
her life, and the through line has always been a
part of her She has talked about her past experience
in music. Back to that audio music dot com article,
here's what they wrote. Black Belt Eagle Scout sees KP
(05:59):
embraced the creative freedom and control of being a solo artist,
especially after navigating the predominantly white, male, straight music world.
She honed her skills playing in a bunch of bands,
including Genders and Forest Park in Portland. She moved there
in two thousand and seven to attend Lewis and Clark
College after also playing in Portland's Rock and Roll Camp
for Girls, and learned the business side of things working
(06:20):
for Mississippi Studios. In high school, she'd drive her parents
car to nearby town and a court to catch DIY shows.
The intimacies of place and sense of community among fellow
indigenous and queer people and people of color are integral
parts of her music. With the expansiveness of her melancholy sound,
she creates room for intense grief and heartbreak and personal
(06:42):
as well as generational trauma, and comes back to the
ways the power of friendships and relationships ground her. And
she talks about not feeling like she's a lyricist, but
obviously just in her descriptors alone, she absolutely is. She
is a storyteller in a modern way, in a modern take,
which is what oftentimes is needed and is a reminder
(07:03):
of where music began. Oftenimes where we see the beginning
of how tradition and sounds come forward and who actually
can carry these and I feel like represent it well,
it's oftentimes the black and Indigenous communities and she is
the prime example of that and they. As for her
last album, Paul talks about returning home to the Swinhamish
Indian tribal community. She spoke about this with Premier Guitar
(07:26):
dot Com, saying the writing of this album, Paul's third
full length release, started as far back as twenty twenty,
when she moved back home to the Swinhamish Indian travel
community in Skatget County, Washington, from where she'd been living
in Portland, Oregon. She says, I tend to write about times,
and this record has a lot to do with the
last couple of years of moving from one place to another,
(07:46):
says Paul, particularly moving back home to where I was
born and raised and where my people have been since
time immemorial. There's the theme of a journey. It was
this journey of coming back home. When I was there,
just being in my community, being with theatre, I had
this epiphany where I was like, this is where I'm
meant to be. I'm meant to be here in this
exact moment, in this exact place. It kind of rejuvenated
(08:08):
the awareness of how my mental health and how I
live within this world is linked to that connection I
have to where I'm from, to my homeland. And there
was a moment in her life that she had a
really scary experience where she was hospitalized near death and
had to even do a whole GoFundMe to raise and
get all of the help that she needed. And so
I'm sure returning home for her in this time was
(08:31):
very important to healing both mentally and physically. So we
definitely know there's a lot. She is still touring and
making music. I think there's a couple of shows coming
up if you're in the Portland area as well as
a British Columbia area, So if you get an opportunity,
I think this is a show that's worth seeing. She
is fantastic and making sure she's acknowledging the indigenous and
(08:52):
queer people that attend her shows, because again, to be
represented means everything, and she knows that and recognizes that
to highlight that during our shows and sees that as
something as being important, and we love that and kudos
to that. Again, if you need new music, here's a
recommendation right here. Even though her last album was released
in twenty twenty three, still worth listening. I think it
(09:14):
holds over time.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yes, absolutely, and listeners as always, If you have any
music recommendations, any thoughts about this, we would love to
hear from you. You can email us at Hello at
Stuff Fromneverteld You dot com. You can find us on
blue skot at mom Stuff podcast are on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff we Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
(09:38):
We have some merchandise atcom Bureau and we have a
book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
to our super producer, whoever they may have been. We're
in a period of transition, but thanks to the team
Casey Chandler and Darima who were excited to introduce Yes,
Yes because they've all helped during this time. And as always,
(10:00):
thanks to our executive producer Maya Yes, thank you, and
thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never Told you his
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, you
can check out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast or
where you listen to your favorite shows.
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