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Native Sun News: Keenie Word, Oglala Sioux, is star on the rise
Friday, April 1, 2011
Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment

The following story was written and reported by Evelyn Red Lodge . All content © Native Sun News.

HERMOSA, SOUTH DAKOTA — She’s an up-and-coming star whose brand new extended-play disc (ED) was just released and is on sale right now. It is called “The New Girl” and was recorded at Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee.

There are five songs on the disc and 16-year-old Keenie Word said, “The main deal was to make the songs extremely age appropriate. There’s something for everybody on the disc.”

“Several people wrote songs for me. My producer wrote some of the songs, then his daughter-in-law, and her husband are signed with Universal Republic in Nashville, and they wrote some. Right now, they are out working with Selena Gomez,” she said.

Keenie Word’s mom, Kelli Word said, “She played with some really hard-hitting musicians,” referring to the ED.

Keenie Word’s parents Grady and Kelli Word are both from Kyle. She knows she gets a second look when she says she is an enrolled Oglala member.

She just laughed as she sported her long blonde hair. Her mom Kelli was one of the great barrel racers from the reservation and has been involved in rodeo since she was a little girl.

Keenie’s father Grady died in an accident. “He was killed four years ago when he was kicked in the head by a stud. A couple weeks after he was killed, we found out my mom had cancer,” Kelli said.

The Words are staying in Rapid City to take care of her mom. However, they do go back out to their home in Hermosa every day to ride their rodeo horses. The family has a strong rodeo background. Keenie’s brother Jesse Tierney, is a professional rodeo hand. He competes on a national level.

Keenie said, “I started singing when I was two. I sing at fairs and rodeos during the summer. And sometimes at Cowboy Church. A lot of churches have me come in to sing and do testimony. I just got my singing dates for the summer booked up.”

You can buy “The New Girl” on www.keenieword.com or pick it up at the Triple R Tack at 625 Century Road in Rapid City.

(Contact Evelyn Red Lodge at welakota@yahoo.com.)

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