It’s easy to understand why Stella Standingbear’s “Home Runs” is earning accolades galore and making her a TikTok sensation. The catchy, relatable song serves as an affirmation anthem for anyone who has proved the haters wrong by achieving their dreams — a common theme for Native Americans, who face outsized obstacles like ongoing discrimination, education gaps, and high rates of poverty, disease, addiction, and suicide.
The debut single is also an ode to the 24-year-old Oglala Lakota musician’s homecoming to South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. After growing up away from her tribe’s traditions in Salt Lake City, Utah, she answered the call to reconnect with her heritage and moved to the scenic 2.1-million-acre territory last year. The area’s vast beauty is contrasted by its people’s hardship, with some of the highest poverty rates in America and lowest life expectancies in the world. Standingbear deftly captures this juxtaposition of rich culture, palpable pride, and painful trauma in her songs.
“Music is medicine,” she tells Teen Vogue. “I use music to process what I’m going through in life; it’s kind of like my public diary. It’s also a powerful tool to spread awareness about both the good and the challenging issues going on in the Indigenous community.”
The “Home Runs” music video, for example, shines a light on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis while simultaneously showcasing the picturesque scenery of Pine Ridge. In parts of the clip, Standingbear sings with a red hand painted across her mouth, which has become a symbol for the growing movement to represent the silence of not only the epidemic’s victims but also media and law enforcement.
“As an Indigenous woman, I’m a target — so are my sister, my aunties, and my grandmas,” she explains. “This is a major issue in our community that gets downplayed a lot. Many cases are never actually filed, so the statistics are way off. My uncle, who is Indigenous, was murdered in Salt Lake City, and his case went cold. Most Native people know somebody who has gone missing or been murdered, and I feel like I need to be a voice for all relatives.”
That determination to uplift Native communities combined with her unique alt-rap sound helped Standingbear make history at the recent Indigenous Hip Hop Awards. She was the only performer nominated in three categories this year and won awards for best female hip-hop artist and best music video — marking the first time a Lakota musician has taken home honors.
“I won these awards not only for myself and my team, but most importantly for my community,” she says. “It’s showing these young kids on the reservation that no dream is too big.” In addition to recording her own music, like the recently released EP “Crossing Over,” Standingbear mentors aspiring artists at Pine Ridge’s new Oglala Lakota Artspace community creative hub. She also regularly performs at regional schools, reservations, and venues alongside acts such as Kirko Bangz, Montana of 300, and Futuristic.
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“I hope my music inspires younger generations to talk about personal and social issues, and to use music as a healing tool,” she says. “I always offer free posters, stickers, and photos at shows because there’s not a ton of money on the rez to buy merch. These kids can take that picture home and hang it on their wall, and hopefully it will inspire them to find their own art form to express themselves.”
Music has always been an outlet for Standingbear, who was mumbling rap freestyle before she could speak and recorded her first song at 14. During her Salt Lake City upbringing, she and other Indigenous students had generic “Native” school programming and field trips, but it was childhood visits to Pine Ridge that really allowed her to connect to her heritage. Before her 2022 trip to the reservation, she hadn’t been there since fourth grade.
“I was able to experience my first big powwow, and I did my first sweat lodge as part of the ceremony for my great grandma getting her Lakota name,” she says of her visit last year. “It just felt like home—being able to connect with my roots and find who I am. I am learning the Lakota language, and I made my first ribbon skirt.” She also has plans to get some horses so that she can fully enjoy the area’s openness.
While she’s honoring her ancestral history, Standingbear is also shattering stereotypes about Indigenous music by incorporating modern 808s and hip-hop beats into her songs. “As a young female Native artist, I’m all about breaking boundaries and experimenting with new sounds,” she says. “I don’t stick to one genre; I create a variety of music depending on what I’m going through in life.”
So back to Stella Standingbear’s popular underdog anthem. Ultimately, she hopes “Home Runs” encourages people to keep swinging, just like she is. “I have released a lot of songs, and some of them flopped,” she says candidly. “But ‘Home Runs’ was my home run. I feel like it resonates so much with people who have been told they will never amount to anything — but we’re not going to let someone else dictate our future.”
