Black Belt Eagle Scout

Black Belt Eagle Scout is the solo project of Portland-based artist Katherine Paul, whose music draws from alt-rock and Native American traditions. As a multi-instrumentalist, Paul quickly delved into the city's pervasive indie scene as part of a couple of notable bands in the 2010s before branching out on her own with 2017's Mother of My Children. A deeply personal effort, it ruminated on losses she had experienced while coming to grips with her identity as an Indigenous queer woman. The more self-accepting At the Party with My Brown Friends followed in 2019, with 2023's The Land, the Water, the Sky finding a balance of darkness and light inspired by returning to her childhood reservation during the 2020 pandemic outbreak.