Miles Morrisseau
ICT
Bear Creek has been on the powwow trail for nearly 30 years and it seems like they are just hitting their stride. At the 2026 Juno Awards, the annual celebration of the best in Canadian music, the drum took home their first major award, Traditional Artist or Group of the Year.
“We want to thank our record [label] Hidden Lake and Steve Arrowtopknot for trusting in us to record us,” said lead singer Joe Syrette when accepting the award. “Long time ago we were all little boys, little girls that were looking up to heroes, different singers that we admired for what they did. So here we’ve been together since 1998. This is the first time that we’ve got something like this so we want to send this award to all of the Indigenous kids. Young people, if you believe in our ways this is what can happen so chi-miigwech.”
The group won for their latest release: “On the Move – Powwow songs recorded live at Apache Gold.”
In 2011, Bear Creek was nominated for a Grammy at the 53rd annual awards ceremony in the category of Native American Music Album for their release XI.
Syrette believes that the support from family and elders has been central to their longevity and success.
“When we started, we had that mindset of like, we wanted to be the best and we wanted to be like those heroes that we talked about,” Syrette told ICT. “But also as well, had a lot of support and lot of love and encouragement from our family, especially our grandparents. Some of them were residential school survivors. They always encouraged us to sing hard and to always respect what we had.”
The spiritual and ceremonial aspect of what they do has always been inspirational.
“We had a group that came together. We were named in 1998 as Bear Creek from a medicine man, Adam Lussier from Red Lake Nation in Minnesota.”
Bear Creek is currently on Hidden Lake Recordings and gave a shout out to founder Arrowtopknot upon accepting their award.
“My goal as Hidden Lake Recordings is to return the power to the groups, so they can earn for themselves and travel further,” Arrowtopknot told ICT. Hidden Lake is also the home to other drums like Young Spirit, War Paint, Bad Eagle, Blazing Bear and Northern Cree.
“Bear Creek is a world-class Grammy nominated drum group that has been well accomplished for over two decades with many awards and championship titles for their unique style and sound,” Arrowtopknot said. “Bear Creek has persevered through many challenges and obstacles throughout the years. Today, they still continue to put forth time and dedication to their music, which represents their families, teachings, and the many relations with the good people of Turtle Island.”
Syrette, lead singer, calls the Juno win, “Something that all of us as singers will never forget.”
He says the victory has given them inspiration to keep moving forward.
“This has only inspired us to continue on to be the best to give the best of ourselves as singers as a group,” he said. “It has reminded us that this is a moment in time where honor, love and respect is happening.”
It is also important for Bear Creek to stay humble as the elders taught them when they first started.
“So even as a group, we had talks and we said that even this little bit of spotlight, a little bit of honoring on a national higher level we are still going to remain who we are and do our part in our communities respectfully,” he said.