Katherine Paul’s Indigenous identity strongly informs her work as Black Belt Eagle Scout. To complete her 2023 album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, the Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer, songwriter and guitarist returned to the Swinomish community of her childhood on Washington’s Puget Sound before recording in a nearby former church. The impact of her homecoming can be heard loud and clear on tracks like “My Blood Runs Through This Land”, as Paul reflects on that ancestral setting against fittingly expansive and emotionally cathartic indie rock. Similarly evocative is the folky “Indians Never Die” from her 2017 debut, Mother of My Children. Paul regularly addresses her culture and heritage—as well as her queerness—while connecting her music to a rich tapestry of Northwest Pacific rock ranging from Sleater-Kinney (whose “It’s Enough” she has covered) to Nirvana.