Robby Romero grew up with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
At the age of 9 he met Dennis Hopper and started hanging around the "Easy Rider" actor-director's home in Taos, N.M. There he met Bob Dylan, Neil Young and some other rockers. An aspiring musician, he soon emulated their lifestyle.He drank, smoked pot and snorted cocaine. He had a traveling gig as the opening act for blues singer Paul Butterfield and a couple of more permanent ones in the hospital, where he was treated for liver damage and jaundice.
That was 12 years ago. On a recent day, Romero tried to steer Lapwai High School students away from the path he chose at their age.
"I realized that that isn't our medicine," said the Apache singer-songwriter, who has been making music since he was 5.
"I wanted to be living on the edge and to be the craziest guy out there," Romero said. "I was living the life of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. I was living in this cloud of protection. It wasn't until I got clean that I realized what living on the edge was."
Living on the edge for Romero today means playing his guitar, singing his songs and making sure American Indian issues aren't buried. Romero's rock group is called Red Thunder.
In the early '80s, seeking to rid himself of his bad habits, Romero left Hollywood and returned to New Mexico, where he sought the advice of his elders. Reuniting with his childhood mentor, American Indian Movement founder Dennis Banks, Romero traveled the country and met others who would shape his music and political views.
In 1988, around the same time he formed Red Thunder with drummer Benito Concha, Romero cofounded Native Children's Survival to promote environmental and human rights issues.
Earlier this year Romero served as the director, creative consultant and writer of "Makoce Wakan: Sacred Earth," a VH-1 special focusing on endangered American Indian sacred sites in Arizona, South Dakota and elsewhere.
The show generated more viewer calls to the music station than any other show to date, according to the music publication The Aquarian Weekly. The station's broadcast of the group's "Heartbeat" was the first time it had aired a music video not serviced by a major label.
Red Thunder has also appeared on spots for MTV's "Free Your Mind" campaign. The 10,000 copies of the group's self-titled first EP sold out and led to a second pressing.
"I think there are about 50 central issues that (American Indians) are facing today, all of them life-threatening," said Romero, the son of an actress who appeared in a dozen Elvis Presley films. "At the heart of all of them are our sacred lands, our holy places, our religious freedom (and) the protection of Native American lands from industrial desecration."
Romero declined to contribute to the soundtrack of last year's film "Geronimo" because he was not interested in participating in the story of one of his Apache ancestors told from Hollywood's point of view.
"I think that there's a lot of interest right now in Native Americans, but I feel the films are not quite there," said Romero.
"The problem I have with the films is that they keep us in the past," referring to 1990s "Dances With Wolves," which used more than 1,000 Lakota people as actors and extras but declares the end of the last century as "the end of the Great Sioux Nation."
"There's an organized effort to keep Native American people in the past tense. I don't think that different governmental agencies want people to know what's going on with Native American peoples and with the treaties.
"They're very afraid to make people aware of the truth. Our burial objects are kept along with the bones of our ancestors in museums all over the country. We're not even thought of as human. Cars are named after us: the Jeep Cherokee. You would never hear of one called the Chrysler Jew."