"The guy who said that to me didn't understand what Native people were," said Alexander Binette, the 25-year-old Kanesatake Mohawk member of a band called Peaches 'n' Cream currently touring Asia.

"People over here are surprised that we still exist and that we have our own language and culture," said Binette, who has taken his band to play in a hotel in Guanzhou in mainland China, a disco in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, and the Hyatt in Oman in the Middle East. Peaches 'n' Cream is back at Dee Dee's Disco in Macau for a gig that started in mid-November and was scheduled to keep them there for at least three months.

"There's a lot of talent on the rez," Binette said. "I would say there's more talent on the rez per capita than in most other places. The problem is if they're good on the rez, they might not be the big fish when they go off the rez and it discourages some people.