Friends & Relatives Radio Podcast

Friends & Relatives Radio Podcast

By Children of the Setting Sun ProductionsSociety & CultureEducationNon-Profit
Download on the App Store

Friends & Relatives Radio Podcast episodes

  • Ep. 014 | The Strength to Run: Interview with Kevin Villars & Mike Washington
    Before Kevin Villars there was Enrique Medina. Enrique, head of the Lummi HS track coach, lead the team to win state title with only 4 people. After he left he was replaced by Kevin Villars who had to pick up the pieces Enrique left. From that time the team has grown, including 26 boys and 12 girls (a 4 fold increase).
    Kevin himself began in track only after he was forced to partake in it before he could play baseball. However, once the opportunity to play baseball came he decided to stay with track, even going on to beat his school’s record. Similar to this is how Mike got involved, because he had to be talked into joining track by his cousin. Yet when he did he fell in love with the field.
    Mike’s sophomore year happened to also be the year Kevin took over as coach. He came in to witness Mike’s team pushing it hard due to a disqualification they experienced freshmen year. Kevin realized their synergy and changed a few things, changes that helped them reach state that year. A bond soon formed between the coach and the student, and now Kevin approaches Mike like another son.
    Heading to State was a great a achievement. Even so the system screwed them over, putting them in the lowest heat. This meant it would be tough for them to score onto the top ten. The coached wished them luck, and hoped they could get in at least 8th place. But when the announcements came it’d seemed that they hadn’t even scored that when the announcers moved past 3rd place without calling on the Lummi nation.
    That year, they got in 2nd place. To Kevin, a miracle had just occured
    This year Mike was injured for 3/4th of the time, and so in state his team only scored 9th place. Yet the year wasn’t all bad news for Mike, as he was able to get a scholarship for a school in California. Part of this is due to Kevin’s investment in his athletes being first good students, then good citizens, and helping them with their futures. That is, if their willing to do the hard work.
    From this, and with Mike’s future, both coach and athlete seek to put Lummi on the map in college circles and beyond.
    29 min
  • Ep. 013 | Salmon and Cultural Conservation for All Peoples
    Dana Wilson, a Lummi fisherman, believes that the more salmon disappear, the more
    Coast Salish peoples lose their knowledge of the salmon, and fishing, as a way of life.
    Dana also believes that the State of Washington sees habitat restoration as an
    expensive endeavor, and that we all need to push ourselves to make sacrifices for
    salmons’ future. David Montgomery, a UW professor of geology, wrote the book, King
    of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon, which details the historical events that
    hinder salmon conservation. His knowledge of geomorphology casts an image of the
    salmon that is both resilient and under threat as salmon management is ignored in our
    changing landscape. Dana and David believe that the time to do something for the
    salmon is now.
     David Montgomery UW Profile:
    https://www.ess.washington.edu/people/profile.php?pid=montgomery-- david
     A Bellingham Herald Article featuring Dana Wilson:
     http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article44514417.html
    56 min
  • Ep.012 | Nancy Shippentower-Games Shares Her Experiences of Indigenous Activism in the Fish Wars & Today
    We invited our friend Nancy Shippentower-Games to speak at the Whatcom Human
    Rights Task Force’s 20 th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Conference, at
    Whatcom Community College. The title of the 2018 conference was “50 Years of
    freedom or 50 Years of fear?; Chaos or Community? Where do we go from here?”
    Shippentower-Games speaks of the courage it takes to organize communities in the face
    of societal oppression. She believes that in sharing her story she passes the values of
    education and cross-cultural connection to the public.
    50 min
  • Ep.011 | Remembering the Past with Nancy Shippentower-Games
    Nancy Shippentower is a member of the Northwest Fishing Commission, a member of the
    Puyallup nation, and a fighter for tribal and fishing rights. Her parents are Jackie McCloud and
    Tom McCloud. She grew up in a family invested in the fishing wars during the 50’ and 60’s. She
    told us about how her father and their relatives went to jail for 60 days. When they were in jail
    the other inmates didn’t believe that they were there for fishing, and they asked the guards if
    they were telling the truth. Unlike many people in jail, her family were denied early release.
    Billy Frank jr. was her uncle, and he joined them in jail, was even kept in jail an additional week.
    Soon after he became the spokesperson for the tribes in Washington who fought for their
    fishing rights. Darrell mentions that he did speak very well and very strong, able to unite the
    tribes around his mind.
    She told us the story of when her father went to jail when she was 8 years old. At this
    time they were very poor (though she never saw it that way then) and she had to go to
    Woolworth to get her shoes fixed. This was exciting because she could see her daddy. Yet when
    she went to meet him there was only a steel wall. So little was the opening in it, that she could
    only see his eyes. She wanted to grab him so much she couldn’t help but cry. Nancy then saw
    the rest of her family, including her cousins and uncle who made her laugh. Yet when they went
    back to their cells they all cried for how forsaken their wives and daughters were with them in
    prison.
    However the women didn’t let themselves become forsaken. Instead they banded
    together and went fishing, helped each other, and fed each other. But do not believe that
    because they were strong that they took the jails and detentions lightly, for whenever the
    possibility of jail came up, a family meeting would be called to determine if the family members
    should go through with the stand. They did believe in what they were doing.
    Darrell then asked Nancy about when her mother got involved in fighting for Treaty and
    fishing rights. However Nancy answered that her mother not only stood for those pillars, but
    also for the poor, the welfare system, a decent education, empowerment to women and fixing
    the foster care system for children.
    When she got to this note, Nancy described a story of when her mother wrote a letter
    called “operation Rotten Apple” about how Native kids were being taken from their homes and
    given to non native homes. Soon after that she received a house call from a social worker who
    delivered her cousins unto her saying “Here’s your rotten apples, you can have them.” After
    this her mother started taking in kids who had no home.
    Darrell and Nancy then discussed how her mother also fought for Sweat Lodges inside
    Prison. This began shortly after she got invited to the American Indian Brotherhood. She had
    learned that many native men and women couldn’t practice their religion due to the absence of
    Sweat Lodges to worship in, about how to fast and pray to the creator people had to put
    themselves in solitary. Nancy’s mother was so tenacious, she actually got banned from prisons,
    but she got back inside after she appealed to the upper levels of government. She also tried
    encouraging the inmates for after jail by bringing in celebrities like Jane Fonda and Dick Gregory
    (who is featured in the podcast later).
    Darrell then brought up her Minnesota visit which happened around 1969 or 8. Nancy
    was supposed to be married in New York, Six Nations but changed her mind. On the way back in
    Minnesota they met Dennis Banks and Russell Means and the Vernon Bellecourt who then
    came to Washington state. They all had plans to make an American Indian Movement, which
    her mother became a founder of. She wound up adopting almost all of them due to how much
    they listened to her and respected her age.
    Darrell asked about Nancy’s connection to Tulalip, to which Nancy responded “my
    mother is Tulalip.” Nancy then discussed her Grandparents and their experience with boarding
    schools. She told Nancy of many things; sending kids to Alaska when it was cold, and Arizona
    when it was hot; how you couldn’t make friends with anyone because who knew if they’d die or
    not?; how young girls were raped by teachers or priests when they reached puberty. Her
    grandfather even explained that nuns wear long dresses to hide the pregnancies they got from
    raping young men.
    Her grandma went from foster home to foster home. When she was on 1rst Avenue in
    seattle though, she learned how to cook international food. She taught him all how to cook all
    kinds of food. But she also brought strength as she had to hide and protect her little sisters
    whenever they would come home from drinking. She, her cousins Warren Haze and Mannie
    from Tulalip and would protect her little girls.
    Her grandfather was John Wrenicker but Nancy never really knew him well. Her
    grandparents were friends that ran from the boarding schools together together, but they
    didn’t last. She also explained that Louretta Joseph was her first cousin and was a Henry, Leroy
    Henry was her grandma’s father. Apparently Nancy’s mother wanted to be buried next to her
    dad but decided to ultimately be buried next to her grandma.
    Nancy then talked about the occupy Cascadia movement which was spearheaded by
    Ramona Bennett. This movement tried to keep the FBI from selling the Cascadia diagnostic
    center for troubled kids. At the time it was basically another jail, but it was till on Puyallup land,
    so they went in and took it over so the country could give it back to them.
    Responding to Darrell’s question about what it was that her parents left her, Nancy
    answered: love, compassion and spirituality. She reminisces about how good her parents were;
    about how her Father taught his daughters about being strong, even taking them to karate to
    teach them how to defend themselves. Fixing cars, changing tires and never let a man push you
    down, those were other lessons they taught their children. Her mom taught her how to can and
    a lot of things at her house. With 7 other kids in the house, there were assigned roles to
    accomplish.
    When Nancy was pregnant with her son she was nominated by her father to the Fishing
    Commission at Puyallup. From there she was elected Chairman, and the only women on the
    commission. She then got on Northwest Indian Fisheries, were she had to go to a meeting in
    Seattle. There she met Allison and Kathy when the northern tribes wanted to intercept the
    salmon. When their policy rep wanted to have their side step down, Nacny stood up and said
    “You want a fishing war? I will give you a fishing war.” And then went to battle with the
    northern tribes which, Nancy reminded Darrell, includes Lummi.
    She expressed she didn’t want to fight with the tribes, but that it was necessary to
    grapple after Boldt gave away half the fish. However a deal was reached with all the tribes,
    though it took 6 to 8 months of negotiations. Nancy reminded us that gillnetters did not have
    treaty rights, and Governor Rosalini wanted to turn this state into a competitive fishing state.
    This lead Nancy to remember a meeting she took her 12 year old daughter to during the fishing
    wars. Despite there being only a few native people there, the mob got extremely hostile. The
    people there allowed a mob to get riled up, and she wasn’t sure what would happen, but the
    police came and escorted them to their car. Even then though people followed them out with
    the police and Nancy half suspected them to follow her home..
    Dick Gregory wound up getting involved with Nancy’s family and the fishing wars. He
    was really good at throwing benefits for the Tribes and Native rights. In fact he was arrested for
    protesting! He was charged and convicted in Jail, which inspired Marilyn Brando to get involved.
    However when he was arrested the police didn’t charge him, they just wanted his autograph.
    When Dick went to jail, an encampment to support him was set up by Nancy’s mom
    across from the jail. She didn’t let adults come in, feeling that there needed to be only young
    people in the encampment. Then one night the Black Panthers came by, for they were upset
    that Dick was in jail for fishing rights. During their stay, Jackie McCloud was the only person
    willing to meet with them.
    Turns out Dick’s commitment to the cause led him to a hunger strike after Robert Comp,
    Nancy Nugyett and Bill Cosby couldn’t convince the judge to let Dick go. He wound up almost
    dying during his hunger strike. The guards sent for his wife to try and convince him to eat, but
    she simply asked him what he wanted her to do, to which he said “if Im going to die for this
    cause, Im going to die for this cause.” After which the judge realized Dick really would die on his
    watch, got scared, and ordered Dick’s release.
    After his release there was a huge arrest at the encampment. Darrell note that this
    wasn’t necessary. Nancy’s mother went down to unite with the Black Panthers. Nancy notes
    that their fights were almost the exact same as Native fights but without treaty rights, and that
    their ancestors didn’t have a choice in coming to America
    Nancy ended the podcast with these words: to stay strong and stop the negativity that
    keep seeping into the modern movements. People need to be careful what they bring into the
    movements. If there’s a leader, support them, do not become jealous and envious as Nancy
    saw with the leaders of her past. There’s nothing but love for human beings. Only politicians
    and education makes people racist.
    On her final note, Nancy tells Darrell how she saw someone on the news claim that the
    president only wants to make America white again. But as Nancy points out “America was
    never white! Before anyone came here everyone was brown. Where’s their education at?”
    34 min

About Friends & Relatives Radio Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the Friends and Relatives radio hour where we share our ideas, history, language, music and events from the heart of the Coast Salish Homeland. We welcome our friends and relatives from…