Let's Talk Native with John Kane

On this episode, Jeff Reina, an attorney from Buffalo, NY joins us to talk about a recent court case involving a million dollar fine levied against a Native wholesaler over the transportation of tobacco from one native territory to another. The case was recently tossed out based on an illegal search and seizure ruling after almost a decade long legal battle. For centuries the courts have refused to rule in favor of legal arguments that rely on "sovereignty" as a core component and instead fall back to "back door rulings" that may benefit individual defendants but fails to set precedent for other Native people, businesses and nations.

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The new school board in Cambridge, NY has decided to double down on the use of their offensive Native mascot. On the very day the latest right-wing board member was sworn in, this new board with their pro-mascot majority made it their priority to rescind a previous resolution that ended the use of the mascot and made it clear that they will continue to use their offensive mascot moving forward. Heather Bruegl, the Cultural Affairs Director for the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, joins John to discuss this recent development in Cambridge and more on this episode of Let's Talk Native.

The closing song is a medley of The Halluci Nation featuring “We Are The Halluci Nation with John Trudell & Northern Voice” and “ALie Nation with John Trudell, Tanya Tagaq, Lido Pimienta & Northern Voice.”

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For several decades the male dominated power structure in Onondaga has tried to keep Haudenosaunee women out of lacrosse in order to maintain their dominance over the Iroquois Nationals men's lacrosse team. After facing pressure from lucrative sponsors and outside organizations to merge the two teams under one banner, a delegation from the men's team spoke to the Grand Council of Six Nations at an unusual closed-door session and the women's team was disbanded without justification shortly after. The women were not given an opportunity to defend themselves and their team's sanction was pulled by the Grand Council which made it impossible for them to compete at the international level. In this episode, John is joined by Katie Smith, Erin Francis and Kathy Smith to peel back the curtain on the inner-workings of Haudenosaunee politics and to discuss these troubling developments.

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Well, it finally happened! The Cambridge New York Central School Board voted to retire their offensive Native mascot. The decision to finally hold the vote on the original resolution removing the mascot came after a week of embarrassing developments for the small New York community. Cambridge for Social Justice member Scott Carrino joins John for this episode to discuss the school board's decision to retire the mascot and the embarrassing opinion piece published in The Washington Post that called out the small community for failing to address the mascot problem adequately.

Closing song is "Bless" by Drezus.

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On June 8, a high speed police pursuit ended in a fiery car wreck on the Cattaraugus territory of the Seneca Nation. The driver of one of the vehicles then took a female passenger hostage and a 3 hour stand-off began in the middle of the small Seneca community of Cattaraugus. In this episode, John provides some potential solutions to stopping these types of incidents from ever reaching our lands.

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The recent discovery of 215 bodies at the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada surprised everyone except Native people. For several decades survivors of these genocidal institutions have told stories of the abuse, neglect and violence that they experienced at these schools but the general public largely ignored them. In this episode, we take another look at the genocidal residential school system implemented by the Canadians and the Americans. Author and historian Keith Burich joins John to discuss the history and long-term impacts of the residential school system.

Closing song is "War Club" by DJ Shub feat. Snotty Nose Rez Kids.

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In this episode John examines the double standard that's obvious to some and invisible to others when it comes to the topic of Native people in the national discourse on racial equality.

Closing song is "Anishinabe" by SAMIAN.

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In this episode John is joined by Ed Schindler and Paul Winnie to discuss the differences between "environmentalists" and "land defenders" and how it all ties back to the concept of Seven Generations. Join John, Ed and Paul in a discussion on how the Native view of land and our responsibility to it is fundamentally at odds with how European settlers and their descendants view the land.

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In this episode we introduce a new format for the show and take a look at the Oka Crisis. After a year-long dispute over the expansion of a golf course between the city of Oka and the Mohawk community of Kanesatake, the Quebec provincial police stormed a barricade erected by the Mohawks to stop the expansion. What began as riot police tossing tear gas canisters at a small group of Mohawks spiraled into a 20 minute long shootout which resulted in the death of one SWAT team member. What followed was a 78 day siege that ended after the Canadian military surrounded the small Mohawk community and pushed their way past the barricades. Kahentinetha Horn and Loran Thompson join John to talk about what happened after the police officer was killed and how they managed to survive the military invasion of Kanesatake.

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After the NYC Department of Education canceled Columbus Day and renamed it to Indigenous People's Day, white fragility was on full display when virtually every "Italian rights" organization across the state rallied to defend Christopher Columbus proclaiming him to be an Italian hero. White privilege and fragility is not always intentionally hurtful or offensive but racism can manifest in various ways. More often than not, the unintentional displays of racism hurt the most because only the affected recognize and experience it.

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