New works by two best-selling Cherokee writers intertwine riveting fictional narratives with a dose of Native American historical reality. Vanessa Lillie’s “The Bone Thief” continues the suspenseful trajectory of Syd Walker, a BIA archaeologist first introduced in Lillie’s novel, “Blood Sisters.” This time, the setting for the story is present-day Narragansett territory in New England and colonial mythology about the first Thanksgiving plays a part.

Brandon Hobson’s “The Devil is a Southpaw” takes readers back almost four decades to the heart of Cherokee country, but readers are warned upfront that the memories portrayed now may not be reliable. Hobson takes a surrealistic detour where both Salvador Dali and a character named Brandon H. make appearances. It’s an imaginative character study that propels a gripping story of love and loss.

Break 1 Music: Ghost (song) Sierra Spirit (artist)

Break 2 Music: Treemen (song) Digger Jonez (artist)

Because of a clerical error, Leticia Jacobo was told she would be handed over to ICE officials (Photo: courtesy Leticia Jacobo)

Family, friends, and tribal officials rallied to help after authorities in Iowa notified Leticia Jacobo she would be handed over to federal immigration officials instead of being released from jail. Jacobo is a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. After extensive pushback, authorities admitted her U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer was a clerical error. We’ll hear Jacobo’s story. We’ll also hear about what was behind the Nisqually Tribe’s public announcement that it would not house immigrant detainees at their tribal corrections facility. Tribal officials say it is against their values of treating people with dignity and respect.

GUESTS

Leticia Jacobo (Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community), resident of Des Moines, Iowa

Maria Nunez (Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community), Leticia’s aunt

Gabe Galanda (Round Valley Indian Tribe), managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman

David Leslie (Iñupiaq), Iñupiaq activist in Fairbanks, Alaska

Break 1 Music: Native Blood (song) Testament (artist) Dark Roots of Earth (album)

Break 2 Music: Treemen (song) Digger Jonez (artist)

As 200 nations from around the globe meet on the edge of the Amazon rainforest to hammer out cooperative goals on climate change, Indigenous people are making their presence known. They are included in discussions but have no negotiation power outside of the official representation from the countries they reside in. Many Indigenous attendees have organized marches, experienced civil disobedience, and even clashed with security officials in order to have their voices heard. Notably absent from this year’s talks is any senior Trump administration delegation. We’ll hear Indigenous perspectives about their role at COP30.

We’ll also hear from Cree journalist Brandi Morin, who spent months reporting on conflicts between Indigenous communities in Ecuador and Canadian mining companies. Currently, Ecuador’s president is working on reforming the country’s constitution to open up more natural resources for extraction.

GUESTS

Taily Terena (Terena), Indigenous climate and land activist

Andrea Carmen (Yaqui), executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council

Edson Krenak (Krenak), Brazil program manager for Cultural Survival

Brandi Morin (Cree, Iroquois, and French), journalist

Break 1 Music: Guerra (song) XOCÔ (artist) XOCÔ (album)

Break 2 Music: Treemen (song) Digger Jonez (artist)

Access to land for hunting, fishing, and gathering are foundational provisions in so many treaties between tribes and the federal government, but individual hunters and anglers are frequently challenged when out exercising those treaty rights. The legal justifications were settled decades ago following landmark rulings such as the Boldt Decision in Washington State and, more recently, in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judgement in favor of tribal hunting access on ceded lands in Idaho. We’ll review some of the history of hunting rights and how those continue to be scrutinized.

GUESTS

Dr. Cleve Davis (Shoshone-Bannock Tribes), a Ph.D in environmental science and the author of “So Long As Game May Be Found Thereon”

Charlie Smith (Fond Du Lac band of Lake Superior Chippewa), advisor for Indigenous Business Consulting firm and a member of the Fond du Lac Band Ceded Territory conservation committee

Derrick James (Choctaw), reporter for NonDoc.com

Break 1 Music: Edge of The Rez, Part 2 (song) The Blue Stone Project (artist) Blue Stone (album)

Break 2 Music: Treemen (song) Digger Jonez (artist)

A surprise insertion in the bill to end the federal government shutdown has thrown Native hemp producers into chaos. The language prohibits products like beverages, vapes, and gummies containing THC compounds derived from hemp. Those products were widely available and contribute to a nearly $30 billion industry. Among them is the Lac du Flambeau tribe that produces and sells hemp-derived products.

The end of the government shutdown also means the clock is ticking for Native Americans receiving health insurance subsidized by the Affordable Care Act. Without action by Congress, insurance premiums for those people will jump significantly after the start of the New Year. We’ll hear about what the possible options are foa the millions of people facing a major hike in insurance costs.

GUESTS

Angie Wilson (Pit River Tribe), tribal health director for Reno-Sparks Indian Colony

Rob Pero (Bad River Tribe), founder and president of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association and the owner of Canndigenous

Candace Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Indians), director of cannabis operations for the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Indians

Dionne Holmquist (Aztec ancestry), director of biobased solutions at Makoce Agriculture Development

Break 1 Music: Blue Dream Wedding Cake (song) Def-I (artist) Blue Hour (album)

Break 2 Music: Mary Jane (song) Janet Panic (artist) A Mighty Rip Through the Page of My Life (album)

Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of the northern New Mexico landscape are among the most recognizable and beloved works of art in history. So much so that the distinctive mesas, bluffs, and plateaus are sometimes referred to as O’Keeffe Country. But the land has always been home to Pueblo people that have deep cultural ties to those same iconic landscapes. A new exhibition at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe turns to a handful of Tewa Pueblo artists to offer their interpretations of the landscape and O’Keeffe’s inescapable connection to it. We’ll hear from the curators and artists behind the Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country exhibition.

GUESTS

Jason Garcia Okuu Pín (Kha’p’o Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo), co-curator and artist in the Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country exhibit at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Michael Namingha (Ohkay Owingeh and Hopi), conceptual multimedia artist

Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo), writer, director, and filmmaker

Bess Murphy, Luce curator of art and social practice at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Break 1 Music: On the Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

Break 2 Music: Only A Whisper (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

A relentless offensive against minority student recruiting and retention threatens more than Native American participation in school. Advocates for such outreach say it affects community well-being and even the health of Native citizens. We’ll hear from proponents for Native student achievement about President Donald Trump’s “Compact for Higher Education” and the latest trends in Native enrollment.

L. John Lufkins (Bay Mills Ojibwe) led a daring rescue of fellow fishermen the same night as the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Photo: by Ellie Katz/Points North)

Also in our discussion today is a harrowing story of survival. As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the storied wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, there is another remarkable account of a group of Native fishermen caught in the same storm that day. We’ll hear from Interlochen Public Radio reporter Ellie Katz who talked to some of the men for the Points North podcast.

GUESTS

Emma Grellinger (Stockbridge Munsee and descendent of the Oneida Nation), current president of the Association and medical student at UCSF

Andrew Curley (Diné), associate professor at the School of Geography, Development, & Environment at the University of Arizona

Regis Pecos (Cochiti Pueblo), co-founder and co-director of the Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute and former Governor of Cochiti Pueblo

Ellie Katz, reporter for Points North and Interlochen Public Radio

Break 1 Music: A Turtle’s Honour Song [NDN Jazz] (song) Mwalim (artist)

Break 2 Music: Only A Whisper (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

The storm that ravaged villages along Alaska’s west coast may have washed away thousands of artifacts that promised to provide valuable insights into early Yup’ik settlements. The storm destroyed nearly 60 feet of shoreline near the village of Quinhagak. Along with it was a site that was the source of early masks, tools and other items that make up the world’s largest collection of Yup’ik artifacts housed at the local museum. Researchers, who were already racing to recover the items threatened by thawing permafrost, say as many as 10,000 artifacts could be lost.

In another blow, thieves made off with more than a thousand artifacts from the Oakland Museum of California‘s off-site storage facility. Oakland police and the FBI are working to find the culprits and recover the items. The early assessment by authorities suggest the heist may have been more of a crime of opportunity than a targeted operation.

GUESTS

Cody Groat (Kanyen’kehaka’), assistant professor at the Department of History and the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Western Ontario

 Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw), chief executive and attorney at the Association on American Indian Affairs

Lynn Marie Church (Yup’ik), CEO of Nalaquq, LLC

Rick Knecht, emeritus senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Aberdeen

Break 1 Music: Drum I Carry (song) Pamyua (artist) Side A Side B (Side A)(album)

Break 2 Music: Only A Whisper (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

Filmmaker and U.S. Air Force veteran Ryan Begay (Diné) set out to bring some of the stories of others Native American veterans to a broader audience. In the process, he brings those stories, especially those of Native women who serve in the military to life, in the documentary, “Honor Song“. We’ll hear about the film and from some of those featured in it.

Another Air Force veteran, Steven Sibley (Cherokee), also saw a need to connect with fellow military veterans and to provide a better source of information about the resources and benefits available to veterans and their family members. He now is co-publisher of the free Oklahoma Veterans News Magazine. We’ll talk with him about his service in the military and ways veterans can connect with the benefits available to them.

GUESTS

Ryan Begay (Diné), producer, director, actor, and Air Force veteran

Cassie Velarde Neher (Jicarilla Apache), Navy veteran and doctoral student at the University of New Mexico

Darrell Charlee (Diné), Air Force Master Sgt.

Steven Sibley (Delaware and Cherokee), retired, disabled veteran and co-publisher of Oklahoma Veterans New Magazine

Break 1 Music: Veteran’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

Break 2 Music: Only A Whisper (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

Vermont’s four Abenaki bands face ongoing pushback as they work to assert their Native American identity. With state recognition, the tribes enjoy certain hunting and fishing rights and the ability to list artwork as Native made. The Odanak First Nation in Canada is speaking out on social media and at press conferences, public events, and even at the United Nations, saying the people in Vermont claiming Abenaki blood have no connection to the Abenaki name and are only exploiting a legitimate and respected culture. It’s one of the remaining battlegrounds in the often-contentious discussions over identity.

GUESTS

Chief Rick O’Bomsawin (Odanak First Nation), Chief of the Abenaki Council of Odanak

Chief Don Stevens (Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation)

Margaret Bruchac (Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation), professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania

Break 1 Music: Seeing Two (song) Deerlady (band) Greatest Hits (album)

Break 2 Music: Only A Whisper (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)