Native America Calling

As he marks 50 years in journalism, Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock) is stepping down from his leadership role at the Native news organization, ICT. Trahant revived the struggling Indian Country Today newspaper and turned it into a premier non-profit multimedia Indigenous news source. His five decades of reporting and editing news includes interviews with world leaders and having a front row seat to the major events that affect Native people. In that time he has served as a champion and mentor for Native journalists. We’ll hear from Trahant about his work and his hopes for Native journalism.

Break 1 Music: Current (song) Chuck Copenace (artist) Oshki Manitou (album)

Break 2 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

More than a year after Arizona cracked down on fake substance abuse treatment facilities following a $2.5 billion Medicaid fraud scam, hundreds of people can’t find adequate treatment. The scam swept up thousands of Native Americans and sought reimbursement for care they never received. An investigative report by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica also discovered continued confusion over Medicaid reimbursements that threatens the viability of the legitimate facilities cleared by the state to continue. We’ll get an update on the aftermath of the Medicaid scam and the ongoing effort to help people needing behavioral health care.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting continues to collect information about people affected by the interruption in behavioral health services. Those with information can write to [email protected], or call 505-226-0626.

GUESTS

Reva Stewart (Navajo [Diné]), store owner of Shush Diné Native Shop, and founder of Stolen People Stolen Benefits and Turtle Island Women Warriors

Raquel Moody (White Mountain Apache and Hopi), advocate for Turtle Island Women Warriors

Walter Murillo (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), CEO of Native Health

Hannah Bassett, investigative reporter for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Break 1 Music: 1000 Mile Grin (song) Jason Benoit (artist)

Break 2 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

A 1928 boarding school student attendance form shows the word “deserted”. (Courtesy National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive / NNABSHC)

A Navajo family tells the story in Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon, a new film about their relative Tadidinii, who was killed while refusing to return his daughter back to the boarding school from which she ran away. The men who killed him were acquitted. The family also gives tours of the part of Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation where Tadidinii hid out. Another Yerington Paiute boy repeatedly ran away and traveled the 50 miles back home until the boarding school administrators gave up. These are among the stories that descendants are uncovering about the dangers their relatives endured to resist forced attendance in boarding schools from the 1860s to the 1970s. We’ll hear some of the stories of danger, desperation, and courage.

GUESTS

Mitch Walking Elk (enrolled Cheyenne and Arapaho and of Hopi descent), boarding school survivor

Judi gaiashkibos (enrolled Ponca and Santee Sioux), descendent and survivor of the Genoa Indian Industrial School, executive director of the Nebraska Commission of Indian Affairs, and co-chair of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project

Gabriann Hall (enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes), adjunct professor at Central Oregon Community College

Kutoven “Ku” Stevens (Yerington Paiute), University of Oregon student

Logan Tsinigine (Diné), co-producer of the film Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon and chief financial officer of Taadidiin Tours LLC

If he lives up to his word, President-elect Donald Trump’s first day in the Oval Office will include a wave of executive actions with significant repercussions for tribes and individuals. In addition to major moves to expel immigrants, Trump promises to expand oil and other extractive development, cancel selected green energy spending, and eliminate federal diversity and equity measures. Trump also has an ambitious agenda for his first 100 days that herald sweeping changes in federal government. We’ll hear from political watchers about what could be in store.

GUESTS

Aaron Payment (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), tribal councilman and former chairperson for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Angela Parker (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Cree), assistant professor of history at the University of Denver

Julia Wakeford (Muscogee and Yuchi), policy director for the National Indian Education Association

Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, assistant professor in the Department of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College

Break 1 Music:  Our Autonomy (song) Klee Benally (artist) Appropriation (album)

Break 2 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

Ten years since a world-changing blackout, an Anishinaabe community must embark on a mission of discovery if they’re going to survive. First Nations author Waubgeshig Rice revisits the survivors from his first novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, as they search south for sustainable future in his next novel, Moon of the Turning Leaves. We’ll hear from him how he works to bring hope into a post-apocalyptic story. Plus, we’ll be joined by one of Jim Thorpe’s granddaughters about his posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is an encore show so we won’t be taking live phone calls.

GUESTS

Waubgeshig Rice (Wasauksing First Nation), author and journalist

Anita Thorpe (Sac and Fox), Jim Thorpe’s granddaughter

Break 1 Music: Near the Sea (song) Hataałii (artist) Singing into Darkness (album)

Break 2 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

Personal stories of pregnancy-related complications by Indigenous women are the centerpiece of a new informational campaign by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC wants to raise awareness about the high rate of pre- and post-natal complications among Native women. The effort comes just as the March of Dimes launched its own initiative to improve poor maternal care outcomes. It includes a map of “maternity care deserts”, many of which are in areas with high Native populations. We’ll talk about these and other efforts to improve care for pregnant Native women.

GUESTS

Dr. Jennifer Richards (Diné, Oglala Lakota, and Taos Pueblo), assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health

Crystal Austin (Diné), director of external affairs for the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health

Dr. Brian Thompson (citizen of the Oneida Nation), physician, obstetrician gynecologist, and member of the national board of March of Dimes

Vanessa Sanchez (member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes), mother from the HEAR HER video campaign

Dr. Tina Pattara-Lau, maternal child health consultant at Indian Health Service headquarters

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

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

The Faces backstage at a concert, 1975. Bobby Daniels, left, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, and Jesse Ed Davis. (Photo: Patti Daley / Patti Daley Collection; courtesy The Bob Dylan Center)

Guitarist Jesse Ed Davis (Kiowa) was an in-demand session player starting in the mid 60s, appearing on dozens of recordings with artists such as Taj Mahal, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, and Jackson Browne. He appears on solo albums by three of the four Beatles. Davis toured with The Faces, alongside Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., is mounting an exhibition celebrating Davis’ life and work along with a tribute concert featuring Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, and Joy Harjo. We’ll hear from some of the people who knew and worked with the man Bonnie Raitt called “one of the most original, and soulful, and cool guitar players.”

GUESTS

Joy Harjo (Mvskoke), 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, musician, playwright, and co-curator of the Jesse Ed Davis: Natural Anthem exhibition

Chebon Tiger (Seminole and Mvskoke), musician

Douglas Miller, author of Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis and co-curator of the Jesse Ed Davis: Natural Anthem exhibition

Steven Jenkins, director of the Bob Dylan Center

Break 1 Music: Beauty in a Fade (song) John Trudell (artist) Graffiti Man (album)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Local southern California tribes will share management of a new 4,500-square-mile marine sanctuary. The designation from the Biden Administration cites the need to protect at-risk plants and animals, including whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. Establishing the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is the first such designation initiated by Native Americans. The idea started more than a decade ago by a member of the Northern Chumash Tribe. We’ll find out about how the sanctuary designation came about and what its managers hope it accomplishes. We’ll also check in on the Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative in Alaska, another co-stewardship project tribes are involved in.

GUESTS

Violet Sage Walker (Chumash), chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council

Michael Murray, deputy superintendent for programs at the NOAA Channel Islands

Kenneth Kahn, chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Eugene Paul (Holy Cross Tribe), former tribal chief of the Holy Cross Tribe, chair of the Bering Sea-Interior Tribal Commission and a member of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Break 1 Music: Ocean Waves Song (song) Various Artists (artist) Chumash Story and Song Collection (album)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Tensions are high in New Caledonia as the remote Pacific island nation’s Indigenous people are pushing for independence more than 170 years after the island was colonized by France. At least 13 people have died in protests triggered in May when the French government attempted to institute voting changes that would bolster the political power of New Caledonia’s white settler communities at the expense of the Indigenous Kanak people. There’s been little progress in the four decades after the Kanak tried to force better recognition from New Caledonia’s political leaders aligned with Paris. It’s a fight that has parallels to current and past struggles by Indigenous people in North America and elsewhere.

GUESTS

Joseph Xulue (Kanak and Samoan), executive member and former president of the New Zealand Pacific Lawyers’ Association

Viro Xulue (Kanak), human rights and Indigenous law officer for the Drehu Customary Council of New Caledonia

Dr. Christiane Leurquin (Kanak and French), senior lecturer in Global Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Otago

Dr. Tate LeFevre, cultural anthropologist and Kanaky/New Caledonia specialist

Break 1 Music: Atay (song) YATA (artist)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

The stories she heard as a young girl from her own elder relatives inspired Holly Miowak Guise to research and document the experience of Alaska Native veterans of World War II. Her work is compiled in the book, Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II. Her work encompasses the U.S. Government’s occupation of the Aleutian Islands, the trauma of religious boarding schools, and the historic Alaska Native fight to overcome institutionalized discrimination. We’ll talk with Guise about her work and the people she encountered.

GUEST

Dr. Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq), assistant professor of History at the University of New Mexico and the author of Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from WWII

Break 1 Music: Flag Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Veteran’s Honor Song (album)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)