Aquinnah Wampanoag journalist Joseph Lee investigates the difficult subject of Indigenous identity in his new book, “Nothing More Of This Land“. He uses his own family’s story as a jumping off point, exploring the reality of the people who once greeted the Mayflower. The original Wampanoag homeland includes Martha’s Vineyard, the haven for wealthy elites that has become so expensive that at least three quarters of tribal members can no longer afford to live there. Lee branches out from there to find parallels among the Native people and places he’s covered — from Alaska to the halls of the United Nations. We’ll talk with Lee about his new book, journalism, and what it means to be Native in modern America.

Santa Ana Pueblo is celebrating the return of a clay bowl that was stolen in 1984, but it’s only one out of nearly 150 irreplaceable items taken during a series of burglaries and never recovered. Investigators believe the items were eventually sold to collectors around the world and authorities never tracked them down. We’ll check in on the tribe’s renewed efforts to find and bring the items back home.

We’ll also get updates on other repatriation efforts, including tribes and lawmakers putting renewed pressure on the University of California over its failure to return remains and artifacts required by law, and we’ll recount the largest Native Hawaiian repatriation in history with Edward Halealoha Ayau.

GUESTS

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

Jack Potter Jr. (Redding Rancheria), chairman of the Redding Rancheria

Myron Armijo (Santa Ana Pueblo), Santa Ana Pueblo governor

Monica Murrell, tribal historic preservation officer and director of the Santa Ana Historic Preservation Department

Edward Halealoha Ayau (Native Hawaiian), executive director of Hui Iwi Kuamo’o

Break 1 Music: Rise Up (song) Big Every Time (artist) Universitile (album)

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

Miccosukee Tribe of Florida scored at least a temporary legal victory when a federal judge halted construction and ordered parts of the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” removed. The decision comes in the lawsuit by the tribe and environmental groups claiming work on the abandoned airport turned emergency immigrant detention center in Florida violates environmental and national preservation laws. The facility is on traditional Miccosukee land. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement along with the state of Florida see the compound as part of ramped-up immigrant deportation efforts. We’ll speak with Chairman Talbert Cypress (Miccosukee).

We’ll also hear from Lakota artist Danielle SeeWalker, who settled a lawsuit with the city of Vail, Colo. after officials cancelled a summer artist residency. The cancellation came after she posted a picture of a work criticizing Israel’s actions against the citizens of Gaza.

Break 1 Music: V. Shawi’ [Raccoon] (song) Dover Quartet (artist) Woodland Songs (album)

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

Renowned ballet dancer Jock Soto (Diné/Puerto Rican) is being celebrated by the International Museum of Dance for his career that started when he was hand-selected at age 16 by New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine as a principal dancer. He went on to an acclaimed career on stage and as a mentor to up-and-coming dancers. We’ll talk with Soto about his dancing and choreography career.

Composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s (Chickasaw) new compositions are based on his tribe’s clan animals, including woodpeckers, deer, and racoons. They’re included on a new album, “Woodland Songs,” by the Dover Quartet. The album also includes songs by singer-songwriter Pura Fé (Tuscarora and Taino) that Tate arranged for the ensemble. We’ll talk with Tate about his interpreting the mix of traditional Native ideas in a classical music setting.

Break 1 Music: V. Shawi’ [Raccoon] (song) Dover Quartet (artist) Woodland Songs (album)

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

A relatively new program with proven results in improving the health of expecting and new mothers may be in jeopardy. Efforts to renew the Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM) program by the September 30 deadline have so far been unsuccessful. ERASE MM panels review and document social and legal factors that go into providing maternal health care. Absent or inconsistent approaches state-by-state could make it harder to spot gaps for Native mothers.

Federal funding cuts also threaten access to birth control for more than 800,000 women. The Trump administration is signaling a shift in the Nixon-era program known as Title X, promoting fertility programs for low-income women rather than providing them contraception. In addition, pending cuts to Medicaid could reduce family planning services to millions more. We’ll take a look at the current trend in family planning services for Native Americans.

GUESTS

Camie Goldhammer (Sisseton Wahpeton), founding executive director of Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services

MichaeLynn Kanichy (member of the Makah Tribe), co-founder of The Hi•dubał Baʔas

Julia Wall (Pueblo and Anishinaabe), health administrator for the Changing Woman Initiative

Shireen Ghorbani, president and CEO for the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah

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

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

Since the technology was first made publicly available in the U.S. more than a century ago, radio has endured repeated predictions of its demise. Even with the explosion of digital streaming and on-demand podcasts, the nation’s top ratings firm finds at least 82% of Americans listen to traditional, terrestrial radio each week. We’ll mark National Radio Day by talking to Native people who have a passion for the medium, including the host of the longest-running Native radio show in Texas, a radio reporter who covers Indigenous affairs in Oklahoma, and an Alaska teenager who built his own internet radio station in his bedroom.

GUESTS

Sarah Liese (Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Diné), Indigenous Affairs reporter at KOSU

Albert Old Crow (Southern Cheyenne), Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal council coordinator and host of “Beyond Bows and Arrows”

 Colton Prince (Athabascan and Iñupiaq), owner of 98.5 Music Alaska

Bob Petersen (Yup’ik), network manager for Native Voice One (NV1)

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD)

Listen to an extended interview NAC producer Sol Traverso did with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) about securing funding for 35 tribal radio stations before the passing of the recent rescission package:

Break 1 Music: Trick Song (song) Battle River (artist) Hard Times (album)

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

Full disclosure: Native Voice One is the distribution division of Koahnic Broadcasting Corporation, Native America Calling’s parent organization.

Incoming Tishomingo High School senior golfer Carli Upton. (Photo: Christiana Alford)

Among the big wins in athletic competition this summer is the victory by the Haudenosaunee Nationals at the Pan-American Women’s Lacrosse Championship. They are first time medalists at the senior level and their win over Puerto Rico has far-reaching implications. We’ll hear from a player and a coach for the team and take the opportunity to catch up with some other notable Native athletes, from a Comanche professional boxer to the Diné college swimmer.

GUESTS

Carli Upton (Chickasaw and Choctaw), student and golfer at Tishomingo High School

Bean Minerd (Onondaga Nation), Haudenosaunee Nationals women’s lacrosse team member and head women’s lacrosse coach of Buffalo State University

George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah (Comanche), former professional boxer, North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, and CEO of Numunu

Kaylah Yazzie (Navajo, Comanche, and Sac and Fox), swimmer for the University of New Mexico

Claudia Jimerson (Cayuga Nation), director of lacrosse operations and board member for the Haudenosaunee Nationals

Break 1 Music: Different Build (song) Nige B (artist) Reshape – Refashion (album)

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

Michael Steven Wilson (Tohono O’odham) was a lay pastor on the Tohono O’odham Nation in the early 2000s when he started putting out water for migrants crossing the U.S.- Mexico border. He considered it a religious and ethical calling, but it put him at odds with U.S. immigration officials, his church, and his own Native nation. Growing up in Tucson, Ariz. in the 1950s, Wilson endured racism and poverty. He witnessed injustice in Central America while serving in the military — and he confronted questions about his Christian faith while in seminary school in the 90s. His experiences and observations informed his decision to help relieve the suffering of the migrants risking their lives to cross the Sonoran Desert. They are also documented in the memoir, “What Side Are You On?” Wilson is our August Native in the Spotlight.

Break 1 Music: Willie’s Ghost Riders (song) Gertie & the T.O. Boyz (artist)

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

After 103 years, the Santa Fe Indian Market remains the biggest draw for Native artists, potters, and jewelry makers as well as those who appreciate and collect their work. More than 1.000 juried participants come from hundreds of Native communities, offering a hugely diverse range of inspiring work. We’ll take a small sample of that creativity and check in on the outlook for Native arts and arts education.

GUESTS

Lily Hope (Tlingit), Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver and artist

Jamie Schulze (Northern Cheyenne / Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), executive director of Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA)

Shelly Lowe (Diné), president of the Institute of American Indian Arts

Dan Vallo (Acoma Pueblo), 2024 SWAIA Best of Show winner and multimedia artist

Monica Raphael (Anishinaabe and Sicangu Lakota), quill and beadwork artist

Break 1 Music: C.R.E.A.M. [Instrumental] (song) Wu-Tang Clan (artist) Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers [Instrumentals] (album)

Break 2 Music: The Gift of Life (song) Randy Wood (artist) The Gift of Life (album)

News consumers have a constant stream of information at their fingertips, but how reliable is it and how do people check the facts? Indigenous journalists are a means to bring balanced viewpoints to newsrooms that typically have limited interaction with Indigenous populations. As the annual gathering of the Indigenous Journalists Association gets underway in Albuquerque, N.M., we’ll discuss how journalism is changing and how Indigenous journalists are responding to new pressures for transparency, fact-checking, and bias.

GUESTS

Angel Ellis (Muscogee), director of Mvskoke Media and on board of directors for Indigenous Journalists Association and Oklahoma Media Center

Shaun Griswold (Laguna, Jemez and Zuni Pueblo), correspondent at High Country News and Native News Online

Nancy Marie Spears (Cherokee), Indigenous Children and Families Reporter for The Imprint

Hattie Kauffman (Nez Perce), journalist and first Native American to file a report on a national news broadcast

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

Break 2 Music: The Gift of Life (song) Randy Wood (artist) The Gift of Life (album)