Native America Calling

From the rich colors used in Navajo weaving to all the colors of the rainbow beaded into medallions and regalia, Indigenous hues carry meaning, stories, and emotion. Some colors specific to tribes represent the available animals, plants, and minerals used to make them. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks with Native artists about traditional and contemporary meanings, sources, and uses of color: Anong Beam (M’Chigeeng), founder of Beam Paints; Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo), founder and technologist at alterNative Media; Zefren Anderson (Diné), experimental archaeological weaver and silversmith.

When the cost of living goes up, your choices boil down to increasing your own income or cutting costs. Inflation is taking a bite out of our personal budgets. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce explores just how much inflation is costing you, how long it’s expected to stick around, what causes it, and which approaches can help you be less strapped for cash with Sunny Guillory (Sioux), Northwest Indian College financial literacy coordinator; Kerry Shabi (Aaniih/Nakoda), business development coordinator at Montana Native Growth Fund; Summer Red, education senior manager at the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE); and Cora Mae Haskell, retiree from Four Bands Community Fund.

Tax breaks and other incentives are driving wealthy, outside investors to buy up property in Puerto Rico. That’s pushing housing prices up, exacerbating the island’s debt crisis, and threatening the country’s long-held tradition of public access to beaches. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Roberto Borrero (Taino), president of United Confederation of Taino People; Gualterio Alomar (Taino), president of the Organization for Culture of Hispanic Origins; and Tai Pelli (Taino), international relations and human rights officer for the United Confederation of Taino People.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Tribal Council reversed course on recognizing marriage equality after their citizens and others spoke up. Today on Native America Calling, in celebration of Pride month, Shawn Spruce takes a look at the varying actions across Native nations to acknowledge same-sex unions in light of the growing trend among states to do so with Curtis Alexander Jr. (Omaha-He/She/Bitch), president and public relations chair for Winnebago Two-Spirits, and Alray Nelson (Diné-He/His/Him), lead organizer for Diné Equality and executive director for Navajo Nation Pride.

The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation estimates as many as 25 million Americans are experiencing long COVID. So little is known about the condition that the number could be much higher or significantly lower. But medical experts suggest a large percentage of the population could suffer serious symptoms from the virus for a long time. Those symptoms might be as mild as a loss of smell, or as severe as difficulty breathing. And the significant rate of infections is far from over. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Dr. Jill Jim (Navajo), executive director of the Navajo Nation Department of Health; Dr. Anthony Fleg, physician with the University of New Mexico and co-founder of the Native Health Initiative; and Chasity Salvador (Acoma Pueblo), long COVID survivor, community partner with the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, poet, community doula, seedkeeper, and farmer.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s experience is a cautionary tale for tribes working with outsiders to help preserve their language. Tribal members worked with the Lakota Language Consortium for years, recording elders, developing workshops, and translating books. When the tribe wanted to utilize the materials they’d worked on, they discovered they were copyrighted and controlled by a non-Native entrepreneur and tribal members would have to purchase the books and other materials. The tribe has since taken the rare step of banishing the organization. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Graham Lee Brewer (Cherokee), investigative reporter for NBC News; Alex FireThunder (Oglala Lakota), Lakota language instructor, musician, and incoming deputy director for the Lakota Language Consortium; Tipiziwin Tolman (Standing Rock Sioux), Indigenous language revitalization student and board member on the Lakota Language Consortium; Jennifer Weston (Standing Rock Sioux), co-author of the resolution to ban the Lakota Language Consortium from the tribe; and Waniya Locke (Ahtna Dene, Lakota/Dakota, and Anishinaabe), community organizer, Indigenous doula, former Lakota Language teacher, and transcriber of Lakota language.

An all-Native send-up of the Tony Award-winning musical-turned-hit-movie “Grease” is connecting with audiences in Canada and playing in selected theaters in the U.S. “Bear Grease” is the brainchild of Crystle Lightning (Cree) and MC RedCloud (Huichol), a husband and wife hip-hop duo who go by the name Lightning Cloud. It’s a follow-up to their “hip-hopera” “Dr. Sioux’s The Neech Who Stole Christmas.” With songs like “Boarding School Dropout”, this is not the nearly all-white musical depicting the fun-loving 50s era. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks with MC RedCloud as well as Nipîy Iskwew (Cree and Beaver First Nation), fashion designer, entrepreneur, and performer, and Teneil Whiskeyjack (Cree), artist, playwright, and entrepreneur who plays Marty in the show, about Indigenizing the classic plot, lyrics, and fashion of “Grease”.

Wilma Mankiller’s image on the U.S. quarter coin is the latest recognition for the pioneering Cherokee leader. Among her other honors was the Presidential Medal of Freedom. During the event celebrating her likeness on the quarter, Principle Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. said, years after her death, Mankiller "keeps changing the world for the better". Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce looks back at Mankiller’s legacy as an advocate for Cherokee people and the tribe’s first female principal chief.

Diné composer Raven Chacon originally bristled at the invitation to create a work for the annual Thanksgiving concert at a Milwaukee Catholic Church. But he was drawn to the opportunity to write music features the magnificent organ at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. That work, Voiceless Mass, led to Chacon being the first Native composer to win a Pulitzer Prize in Music. Chacon returns to the Native America Calling studio for a discussion about his art and his inspiring journey.

The Metropolitan State University of Denver will provide Native students waivers for both tuition and fees. The move follows action by the Colorado Legislature last fall to offer in-state tuition to any student enrolled in a federally recognized tribe with historical ties to Colorado. The state of Oregon and the University of California system also have tuition waivers for Native students. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce looks at the trend and who it helps with Phenocia Bauerle (Crow), director of the Native American Student Development at the University of California-Berkeley; Karen Diver (Chippewa), senior advisor to the president for Native American Affairs at the University of Minnesota; and Joseph Lindsay (Chemehuevi), director of admission and operation at Berkeley Law.