Native America Calling

Native fisheries help stock waterways with species of fish that might not be able to sustain their populations without help. From salmon to trout to walleye, fish are an important resource and often have a cultural tie to the tribes that help keep up their numbers. We’ll hear from several tribes that maintain fish hatcheries to keep this key resource thriving.

After decades of outcry by Native American leaders, the ball may finally be moving down the field in the fight to change offensive pro sports team names and mascots. Both the Cleveland Major League Baseball team and the Washington, D.C. NFL team are making moves to reconsider their teams’ names. In addition to pressure from Native leaders and momentum against memorializing racist and oppressive historical figures, major corporations are signaling it’s time for a change. We’ll explore this moment in history and how we got here.

Finger picking bluesman Cary Morin (Crow Nation) is a musician that likes to bring his life into his work. We touch in with him to hear about his new release “Dockside Saints” where he stretches what he calls Native Americana to include the beloved musical flavors of Cajun and zydeco. We’ll hear how this blending happened for what Morin says are stories about love, faith, hardship and heritage.

The state of Arizona is struggling to gain control of record-breaking increases of coronavirus infections that threaten to overwhelm health care systems. The surge comes after state officials relaxed measures designed to help prevent the spread of the virus. Tribes within the state, many of whom struggled to gain control of infections within their own borders, are expanding or enacting new measures to try to keep their citizens healthy.

(Encore show) A Brazilian motivational speaker faced backlash for including haka in his programming. He’s not Maori, but uses the traditional Maori dance that he says he learned from videos. He’s one of several Brazilian companies criticized for using haka in corporate retreats. The Maori ceremonial dance is accompanied by chanting and intimidating postures and facial expressions. Modern presentations of it include important events like weddings and funerals and some sports teams perform haka before competitions. We’ll get the basics of what haka is and when it turns into appropriation.

The coronavirus threat has closed theaters across the country, from New York’s Broadway to South Dakota’s Black Hills Playhouse. Theater companies and individual actors are still finding ways to connect with audiences. One way is to stage live script readings over Zoom. Table reads are usually the first step of a play’s production as the cast and crew get acquainted with the story and characters. We’ll stage our own table reads for a taste of Native theater on the radio.

After lawsuits and numerous delays, the Trump Administration distributed billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief money to tribes. But there remain some challenges and frustrations. Federal lawsuits have yet to decide whether Alaska Native corporations should receive any of the funds. Also tribes now confront the bureaucracy of conforming to the narrow scope of criteria required by the federal legislation for eligibility. We’ll check in with tribes on some of the good and bad outcomes of receiving federal relief aid.

This month’s literary feature provides a unique opportunity to hear about an important historical figure in Native America. “Help Indians Help Themselves” presents the writings of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), who was born on the Yankton Sioux reservation in 1876. Many readers have turned to her wisdom over the years to understand the impact of boarding schools and Native political activism in early U.S. history. The book is edited by English Professor Jane Hafen (Taos Pueblo). The forward is by educator Dr. Margaret Noodin (Anishinaabe). Both will help us take a deeper look into the work of this revolutionary writer.

Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show new surges of COVID-19 cases in Arizona, Texas, Florida and other states. Many governors loosened restrictions on public interactions and are leaving it up to local officials to enact health and safety measures. Tribes, meanwhile, continue to hold down strict social distancing orders, curfews, and border monitoring. Such measures helped the Navajo Nation mark a day with no new COVID-19 deaths in the past week, even as they struggle to keep control of new cases. We’ll check in with tribal leaders to get their views on what’s next and how they are protect their citizens.

Pregnant Native American women were singled out for coronavirus testing by a hospital in Albuquerque. Some new Native mothers were also separated from their newborns until test results came back. Those are troubling findings in an investigation by ProPublica and New Mexico In Depth. We’ll talk to the reporters. In Montana a federal court cancelled oil leases in an area sacred to the Blackfeet. The ruling reverses the Trump administration’s decision to push the leases through. And some tribes are still waiting on CARES Act funding even after a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to release $679-million allocated to tribes. We’ll get the inside story on these and other news important to Native Americans on our regular news round up.