Native America Calling

Murray Porter is a Juno Award winning artist and we’ll visit with him about his newest album “STAND UP.” It’s charged with what the Mohawk musician calls a “velvet growl.” But it also has exhilarating blues beats sprinkled with fruitful piano rhythms. The songs take on heavy issues like Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, suicide and the right to clean water. He’s packed some love stingers into the mix too.

The Library of Congress just named Mvskoke poet, author, and musician Joy Harjo the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the first Native poet to hold the position. “I share this honor with ancestors and teachers who inspired in me a love of poetry, who taught that words are powerful and can make change when understanding appears impossible, and how time and timelessness can live together within a poem.” We’ll spend the hour with Joy Harjo, our June Native in the Spotlight.

The Library of Congress just named Mvskoke poet, author, and musician Joy Harjo the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the first Native poet to hold the position. “I share this honor with ancestors and teachers who inspired in me a love of poetry, who taught that words are powerful and can make change when understanding appears impossible, and how time and timelessness can live together within a poem.” We’ll spend the hour with Joy Harjo, our June Native in the Spotlight.

The Supreme Court is set to decide the fundamentals of a murder case that has implications for jurisdiction in Oklahoma. The basic question revolves around which court should decide the case of a Muscogee man accused of murdering another Muscogee man on traditional Muscogee reservation land. But the decision means a definitive federal legal ruling on the contention the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and other Oklahoma tribes have held all along: Oklahoma reservation boundaries were never disestablished as the state maintains. We’ll break down the legal case and discuss what changes—and what doesn’t—because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The Supreme Court is set to decide the fundamentals of a murder case that has implications for jurisdiction in Oklahoma. The basic question revolves around which court should decide the case of a Muscogee man accused of murdering another Muscogee man on traditional Muscogee reservation land. But the decision means a definitive federal legal ruling on the contention the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and other Oklahoma tribes have held all along: Oklahoma reservation boundaries were never disestablished as the state maintains. We’ll break down the legal case and discuss what changes—and what doesn’t—because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Criminal justice, health care, education, housing and economic development are all underfunded by the U.S. government, according to a report released by the United States Human Rights Commission. The main findings in the report, Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans, won’t come as a surprise for most people in Indian Country. In fact, the report’s authors note it is an update to a previous effort in 2003, and they say little has changed in terms of the federal government’s inability to uphold its funding promises for Indian Country. We’ll get analysis of the report and hear from a U.S. Human Rights Commissioner about where to go from here.

Criminal justice, health care, education, housing and economic development are all underfunded by the U.S. government, according to a report released by the United States Human Rights Commission. The main findings in the report, Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans, won’t come as a surprise for most people in Indian Country. In fact, the report’s authors note it is an update to a previous effort in 2003, and they say little has changed in terms of the federal government’s inability to uphold its funding promises for Indian Country. We’ll get analysis of the report and hear from a U.S. Human Rights Commissioner about where to go from here.

Native artists frequently reference tribal traditions in their work. Native LGBTQ2 artists also turn to the joys and challenges of their sexual orientation for inspiration. They use paint, music, dance or theater to tell personal stories and to raise awareness of contemporary issues. For LGBTQ2 Pride Month, we’ll talk with some Native LGBTQ and Two-Spirit artists about the stories they tell through their art.

Native artists frequently reference tribal traditions in their work. Native LGBTQ2 artists also turn to the joys and challenges of their sexual orientation for inspiration. They use paint, music, dance or theater to tell personal stories and to raise awareness of contemporary issues. For LGBTQ2 Pride Month, we’ll talk with some Native LGBTQ and Two-Spirit artists about the stories they tell through their art.

An auction house in France has gone ahead with the sale this month of cultural items despite pleas from tribes, elected leaders and the Association on American Indian Affairs. It’s one in a string of auctions by the Paris auction house that chooses to ignore admonitions against the harm they’re causing. The Yaqui has been working for almost two decades to repatriate a sacred Maaso Kova that the tribe says was never meant to be out of the tribe’s possession or on public display. We’ll get an update on some repatriation efforts and what’s being done to influence international traders in cultural items.