Native America Calling

After a period of colonial suppression, traditional kapa making is enjoying a sustained resurgence. In recent decades, a growing number of Native Hawaiian artists have mastered the labor-intensive process of harvesting, scraping, and soaking the bark of the wauke plant and embellishing the resulting fabric with colorful traditional designs. A new generation of artists is benefiting from this reclaimed expertise.

President Donald Trump is signaling a shift in the ongoing push to deport immigrants as the reality of taking migrant farmworkers out of the fields, disrupting businesses and the country’s food supply starts to become apparent. About 40% of the 2.6 million farm workers in the U.S. are estimated to be undocumented. A portion of those are Indigenous people from Mexico and Central American countries. We’ll hear about how the Trump administration may be adjusting its stance.

A search for words in their language led a husband-and-wife team to 300-year-old texts where French Jesuit missionaries documented Seneca names for traditional foods, cooking, and even recipes.

Missoula, Mont. is the setting for the inaugural festival of literature, music, and other arts known as Indigipalooza. Musician and former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) headlines the list of talent offering their perspectives on the state of Indigenous storytelling.

We’ll also hear from filmmaker Adam Piron about his curated selection of films screened in New York highlighting Native American urban relocation.

And we’ll get context for President Donald Trump’s demand that sports teams return to their offensive names and mascots.

The Crow Tribe is marking the 200th anniversary of their treaty with the United States. It is a document whose limits have been tested over that time, but still defines the tribe’s relationship with the federal government. This year also marks 170 years since the treaty ratifying the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indians' official relationship with the U.S. We'll examine these important historical and legal milestones and how they fit in with the extensive and complicated history of treaties.

Education advocates are launching a multi-year program to develop a game and to teach the Denaakk’e language in schools. That and another language teaching apps come at a time when almost all federal funding for language revitalization is eliminated. We’ll also talk with a man about his personal journey learning the Cherokee language, an undertaking that inspired him to learn more about his tribal language’s history and importance in maintaining culture.

After Congress approved President Donald Trump’s clawback of funds distributed through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, tribal stations are frantically searching for money to keep from going dark. Tribes are stepping up in some cases, audiences are responding with increased donations, and the stations are scaling back their operations. In the meantime, higher education officials are worried about a Trump budget plan to cut federal funding to tribal colleges and universities by nearly 90%. Representatives from some of those institutions say they will have to significantly scale back their operations. Others say they will have to close outright. We’ll get more detail on both of these major funding changes.

From finding simple recipes to diagnosing complicated illnesses, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly useful part of everyday life, but the space and resources it takes to power that technology is immense and that is hitting close to home for some tribes. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation in New York just filed a lawsuit against a proposed 900,000-square-foot AI data center a mile away from their reservation. Chief Kenith Dale Jonathan says the center would harm air quality, water, and wildlife. We’ll hear from the tribe and the potential for data center encroachment elsewhere. We’ll also look at how the Trump administration's push to use AI in medicine would benefit or harm Native Americans.

Indigenous people of Canada know of the horrors generations of children were forced to endure in residential schools even though records and physical proof are hard to come by. They know from the stories passed down and the traumas they witnessed. “The Knowing” is the newest book from Anishinaabe journalist and best-selling author Tanya Talaga. She takes readers on a journey through scattered residential school records — and their many dead ends — to find Annie, a long lost relative. Her story weaves together her personal quest with Canadian history, providing readers with a better understanding of how racism, greed, misplaced religious intent, and government policy played into Canada’s unforgivable treatment of Indigenous children. But Talaga also celebrates the triumph of healing and the growing momentum to demand justice, acknowledgement, and real reconciliation. “The Knowing” is on our Native Bookshelf.

A widely reported exit poll right after the 2024 presidential election greatly exaggerated the support for President Donald Trump by Native Americans. Native voters, by and large, lean Democrat, but it’s clear Native voters supported President Trump more than expected. And since the election, a handful of tribes and Native leaders continue to back the MAGA trend. Louisiana’s Tunica-Biloxi Tribe are among the institutions nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing his foreign policy and domestic economic agenda. We’ll hear from those who think Trump is moving Native interests in the right direction.

When the state of Idaho bowed out of a grey wolf reintroduction program and even proposed a major reduction in wolf populations, the Nez Perce tribe stepped in to help the endangered animal's fate. With a deep spiritual and cultural connection to wolves, the tribe sought to improve wolf numbers over the objections of many decision makers and members of the public. Now the state is pushing a plan to cut wolf numbers by more than half. Tribes in Wisconsin are also weighing in on proposals to end certain protections for wolves in that state. In Idaho, the tribes say the animals have cultural significance. We'll hear about tribal efforts to help wolves, and get a picture of a film about the Cherokee connections to the red wolf.