Native America Calling

For nearly a decade, state and local officials disacussed how to avoid fatalities, injuries, and property damage in the Guadalupe River valley in Texas. They failed to secure funds for a public warning siren. The flood killed more than 120 people and at least 160 are missing. Earlier this year, after numerous warnings by inspectors, a levee in Oregon gave way, damaging more than 950 homes, including those of the Burns Paiute Tribe. And on the Navajo Nation, notification was key to helping hundreds of residents evacuate as the Oak Ridge fire consumed more than 11,000 acres. We’ll hear about those and emergency plans by some other tribes aimed at keeping threats from becoming human tragedies.

GUESTS

Donovan Quintero (Diné), freelance reporter with the Navajo Times

Nelson Andrews Jr. (Mashpee Wampanoag), former tribal councilman, owner of Red Turtle Consulting LLC and CEO of American Indian Relief

Bodie Shaw (Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs), former deputy regional director for the Northwest Region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and former national wildland fire director for BIA

Suzanne Settle, emergency services and resiliency director for the Burns Paiute

Break 1 Music: Healing Song (song) Judy Trejo (artist) Circle Dance Songs of the Paiute and Shoshone (album)

Break 2 Music: Long Black Cadillac (song) Tribz (artist)

The 78-day armed standoff just outside of Montreal in 1990 is credited with clearing a path for reconciliation between Indigenous tribes and the Canadian federal government. The country can count a number of initiatives, government resolutions, and task forces that sprouted from the violence 35 years ago. But many of Indigenous people connected to the direct action say any progress since then is slow and insufficient. We’ll recount the conflict sparked by a town’s plan to build a golf course and condominiums on sacred Mohawk land and assess the state of awareness for Indigenous issues since then.

Ann Coulter (Photo: by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia/CC)

Also, what is the most effective response when public figures make comments that go well past acceptable boundaries? How are they held accountable? We’ll reflect on a social media post by conservative commentator Ann Coulter that prompted rebuke by hundreds of Native American leaders and individuals.

GUESTS

Russ Diabo (Kahnawake Mohawk), policy analyst

Waneek Horn-Miller (Mohawk), Olympian and veteran of the Oka standoff

Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi), publisher and editor of Native News Online and Tribal Business News

Anton Treuer (Leech Lake Ojibwe descendant), professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University

Break 1 Music: Stomp Dance (song) George Hunter (artist) Haven (album)

Break 2 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

The Muscogee Nation will assume some law enforcement duties in the city of Tulsa, Okla., when it comes to tribal citizens. The development over jurisdiction ends a federal lawsuit filed by the Muscogee Nation in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark McGirt decision in 2020. The Cherokee and Osage Nations also potentially have jurisdiction claims in Tulsa and other cities. Local law enforcement officials and Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) oppose the agreement, saying it creates a two-tiered system of justice. We’ll find out what the new agreement solves and what it leaves unanswered.

Also, tribes connected to Florida are speaking out against the Trump administration’s fast track plans to establish a detention center for immigration actions near the Florida Everglades. Miccosukee and Seminole tribal officials and citizens say the center, dubbed the “Alligator Alcatraz,” infringes on land that is their “cultural, spiritual, and historical identity.”

GUESTS

Betty Osceola (Miccosukee), environmental educator

State Rep. Scott Fetgatter (Choctaw/R-OK 16)

Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), law professor at Arizona State University and tribal judge

Jason Salsman (Muscogee), press secretary for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation

Break 1 Music: One Good Reason (song) Sara Kae (artist) One Good Reason (album)

Break 2 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

President Donald Trump’s earlier executive orders and the comprehensive spending bill he just signed mark the end of dozens of tribal green energy initiatives. They mark a major shift in direction away from solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources championed during the Biden administration. Those projects aimed at energy sovereignty that can’t find new, private-sector funds will halt or scale back their original scope.

And, an Alaska tribal village is hoping a transition away from oil-fueled energy will both save money and help the environment.

GUESTS

Chéri Smith (Mi’kmaq descent), president and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy

Robert Blake (Red Lake Nation), founder and CEO of Solar Bear

Tim Kalke, manager for Sustainable Energy for Galena Alaska

Charlie Green, first chief of the Louden Tribe

Break 1 Music: Hug Room (song) Chuck Copenace (artist) Oshki Manitou (album)

Break 2 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the spending bill just signed by President Donald Trump will increase the number of people without health insurance by 16 million over the next ten years. The $1.1 trillion cuts to Medicaid will also affect Native Americans who rely on it to pay for health care through the Indian Health Service and threatens rural hospitals with a high rate of Medicaid-dependent patients. The new spending plan also substantially reduces the number of people who will collect food assistance through the federal government. We’ll get insights on what these numbers mean for Native Americans who disproportionately rely on these two federal government programs.

We’ll also find out about the significance of the new Indigenous head of Mexico’s Supreme Court.

GUESTS

A.C. Locklear (Lumbee), CEO of National Indian Health Board

Aaron Payment (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), tribal councilman and former chairperson for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Kelli Case (Chickasaw), senior staff attorney for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative

Gaspar Rivera-Salgado (Mixteco), director for the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies

Break 1 Music: Thick as Thieves (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Break 2 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

“Fierce Aunties” by author Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa, Tsimshian) is a colorful, enthusiastic celebration of the Indigenous women we need in our lives. Goodluck’s children’s book explores the many ways women provide support for the young people who look up to them. Another writer, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Sicangu and Ponca), also explores the power of relatives in her young readers chapter book, “The Summer of the Bone Horses.” The book is also an homage to her late brother by telling an interesting piece of his story on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in the late 1940s. Among the awards won by the long-time children’s book author and educator is the National Humanities Medal. Both books are illustrated by the talented artist Steph Littlebird (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde). We’ll hear from all three women about their work.

Break 1 Music: Xgap’isgu (song) Saltwater Hank (artist) Siip’Nsk (album)

Break 2 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

An illegal voting case in Alaska highlights lingering confusion over the rights extended to the citizens of American Samoa, a U.S. territory. Eleven Samoans from Whittier, Alaska are charged with felonies for alleged voter fraud by participating in their local election. All have U.S. passports, were born on U.S. soil, and can even participate in the presidential primary process. The territory has been under heavy colonial pressure for centuries and has been under U.S. oversight for more than 125 years. But Congress never granted its citizens the right to vote in national elections.

In another case, tribes in North Dakota were dealt a serious blow in their ongoing fight against redistricting that reduces their collective power in state elections.

This is an encore presentation so we won’t be taking calls

GUESTS

Charles Ala’ilima (Samoan), attorney

Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa (Samoan), executive director of the Pacific Community of Alaska

Neil Weare, co-director of Right to Democracy

Nicole Donaghy (Hunkpapa Lakota), executive director of North Dakota Native Vote

A documentary filmmaker’s chance encounter with the Blackfoot man who became a social media sensation in connection with the phrase “skoden” (“let’s go then”), turns into a moving profile of Pernell Bad Arm. We’ll hear from Damien Eagle Bear (Blackfoot) about the person behind the meme who was initially mocked, but became a rallying cry for Indigenous people.

Lucy Tulugarjuk plays the character Tapeesa in the new film, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (Photo: Tony Olmos/Paramount Pictures and Skydance).

And we’ll also talk with Inuit actress Lucy Tulugarjuk who shares the screen with Tom Cruise in the summer blockbuster “Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning”. It’s the latest in a series of notable films for the Inuit actress who is also the executive director of the Nunavut Independent Television Network in Canada and an accomplished throat singer.

GUESTS

Damien Eagle Bear (Blackfoot), filmmaker and director of “#skoden”

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuit), actress, throat singer, and executive director of the Nunavut Independent Television network

Break 1 Music: Honor Song (song) Blackfoot Confederacy (artist) Hear the Beat (album)

Break 2 Music: Kunax yak’ei gayshagook (song) Khu.éex’ (artist) Siy​á​adlan (album)

The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t rule on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, a legal challenge closely watched by Native Americans. But their related decision in that case significantly changes the current practice in how all Americans can keep the federal government, corporations, and others from continuing actions with questionable constitutionality. We’ll review what’s at stake in the fight over birthright citizenship and how the High Court’s ruling preventing further nationwide injunctions will alter how lawyers tackle Native issues from now on.

We’ll also learn about a legal settlement in Montana that aims to ensure schools adequately teach Native American history.

GUESTS

Matthew Fletcher (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and author of the “Turtle Talk” blog

Danny Chrisney (Maya Q’eqchi’ descent), managing attorney of Wilner and O’Reilly Phoenix office

Lenny Powell (Hopland Band of Pomo Indians), Native American Rights Fund staff attorney

Mark Carter (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), Native American Rights Fund attorney

Break 1 Music: Take Your Troubles to the River (song) Vincent Craig (artist) Self-titled Release (album)

Break 2 Music: Kunax yak’ei gayshagook (song) Khu.éex’ (artist) Siy​á​adlan (album)