Native America Calling

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is overseeing an unprecedented cut of nearly a quarter of the department’s staff, drawing widespread concerns about possible adverse affects for thousands of Native Americans who depend on those services. Everything from bill processing to testing and research to prevent lead contamination in children could be constricted. At the same time, Sec. Kennedy successfully reversed Elon Musk’s termination of 900 Indian Health Service employees by the Department of Government Efficiency. Kennedy is also reaching out to tribes and maintaining contact through the department’s Tribal Self Governance Advisory Committee. We’ll look at the latest word on what some of the potential effects of the federal actions are on Native health and health care.

GUESTS

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

Kristen Bitsuie (Navajo), tribal health care outreach and education policy manager for the National Indian Health Board

Kim Russell (Navajo), policy advisor for Sage Memorial Hospital

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

Break 2 Music: Vipismal – The Hummingbird Song (song) Earl Ray (artist) Traditional Songs Of The Salt River Pima (album)

Philanthropy matches a donor’s passion with an organization’s drive to make a difference. It is an arrangement that helps build equity in areas that are not served by profit-driven interests. Philanthropy becomes even more important during times of financial uncertainty and government austerity. We’ll get a view of the current directions for philanthropic giving and what the new pressures to fill the gaps.

GUESTS

Erik Stegman (Carry the Kettle First Nation), CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy

Gina Jackson (Western Shoshone and Oglala Lakota), co-founder and CEO of the Return to the Heart Foundation

MENTIONED:

Tribal Funding Registry 

Break 1 Music: We Are the Stars (song) Mike Bern (artist)

Break 2 Music: Vipismal – The Hummingbird Song (song) Earl Ray (artist) Traditional Songs Of The Salt River Pima (album)

Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. calls the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEA) “one of the singular accomplishments of this country”. The legislation championed by President Richard Nixon opened the doors to tribal control over their own health care, law enforcement, natural resources management and economic development. We’ll look at the progress since ISDEA, and what tribes intend to strengthen self-governance in the future.

GUESTS

W. Ron Allen (Jamestown S’klallam), tribal chairman for the Jamestown S’klallam Tribe

Jay Spaan (Cherokee), executive director of the Self-Governance Communication and Education Tribal Consortium

Laura Harris (Comanche), executive director for Americans for Indian Opportunity

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

Break 2 Music: Vipismal – The Hummingbird Song (song) Earl Ray (artist) Traditional Songs Of The Salt River Pima (album)

In Larissa FastHorse’s (Sičháŋǧu Lakota) new play, a nonprofit works to accommodate “race shifters”, people who are compelled to change the ethnicity they’re born with. “Fake it Until You Make It” is a satirical look at the serious topic of Native identity, helped out by a talented cast and Indigenous-grounded writing.

The new children’s TV puppet series, Navajo Highways, is making the rounds on screens across the Southwest. Written and directed by Pete Sands (Diné), the show follows young Sadie from her urban home to her introduction to Navajo land, culture, language and food. With a nod to the popular PBS show, Sesame Street, it’s filled with characters Native audiences will find familiar. It’s slated for public distribution on FNX.

GUESTS

Larissa FastHorse (Sičháŋǧu Lakota), playwright

Pete Sands (Diné), writer and director of “Navajo Highways”

Kimberly Kee (Diné), tribal early childhood specialist and she plays Ms. Pete

Break 1 Music:  New Orleans Rag (song) Lakota John (artist) The Winds of Time: Ragtime,Piedmont Blues, Folk and Native Americana  (album)

Break 2 Music: Scream, Holler, and Howl (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Indigenous business leaders in the U.S. and all over the world will now have to adjust to the uncertain effects of President Donald Trump’s aggressive new series of tariffs. Economic experts predict some measure of chaos in the short term. It’s impossible to predict how the tariffs will play out in the long run, but it will certainly affect everything from the beads used in regalia to groceries to auto sales. Trump insists the new tariffs will put American businesses on a more level playing field and boost the federal government’s coffers. We’ll hear how Native business experts are responding to the new economic reality.

GUESTS

Tabatha Bull (Nipissing First Nation), president and CEO of Canadian Council for Indigenous Business

John Desjarlais (Cree-Métis), executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network

Dante Biss-Grayson (Osage), founder of Sky-Eagle Collection

Tally Monteau (Hunkpati Dakota and Chippewa-Cree), program manager for the Native American Development Corporation (NADC) Triia program and beadwork artist

Benjamin Haile (Shinnecock), owner of Thunder Island Coffee Roasters

Break 1 Music: Mr. Businessman’s Blues (song) DM Lafortune (artist) Beauty and Hard Times (album)

Break 2 Music: Scream, Holler, and Howl (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Indigenous people in Canada suffered a noticeably disproportionate number of fatal interactions with law enforcement in 2024. In one three-month period, 15 Indigenous people died either in custody or from direct interactions with police. It prompted the Assembly of First Nations and other Indigenous leaders to call for a national inquiry. It also inspired the news program, APTN Investigates, to pry into the factors that contribute to such an imbalance in the justice system. Their new three-part series looks into the strained relationship between Indigenous people and law enforcement. We’ll talk with APTN Investigates team members about their findings.

We’ll also hear from Marvin Roberts, the Athabascan man who just settled a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city of Fairbanks, Alaska for $11.5 million. Roberts is one of the men – all Native – deemed the “Fairbanks Four”. They were all convicted and imprisoned for the 1997 murder of a teenager. They were released in 2015 after another man confessed to the crime.

GUESTS

Cullen Crozier (Gwich’in, Dene, and Métis), producer with APTN Investigates

Tamara Pimental (Métis), video journalist with APTN Investigates

Tom Fennario, video journalist with APTN Investigates

Marvin Roberts (Athabascan), one of the “Fairbanks Four”

Reilly Cosgrove, partner at Kramer and Cosgrove law firm

Break 1 Music: Unity (song) Native Roots (artist) Most High (album)

Break 2 Music: Scream, Holler, and Howl (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Punk rock’s rebellious anger aimed at the forces of economic and political oppression and its low-fi, DIY aesthetic are among the reasons the genre took hold with some Indigenous musicians. It’s a connection that continues to resonate with both players and audiences. Kristen Martinez (Yaqui and Mexican) is both a punk performer and a graduate student researching the history of the Indigenous contributions to the legacy of punk, one short, loud, and angry song at a time. She is building an archive of Indigenous punk musicians, posters, and performances on social media. We’ll hear from Martinez about her growing archive of Indigenous punk history and what the art form has to offer to today’s listeners.

GUESTS

Kristen Martinez (Yaqui and Mexican), archivist for the Indigenous Punk Archive and graduate student in musicology at UCLA

Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe), visual artist and lead vocalist of the Dead Pioneers

Toni Heartless (Diné, Choctaw, Filipino), artist and front man for Heart Museum

Break 1 Music: Prisoners of Existence (song) Iconoclast (artist) Domination or Destruction (album)

Break 2 Music: Scream, Holler, and Howl (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in western Oregon signed away their subsistence hunting and fishing rights in exchange for federal recognition in 1980. Now, after years of work, those rights are fully restored, opening up a rich store of traditional food for tribal members.

Author Brook Thompson was inspired to write her children’s book, I Love Salmon and Lampreys, after witnessing a salmon kill in the Klamath River in 2002. Her book, illustrated by Anastasia Khmelevska, is an approachable story about environmental stewardship.

Indigenous chef and restaurateur Bleu Adams reimagines American cuisine at her new eatery, The Continental, in Provo, Utah, “celebrating the land, the seasons, and the stories that shape us.”

GUESTS

Brook Thompson (Yurok and Karuk), author, civil engineer, activist, artist, and full-time Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Cruz in environmental studies

Bleu Adams (Diné, Mandan and Hidatsa), owner and chef of The Continental and served as an emissary for the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership

Robert Kentta (Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians), Siletz Tribal Council member

Break 1 Music: In My Lawn (song) Hataałii (artist) Waiting for a Sign (album)

Break 2 Music: Scream, Holler, and Howl (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

For the first time in decades, tribes in the Pacific Northwest will be able to forage for wild huckleberries in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest without competition from commercial companies. The development comes after decades of work by the Yakama Nation and other tribes in a contentious dispute, all while the culturally important wild berry abundance has dwindled.

Foraging is also important to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in southern Colorado. A collaboration between the tribe and a conservation nonprofit to facilitate foraging on nearby private land just got a significant boost.

GUESTS

Elaine Harvey (Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation), watershed department manager for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Bronsco Jim Jr., chief of the Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation

Josephine Woolington, journalist in Portland

Treston Chee (Diné), Indigenous lands program field coordinator with Trees, Water & People

MENTIONED:

“The true cost of the huckleberry industry” by Josephine Woolington for High Country News

Break 1 Music: Honoring The Homeland (song) Radmilla & Herman Cody (artist) Shi Kéyah (album)

Break 2 Music: Beautiful Flower (song) Cree Confederation (artist) Kihtawasoh Wapakwani (album)

The Trump Administration is backtracking on some of the looming changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA) after widespread complaints from the public, advocates, and elected leaders. But staffing and budget cuts are already creating backlogs and delays for recipients. SSA is delaying for two weeks a new requirement for in-person identity checks, but significant changes are still on the way. We’ll talk about what those changes are for Native American elders and how they can prepare for them.

GUESTS

Rosalind Asetamy (Comanche), chairperson for the elder council of the Comanche Nation

Larry Curley (Navajo), grant writer and consultant

Judith Kozlowski, elder justice consultant and is a consultant with the International Association for Indian Aging

Michael Bird (Santo Domingo Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh), past president of the American Public Health Association and past national consultant for AARP

Break 1 Music: 500 Years O’ Blues (song) Digging Roots (artist) Seeds (album)

Break 2 Music: Beautiful Flower (song) Cree Confederation (artist) Kihtawasoh Wapakwani (album)