Native America Calling

A frequent location of summer wildfires, eastern Washington State, is suffering one of the most destructive fires seasons in memory. Fires on the Confederate Tribes of Colville Reservation have prompted evacuations and destroyed more than 50 homes and other structures. They are among the some 700 buildings destroyed in the current fire season in the state. On Oregon’s Warm Springs Reservation, fires started early and were fueled by persistent winds. In addition to coping with the fires, the community is now facing worries about having adequate clean drinking water. Fires in Washington and Oregon have charred more than three million acres so far. We’ll talk with tribal officials working to save people, buildings, and land during an unusually destructive wildfire season.

Voters will soon find out whether the bid by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Ojibwe/D-MN) to become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate clears the primary election hurdle in a hotly-contested race. It is one of the many races with Native candidates that are coming into clearer focus after a summer of primaries. Native women are particularly well represented in national and statewide races and some progressive Democratic wins might offer clues about what’s on voters’ minds. We’ll look at some key national, state, and tribal races as the midterm election draws closer.

A dangerous secret lurks just under the surface in the play, “Bad Medicine,” making its debut at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Written by P.C. Verrone (Osage and Kiowa) and produced with a largely Native cast, it is a live production that claims elements of both horror and comedy. It comes with a warning that it “sheds light on how settler colonialism dehumanizes and exploits Indigenous peoples.”

Brooklyn, N.Y.’s renowned Spiderwoman Theater is marking 50 years of Indigenous plays, outreach, and education. Rising from the feminist movement of the 1970s, its core leadership under Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel have built the space into a destination for urban Native storytelling. We’ll talk with the organizers about the the mission and legacy of this groundbreaking theater.

Two separate instances are putting Native authority related to religious freedom to the test.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe demands the Christian ministry, Foundations Nations Church, leave the Wyoming reservation. The demand comes after video circulated on social media showed one of the church’s pastors characterizing Native sacred practices — including the Sun Dance — as “idol worship” and “demonic.” Top tribal leadership calls the comments "despicable" and link them to past abuses of Native Americans at the hands of Christian church officials. The Foundations Church leaders say they’ll fight the tribe’s efforts to remove them. We’ll hear about what’s next in the dispute.

At the same time, Native American inmates in a Nebraska state prison scored a victory in securing access to religious ceremonies. In a settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit, corrections officials lifted a temporary ban on accessing a place where Native men conducted ceremonies like sweats and smudges. They instituted the ban after finding contraband at the site. We’ll hear about the legal principles behind the outcome.

Tribes that collectively make up the largest water rights holders along the Colorado River say the Trump Administration’s newest plan to deal with diminishing water levels is inadequate. Tribal leaders say they were left out of the decision making process and are now in store for serious water use cuts that violate existing water rights agreements as well as the federal government’s trust responsibility. We’ll hear from some of those tribal leaders.

We’ll also find out what’s next following the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling to deny a permit to the company aiming to construct a new underwater oil pipeline to replace the aging existing structure.

The Osage language was declared dead in 2005 after its last fluent speaker died, but revitalization efforts since then have built the number of proficient speakers to about 40. The Caddo Nation continues its extensive language revitalization efforts more than a year after its last fluent speaker walked on. It's an uphill battle for most tribes in the U.S. to retain their language. The new book, “How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words”, examines the global crisis of cultures losing their languages. In a New Yorker review of the book, philosophy instructor Nikhil Krishnan uses the book’s premise to argue that the death of a language is sometimes “just how things go.” That touched off strong opposition from the language advocacy organization, The Endangered Languages Project. They and other organizations say such fatalistic thinking promotes misleading and harmful narratives and undermines efforts to preserve languages globally. We’ll hear from Indigenous language advocates who argue no expense should be spared to revive languages before we lose them.

Tribal public health officials are among those reassuring citizens about the safety of their food as reports of new cases of cyclospora infections continue to rise. Michigan continues to be a hotspot with state officials reporting more than 11,000 cases. The actual number is likely much higher than that. One hurdle in tracking the cyclosporiasis outbreak is it has a long incubation period and it can’t be traced through the genetic markers that some other food-borne illnesses have. The infections are traced mainly to tainted lettuce from Mexico. Nearly all other states are also reporting cyclospora cases, many of them from a variety of sources.

Over the course of a few days, a gang war erupts on the fictional Thunderstone reservation in the new film, "Gangland". Officer Teddy Sharpe (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his trainee must navigate a community affected by a dark secret. The new film features several talented Native actors including Lane Factor (Caddo), Elisha Pratt (Cheyenne and Arapaho), Irene Bedard (Iñupiaq, Yup’ik and Cree), and more.

The famed children’s series "Little House on the Prairie" gets a new screen adaptation for Netflix. The original books the show is based on faced criticism for perpetuating racist stereotypes. Now, the new TV series includes consultation with Osage citizens.

We’ll also remember the late Seminole and Cherokee actor Randolph Mantooth, best known as the lead of the hit 1970s television show "Emergency!" Mantooth died on July 9.

Renowned chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache, Navajo) admits he hid his alcoholism fairly well as he was making a name for himself as a Native chef throughout the 2000s. His memoir, "Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef", details his arduous recovery and how food and the kitchen helped him figure out his purpose and path to healing.

In the debut children's novel by Christine Hartman Derr (Cherokee), "Raven, Rising", baking was a favorite pastime for a young Cherokee girl until she is struck with sadness and anxiety at the thought of baking and the smell of ingredients like cinnamon, bread, and chocolate. She learns to cope with loss and works to make her way back to the kitchen.

Chef Candace Stock (Ho-Chunk) is the executive chef of Salt + Scoria, a restaurant in the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. We’ll talk with her about bringing Indigenous ingredients and flavors to the menu.

A bill making its way through Congress offers new hope for five Native communities in Southeast Alaska to secure their own land for the first time. For more than 50 years following the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), the five tribes left out of the pivotal agreement that fundamentally changed tribal governance and land ownership in the state have been working to secure their homelands. Tribal leaders celebrated as the bill cleared the U.S. House of Representatives. But it's not without opposition; environmental groups and others worry the land transfer will turn over vast expanses of pristine old growth wilderness to a for-profit corporation intent on maximizing financial returns through extensive timber harvests and mining. We’ll hear about what this latest policy momentum accomplishes and discuss how we got here.