Native America Calling

Sophisticated barbecue methods predate contact with Europeans. The Indigenous Taino people first introduced pit barbecue to colonial travelers as they wandered through the Caribbean Islands. The barbecue traditions for Native Hawaiians also have a long tradition and a unique, tropical flavor. Native people in between those two locations all developed their own barbecue cooking and seasoning that grew from the ingredients they have on hand. We’ll explore the various styles of barbecue and where they came from.

Nearly 17 million tons of textiles are thrown away every year, according to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Some Indigenous fashion designers have an eye and mission to recycle and upcycle clothing or create from more sustainable fabrics as a way to offset the waste in the business that is creating environmental harm. We’ll take a look at the environmentally conscious side of Indigenous fashion.

Nearly 12,000 amateur athletes over 50 years of age are competing in this year’s National Senior Games in Pittsburgh. The Games have an enduring focus on Indigenous elder athletes. Another long-time annual tournament, the Native American Basketball Invitational, kicks off more than 400 games over five days in Phoenix. We’ll find out who to watch at these notable summer competitions.

The Nez Perce Tribe completed a number of new real estate acquisitions including a golf course within driving distance of their tribal resort and casino. Tribal officials say the links business was losing members, but is now back in the black. It’s one of several of the big and small tribal enterprises we’re featuring as promising new ventures.

Construction on a portion of a nearly $70 million highway expansion project is halted after workers discovered multiple sets of human remains. Tribes say the costly delay and potential project redesign could have been avoid had state transportation officials took warnings about the site seriously more than a quarter century ago. Another project — a luxury apartment building in Miami — is moving ahead, even after workers discovered some human remains and culturally and historically significant structures and artifacts.

Two climate tracking agencies say the Earth just reached its hottest average temperature on record and scientists predict it will only get hotter. That has implications for the health and comfort of Native people coping with the heat, and for those whose livelihoods depend on specific climate conditions and access to water. We’ll get perspectives from environmental health experts, farmers, and others about the risks of rising heat and what a hotter future might hold.

Two states and several cities have decriminalized the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Many more states are considering legislation to provide more widespread public access to hallucinogens. That has some Indigenous people worried about maintaining an adequate supply of natural psychoactive plants for ceremonies. We’ll hear about the evolving demand for hallucinogenic plants and what practitioners say needs to be done to protect them as the push for legalization continues.

After decades of pressure by animal rights groups and tribes, the Miami Seaquarium announced it will release the captive orca, Lolita, also known as Tokitae. The marine mammal has spent more than a half century in captivity and no one is sure how she will adapt to the wild. The Lummi Tribe considers orca to be relatives and have been pushing for Tokitae’s release to what biologists believe is her home pod in the Pacific Northwest.

In his concurrence with the U.S. Supreme Court majority, Justice Clarence Thomas writes that “the color of a person’s skin is irrelevant to that individual’s equal status as a citizen of this nation.” The 6-3 decision does away with more than a half century of giving students of color an advantage in college recruiting in order to diversity the educational and professional population. Proponents of affirmative action say the numbers are clear: doing away with the practice of giving priority to Black, Latino, and Native students means there will be fewer of them in college.

(Encore show) At a time when Australian bands like Men At Work, Midnight Oil, and INXS were reaching worldwide recognition, a number of Aboriginal rock and reggae bands were making their own waves in the music world. Names like Coloured Stone, No Fixed Address, and others were getting broader interest from audiences and notched impressive record sales globally. All the while they faced considerable racism and their peoples’ land rights battles, themes that their songs often invoke. We’ll hear from some of those musicians about how they now look back on this important decade of music. This is an encore show so we won’t be taking live calls from listeners.