Native America Calling

Native activists and entertainers are among those being caught up in a recent push in several states to curb events connected to 2SLGBTQIA+ issues. A library in Montana canceled a lecture by a Native Two-Spirit writer and activist because organizers were worried it would violate the state’s new ban on drag performances in public spaces. For the start of Pride Month, we look at the new hurdles Native 2SLGBTQIA+ people are facing.

GUESTS

Sage Chanell (Shawnee, Ponca, Otoe and Lakota Sioux), drag performer and former Miss International Two-Spirit

Lady Shug (Diné), drag artist and community activist

Tomahawk Martini (Cheyenne River Sioux and Navajo), current Mother of the Year at the Albuquerque Social Club and former Miss New Mexico Pride 2022

Adria Jawort (Northern Cheyenne), journalist, fiction writer, and director of the non-profit startup Indigenous Transilience

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.

GUESTS

Dr. Shino Konishi (Yawuru woman), associate professor for the Australian Catholic University 

Laurie May, poet and former label manager for CAAMA Music

Ricky Harrison (Kurnai man), singer/songwriter with No Fixed Address 

Grant Hansen (Kulin man), guitarist/vocals with Blackfire; television and radio broadcaster 

Bunna Lawrie (Mirning man), singer and founding member of Coloured Stone, elder, whalesong, and medicine man 

Jason Lee Scott (Mirning/Wirrangu man), singer/songwriter

Arizona officials are still sorting out the details of what they say is among the biggest and costliest fraud scandals in state history. The scheme targeted Native people and involved billing for sham treatment services. Some residents were literally taken off the street and held against their will at fake treatment centers. Officials say the operators of the fraud bilked Arizona’s Medicaid system of some $100 million over several years. Tribal officials in the state say hundreds of their citizens were harmed and some remain missing.

GUESTS

Ethel Branch (Diné), attorney general of the Navajo Nation

Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe), reporter for Native News Online

Elizabeth Bryant (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), psychiatric nurse practitioner

Reva Stewart (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign

Coleen Chatter (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign

An ambitious project in Denver aims to build affordable units for the city’s Native population. It includes plans for a Native health clinic and is intended to address the disparities of homelessness for Native people. It’s one of a handful of housing projects built with collaborative health and program space around the country designed to prioritize the needs of Native people.

GUESTS

Carla Respects Nothing (Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge), Native American housing advocate for the Native American Housing Circle

Paul Lumley (citizen of the Yakama Nation), CEO of the Native American Youth and Family Center

Lindsay Goes Behind (Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas), chief program officer for the Chief Seattle Club

While it still happens in some places, Native tourism is moving far beyond selling rubber tomahawks, chicken feather headbands, and other trinkets. Tribes and Native-owned businesses are realizing the value for authentic, Native-made works and meaningful traveler experiences. The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is prime tourism season. We’ll find out how tribes are making the transition to culturally sustainable tourism development.

Also, MSNBC is airing a roundtable discussion among accomplished Native women about culture, identity, and representation in a society that so often treats Indigenous people as invisible. It’s an intimate and frank conversation hosted by Alyssa London and airs on the Peacock Network. We'll hear from Alyssa about how the show came about and what it can do to hear powerful Native women voices.

Every weekday in Gualala, Calif., radio listeners can tune into the long-running show Peggy’s Place on KGUA to learn about their neighbors and the rest of the world. The show is just one of the many projects spanning the 50-year radio career of its host, Peggy Berryhill. She started with the show Living on Indian Time on KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. in 1973. She has since worked at National Public Radio, helped develop Native stations, mentored Native broadcasters, and founded the Native Media Resource Center. She has picked up numerous awards and accolades along the way. In this encore show, we’ll get her take on her notable accomplishments and the future of Native radio.

What happens if you're a chef and you lose your sense of smell, something that is crucial for taste? For First Nations chef Gerry Brandon, it was time to call it quits at his restaurant in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario that blended French, American, and Indigenous flavors and garnered positive reviews over the last four years. And a new season of PBS’ The Great American Recipe features two Native home cooks who get to share their Native culinary traditions with the show's judges and audience. That’s on The Menu, the Native America Calling regular feature on Indigenous food.

At 77, Simeon Gipson is preparing to embark on a bicycle journey of more than 1,000 miles from Tahlequah, Okla. to Pittsburgh, Pa. Once there, he plans to compete in the National Senior Games. The thousands of miles Gipson has covered over the years started when he was nearing 70 with a last-ditch attempt to improve his declining health. He’s one of many Native elders and others that embark on epic journeys and inspire the rest of us along the way.

The less glamorous side of writing for television shows and movies is coming to the surface during the strike by the Writers Guild of America. The union says the pay for many of its 20,000 professional writers is low and remains stagnant, even while the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continues to reap new profits from streaming and other platforms.

It was a simple, but contested, proposition: The Cherokee Nation would relinquish its land in the southeast United States in exchange for $5 million and a new homeland in what is now Oklahoma. The document that sparked the Trail of Tears was steeped in fraud and bad faith by the federal government, but remains on the books.