Native Nevada

Native women suffer personal violence at rates exponentially higher than other groups. Why? In this episode, we explore MMIP, or Missing and Murdered Indigenous People — a movement to call attention to the causes of this problem, and demand change and accountability. WARNING: Explicit descriptions of violence against Indigenous People are included throughout this episode.

LGBTQ-plus individuals were once integral parts of Indigenous communities. Colonization — and the introduction of Christianity — changed that. In this episode, hear about some who are reclaiming their identities.

Past episodes have examined how Natives persist through oppression. In this episode, we hear from a group of people whose life’s work is resistance.

Indigenous peoples’ connection to their ancestral homelands and Americans’ concept of “public lands” intersect — or collide — when those lands are under threat of development and proposed for government protection. Current examples of that intersection can be found in the proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass, the sacred Shoshone Cedars of Eastern Nevada, and Avi Kwa Ame, also known as Spirit Mountain.

Native students at Nevada’s two land-grant universities feel they aren’t getting the support they need. But work is underway to change that.

In this third installment of the Native Nevada podcast, we hear about the struggles of indigenous people to educate their children, one of the many legacies of oppressive policies toward Native Americans.

In August 2020, an offensively named public agency in a small town near Lake Tahoe voted unanimously to change its name to Olympic Valley Public Service District.

Though they were the first people here, the cultural and political issues impacting indigenous people in Nevada have been overlooked for decades. Nevada is home to 27 different tribes. Their numbers are growing. So, in many cases, is their economic power with that comes political influence.

In the spring of 2020, the Southern Nevada Water Authority dropped its plan to pump hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of groundwater from Eastern Nevada and pipe it 300 miles south to Las Vegas.