Original Peoples Podcast Ongwehonwe

Pura Fé (Tuscarora/Taino/Black/Scottish) is an Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter, and storyteller known for her distinct, soulful vocals and founding the world-renowned Native women’s a Capella singing group Ulali

As the founding member of Ulali, Pura Fé helped to create a movement throughout Indian Country, which not only empowered Native Women’s hand drum and harmony, but also built a bridge for Native music into the mainstream music scene.  Ulali’s unique fusion of ancestral music, cultural roots, and message has left its mark. Ulali has recorded music for soundtracks, television commercials, has had platinum sales in Italy, and appeared at several events for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples and the environment. 

Pura Fé is part of the Silk Road Project, under the direction of Rhiannon Giddens, started by Yo Yo Ma and currently touring with the performances American Railroad and Uplifted Voices. 

Pura Fé’s solo career has produced six studio albums with her Native Blues and lap-steel slide guitar work. While touring Europe with Music Maker Blues Review under Dixie Frog and Nueva Onda French labels, she won Grand Prix du Disque from L'Académie Charls Cros (French Grammy) for Best World Album in 2006 for Tuscarora Nation Blues, and a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist for Follow Your Heart’s Desire in the same year. 

Chef Lorinda has always loved to cook, a talent she inherited from her family, who have always had a passion for food. While Chef Lorinda held jobs from the food industry the pandemic made her quickly decide that she had to pursue what she was naturally gifted at. She knew the work would be hard, but she felt she couldn’t lose —she knew her daughters ,”The E’s,” were depending on her.

So armed with determination and passion, she went on and enrolled at the Erie Community College in Williamsville, NY. While in school Chef Lorinda meal prepped for clients on the Buffalo Bill’s, Bandits, and those in her community. After Chef Lorinda graduated with a degree in culinary arts, her life was about to change forever. She decided to enroll at Buffalo State University to receive her bachelor’s in hospitality and tourism. Here is when everything started to align, and she was added to World Central Kitchen’s Disaster Relief on the Culinary. This is a non-profit organization that utilizes the skills of individuals to assist in disaster areas. Along with this Chef Lorinda has collaborated with Delaware North as the Hometown Chef at Highmark Stadium for Native American Heritage Month.

She credits her parents for the guidance and babysitting they provided that had everything to do with making her the successful person she is today.  Always excited about the goodness of food, both in nutrients and taste, Chef Lorinda loves to share her culture and skills through food

In this episode I have the honor of getting to meet Dr. Crystal Cavalier a strong Community Organizer who has utilized her education and background to defend both environmental and human rights. Dr. Crystal A. Cavalier-Keck is a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and lives in Mebane, North Carolina. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Social Sciences department at Salem College in Winston Salem. She is an expert in her field of strategic intelligence and cyber security. Crystal formerly worked as a Counterintelligence Analyst with the Department of Defense and a Senior Analyst with the Department of Homeland Security.  Crystal Cavalier was the 2012 Camp Lejeune Heroes at Home winner and was the 2011 Army Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse Magazine. Crystal co-founded 7 Directions of Service, an indigenous grassroots environmental nonprofit.

Crystal has dedicated the past 5+ years to defending her homelands against the Mountain Valley Pipeline/Southgate Extension. Crystal received the 2022 FracTracker Community Sentinel Award for Environmental Stewardship. She is leading a campaign to bring Rights of Nature laws to NC to protect the waterways and communities in the pipeline's path.  Crystal co-authored NC House Bills 795 and 923, the Rights of Nature/Rights of the Haw River, prioritizing environmentally impacted communities around the watershed. Crystal serves on the boards of Movement Rights and the Haw River Assembly. Crystal is a Sequoyah Fellow with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and a lifetime member of the National Congress for American Indians.

Finally, Crystal has conducted training along and around the East Coast on Coordinated Tribal/Community Response for emergency management through natural, cyber, or man-made disasters.

January Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River, where she owns and operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. January works in page poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music. She is a radio broadcaster, documentary producer and media and sound artist.
January has produced and written gallery and broadcast media with 2Ro Media since 2015. She won the American Indian Film Festival BEST MUSIC VIDEO 2020 for “Ego of a Nation” and the imagineNATIVE Media BEST EXPERIMENTAL SOUND PRIZE 2021 for her sound piece, “The Struggle Within.”

She wrote and produced a comedy audio pilot titled NDNS on the Airwaves and, in May 2022, she released a 10-episode webseries she wrote of the same name.
Check out "Ego of a Nation" here on YouTube:

Purchase January Rogers’s book Ego of a Nation here: ojistohpublishing.com/book-store/p/style-01-w4la7

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB) is an ensemble of Native and Indigenous jazz musicians from across Indian Country. Performing pieces from their under-appreciated predecessors in jazz, like Mildred Bailey (Coeur d’Alene) and Jim Pepper (Kaw/Mvskoke), alongside works by contemporary Indigenous composers, the band spotlights a vibrant, long-standing tradition of Indigenous improvised music today. 

Led by the celebrated vocalist and luminary Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), the ensemble brings charisma, passion, and purpose to every stage, leaving audiences both inspired and educated. Premiering at Washington Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, the band quickly gained a reputation for deepening and challenging our understanding of the “uniquely American” art form known as jazz. JKIBB features a ‘who’s who’ of Indigenous bandleaders today, and headlined the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C . back in the Spring of 2024. 

From time immemorial, songs have been the vessels of stories and lessons for the Indigenous people of the Americas. The goals of the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band are to celebrate and continue that tradition, to compose and perform new music inspired by traditional backgrounds, and to create a community of like-minded peoples from all backgrounds to uplift the next generation of Indigenous jazz musicians.

For More Information please check out: https://www.juliakeefe.com/julia-keefe-indigenous-big-band

YouTube Video:

"Blood Quantum"

https://youtu.be/PsFImI3D-QQ?si=K7Nc1sxQRjkgBZMm

In this Episode the First Episode of 2025 I sit down with Christine Abrams (Tonawanda Seneca, Beaver Clan) and Grandell "Bird" Logan (Tonawanda Seneca, Snipe Clan) we discuss the challenges of The Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) in Genesee County as and Economic Development Zone that borders the Tonawanda Seneca Territory. STAMP promises to bring High-Tech Manufacturing to Western New York. This site in being built with only a 400' buffer between the Tech-Site and the "Big Woods" The site poses potential runoff, explosive, noise and light pollution risks to the Territory. Should a spill occur the ground water would be contaminated thus polluting the water table, All of the households on Territory are on wells and rely on well water.

About the Tonawanda Seneca Nation:​

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee, is currently located on a 7,500-acre reservation situated in western New York, near to the towns of Alabama and Basom and roughly between Buffalo and Rochester. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation is a federally recognized Tribal Nation and is governed by a traditional Haudenosaunee leadership structure consisting of a Council of Chiefs as well as Clan Mothers.
Against all odds, and in spite of decades of effort by the State of New York and the United States to remove the Senecas altogether, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation has successfully fought to preserve its small, biologically diverse reservation territory, to continue to practice its traditional form of government, and to maintain its cultural and spiritual ways in accordance with the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace. The Nation views the protection of its homelands as one of its highest responsibilities, and prioritizes its obligation to future generations in all aspects of life.

To learn how you can support the Tonawanda Seneca Nation and allies in their struggle to stop STAMP, please follow us on social media and check out our website for more information:FacebookInstagramAllies of TSN websiteFacebook groupLinktreeTo be added to our low-traffic email list and to get more involved in the campaign, please fill out this form. We have a WNY Allies group that meets regularly on zoom, as well as a newly forming group in Genesee and Orleans County. 

On a recent trip to the Rocky Boy Montana I was introduced to Dustin Whitford Wikahskiseno-Sweet Grass Old Man (Rocky Boy Chippewa-Cree Nation) Executive Director and Co-Founder MCCLR (Mahchiwminahnanahtik Chippewa Cree Language Revitalization) Program.

Dustin was raised on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation all his life and is now raising his four children Watson, Dinay Cree, Miyoskamin and Kisikoskwew along with his Wife Winter on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation where they are active participants of local ceremonies and members of the Native American Church. Dustin is a graduate of the University of Montana with a Native American Studies and an Anthropology baccalaureate degree. Dustin served the Chippewa Cree tribe in many capacities such as: Cree Language Instructor at the Stone Child College, Associate Judge at the Chippewa Cree Tribal Courts, Business Committee Member on the Chippewa Cree Tribal Council. Dustin believes that the language is the key to saving the identity of the Chippewa Cree Tribe.

Rebekah Jarvey (Chippewa Cree, Blackfeet,)

I recently traveled to the Rocky Boy Montana Chippewa Cree Reservation in Rocky Boy, Montana I was able to sit down and interview Rebekah Jarvey. I came across Rebekah’s name as I was researching a bit about the Rocky Boy community, Rebekah recently launched a pair of N7 shoes through Nike, I wanted to sit down and talk to her about the collaboration and also her work as an Indigenous Fashion Designer. She’s a great leader for her community and she is a tireless creator and she’s also a mother with a son in the fashion industry as well. I was a little out of my element in discussing Indigenous Fashion but my love for the Sneaker game and as a self-professed Sneaker Head it was a fun conversation.

Mary is a Licensed Addictions Counselor and a very endearing woman. We met this past summer at the World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference in Niagara Falls and she introduced herself to me with an invitation to come to Rocky Boy Montana. She wanted to bring podcasting to her community and she introduced me to some amazing people. She has a vision, she's determined and she's passionate those are the things that make her admirable. I cannot say enough good things about Mary other than it is an honor to call her Auntie and also to have her as a friend. I am happy to share her story here and I appreciate her candidness as she shares some very real and emotional stories. She is persevering, she is thriving and she has many more goals ahead. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THERE ARE SOME POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING MOMENTS IN THE CONVERSATION. PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND SEEK ASSISTANCE. With that I want to say Nya:wëh Gowah to Mary DeBerry

In this Episode I sit down with Professor Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora Nation Turtle Clan) and Michael Galban (Washoe & Mono Lake Paiute) for a conversation on Contemporary Indigenous Art and how it is defined today in the Art World.

Biography for Dr. Jolene Rickard:

Jolene Rickard is an Associate Professor at Cornell University in the departments of History of Art and Art, and the former Director of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program 2008-2020 (AIISP).

She is a visual historian, artist and curator interested in the intersection of Indigenous art, cultural theory and the forces of settler colonialism. Her research centers on the expression of multiple sovereignties within Indigenous art and culture globally. Jolene Rickard has been at the forefront of comparative understandings of global Indigenous art with research projects in the Americas, Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Her work bridges the fields of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Settler Colonial Studies and the discipline of Art History. Focused on the complication of sovereignty as a political, theoretical and activist action, Rickard investigates anti-colonial artistic strategies, place-based knowledges and ontologies.

Artist Links

Jimmie Durham:

At the Center of the World | Whitney Museum of American Art

https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jimmie-durham

Jolene Rickard - Tuscarora

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI-LwigonnY

Peter B. Jones – Onondaga

https://pbjpottery.wordpress.com/

Jeffrey Gibson - Choctaw

Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me

https://www.jeffreygibsonvenice2024.org/the-space-in-which-to-place-me