Tribes in Wisconsin are celebrating that state’s new law that gives them exclusive control over sports betting in the state, but a similar attempt to secure tribal control of sports betting fell flat in Oklahoma. Both actions come as prediction market companies like Kalshi and Polymarket are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars offering wagers on nearly everything including sports. One attorney says prediction market companies pose an existential threat to Native American gaming. We’ll speak with tribal leaders and Native academics about the legal and political fight over ground in the multi-billion dollar sports betting market.

Also, President Donald Trump’s move to reclassify marijuana to a less restrictive status is a win for the Omaha Tribe. The tribe is working to open a medical marijuana operation after tribal council voted in 2025 to legalize medical marijuana on tribal lands, but the effort continues to face roadblocks, including the Nebraska governor, who has opposed legalization.

GUESTS

Tehassi Hill (Oneida), chairman of the Oneida Nation and vice chairman of the Indian Gaming Association

Jeff Crawford (Forest County Potawatomi), attorney general for Forest County Potawatomi Community

Patrice Kunesh (Standing Rock Sioux descent), professor of law at the University of New Mexico and fellow at The Brookings Institution

Gary Pitchlynn (Choctaw), professor of law at the University of Oklahoma

Amanda Hallowell (Omaha), cannabis commission chairwoman for the Omaha Tribe

John Cartier, attorney general for the Omaha Tribe

Break 1 Music: Porcupine Singers’ Song (song) Porcupine Singers (artist) Alowanpi – Songs Of Honoring – Lakota Classics: Past & Present, Vol. 1 (album)

Break 2 Music: Bad Dude (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

MMIP advocates fault police in Anchorage for not acting fast enough when young Alaska Native woman went missing in January. Kelly Hunt’s body was discovered in April. Her death is now under investigation. It’s the latest case revealing the persistent lack of trust Native communities have when it comes to MMIP cases. Hunt’s case comes as the Trump administration is touting a surge in federal agents in selected locations to address the backlog in unsolved serious crimes, but tribal leaders and advocates say there’s no real progress on the lingering disconnect between Native people and law enforcement officials on all levels. And despite some recent progress, there are serious hurdles when it comes to jurisdictional confusion and information sharing across agencies.

GUESTS

Regina Antone (Gila River Indian Community), lieutenant governor of the Gila River Indian Community

Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community

Alexis Savage (Iñupiaq), MMIP advocate

LaRenda Morgan (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma), Cheyenne and Arapaho MMIP chapter chairwoman and the governmental affairs officer for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma

Break 1 Music: Nakoda Healing Song (song) YB Nakota (artist)

Break 2 Music: Bad Dude (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders across Canada are calling for an investigation into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). That’s following a report by CBC Indigenous that uncovered evidence of a secret surveillance program targeting Indigenous organizations and individuals using wiretaps, informants, and counter subversion tactics from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The report confirms what many Indigenous communities long suspected.

We’ll also reflect on 150 years of the Indian Act, the Canadian federal statute that defines First Nations membership or “Indian Status”. A new bill in Canada’s parliament could significantly expand status eligibility for thousands of individuals and their descendants.

GUESTS

Russ Diabo (Kahnawake Mohawk), First Nations policy analyst

Daniel Sims (Tsay Keh Dene First Nation), associate professor of First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia

Break 1 Music: Stomp Dance (song) George Hunter (artist) Haven (album)

Break 2 Music: Bad Dude (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

Following the Trump administration’s lead, state elected leaders and private advocacy groups are taking on programs, scholarships, and admissions practices aimed at improving Native student achievement. An advocacy organization filed a lawsuit challenging a scholarship program that has helped support hundreds of Native Hawaiian medical students for more than three decades. The suit claims the program is unconstitutional. Another group is going after admissions policies at the K-12 Kamehameha Schools that aim to boost Native Hawaiian enrollment. Both challenges have far-reaching implications.

We’ll also hear about a report that finds Minnesota schools are falling far short of the goals enshrined in state law to teach Native languages and culture.

GUESTS

Healani Sonoda-Pale (Kanaka Maoli), educator and community organizer

Gimiwan Dustin Burnette (Ojibwe), executive director of the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network

Jon Osorio (Kanaka Maoli), dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge

Regis Pecos (Cochiti Pueblo), co-director of the Leadership Institute at the Santa Fe Indian School, chair of the Tribal Education Alliance, and former governor of Cochiti Pueblo

Right now, crude oil flows unimpeded through the Dakota Access Pipeline under the dammed Missouri River in North Dakota. Construction of the pipeline that traverses Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation was a defeat for protestors who became known as “water protectors”. But the resistance against that pipeline that started ten years ago was a galvanizing moment for sovereignty and public awareness for Native Americans. It grew into a movement that eventually included thousands of Indigenous activists, tribal leaders, celebrities, and supporters from around the world. ICT News is among the outlets marking the 10-year anniversary of the #NoDAPL movement with a series of articles reflecting on the stand-off and assessing the lasting implications. We’ll hear about that and check in with people who were there.

GUESTS

Amelia Schafer (Brothertown Indian Nation descendant), north central bureau correspondent for ICT

Jon Eagle Sr. (Hunkpapa Lakota and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), former tribal historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Break 1 Music: Standing Rock [feat. Nick Ørbæk Jacobsen] (song) Uyarakq (artist) Miseraq (album)

Break 2 Music: Heartbreaker (song) Sage Lacapa (artist) Heartbreaker (single)

An intensive traditional foods program aimed at curbing diabetes is credited with major weight loss and health benefits for some of its participants. Native Food for Life is a collaboration between tribal health officials and the Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine. Native America Calling had an inadvertent role in the program’s inception on the Navajo Nation almost two decades ago. It has since expanded beyond the Southwest.

Did pemmican bread pudding sway the judges who awarded Diné chef Justin Pioche champion of the “Indigenous Inspiration” episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped” cooking competition? Pioche is busy back to work at his Fruitland, N.M.-based Pioche Food Group business, but is taking time out to reach out to his fans, both new and old, after his high-profile success.

GUESTS

Justin Pioche (Diné), chef and owner of Pioche Food Group and James Beard Award Best Chef finalist

Jenson Yazzie (Diné), photographer

Dr. Josie Howard (Cherokee), psychiatrist

Dr. Neal Barnard, adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Break 1 Music: Ch’iya’a’n Biyiin/Native Food Song (song) Radmilla & Herman Cody (artist) Shi Kéyah (album)

Break 2 Music: Heartbreaker (song) Sage Lacapa (artist) Heartbreaker (single)

The Oklahoma State Legislature is taking steps to gain more control of the state’s Medicaid payments, drawing concerns from tribal leaders and healthcare advocates. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. warns that the predicted scaling back of expanded Medicaid eligibility enshrined in the state constitution in 2020 would disproportionately affect Native patients. He says dismantling the expansion would cost his tribe alone more than $162 million. The state’s actions come as both tribal health providers and Medicaid recipients brace for looming federal funding cuts and stricter eligibility requirements.

Also, we’ll hear from Alannah Acaq Hurley (Yup’ik). The executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay recently won the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work raising awareness about a controversial open-pit copper and gold mine in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska.

GUESTS

Chuck Hoskin Jr. (Cherokee), principal chief of the Cherokee Nation

Yvonne Myers, Affordable Care Act and Medicaid consultant for Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services

Alannah Acaq Hurley (Yup’ik), executive director for the United Tribes of Bristol Bay

Break 1 Music: Thunder Medicine (song) Geneviève Gros-Louis (artist)

Break 2 Music: Heartbreaker (song) Sage Lacapa (artist) Heartbreaker (single)

Construction crews at the University of California, Berkeley immediately halted construction of an outdoor volleyball court when they encountered human remains. Under California law, notifications go out to state officials and to any tribes that might be descendants. Such procedures are not always followed, even when the law is clear cut. A number of recent discoveries of remains in California and elsewhere have drawn criticism from graves protections advocates and others for how they were handled. We’ll look at some recent cases and assess the current state of the public’s understanding of sacred ancestors’ remains.

GUESTS

Tanya Hill-Montour (Mohawk of Six Nations of the Grand River), Six Nations of the Grand River archaeological supervisor

Clare Apana (Kanaka Maoli), president and founder of Mālama Kakanilua

Gabriel Duncan (descendent of a federally recognized California Paiute tribe), founder of the Alameda Native History Project

Eva Cardenas (Mexica Chicana of Mazahua and Zapotec descent), director of organizing at NDN Collective

Break 1 Music: Lost and Found [Feat. Shannon Thunderbird] (song) Sultans of String (artist)

Break 2 Music: Heartbreaker (song) Sage Lacapa (artist) Heartbreaker (single)