Past Shows Archives » Native America Calling

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)