Past Shows Archives » Native America Calling

Tribes that collectively make up the largest water rights holders along the Colorado River say the Trump Administration’s newest plan to deal with diminishing water levels is inadequate. Tribal leaders say they were left out of the decision making process and are now in store for serious water use cuts that violate existing water rights agreements as well as the federal government’s trust responsibility. We’ll hear from some of those tribal leaders.

We’ll also find out what’s next following the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling to deny a permit to the company aiming to construct a new underwater oil pipeline to replace the aging existing structure.

GUESTS

Bidtah Becker (Diné), chief legal counsel for the Office of the President and Vice President of the Navajo Nation

David Gover (Pawnee and Choctaw), managing attorney with the Native American Rights Fund

Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community

Jennifer Smith, director of tribal engagement for Enbridge

Break 1 Music: Water Is Life (single song) Native Roots, Joy Harjo, Def-I & Innastate (artist)

Break 2 Music: Aia lā ‘o Pele [Mele Honoring Pele] (song) ‘Iolani Luahine (artist) Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style: Vol. 1 Hula Kuahu (album)

The Osage language was declared dead in 2005 after its last fluent speaker died, but revitalization efforts since then have built the number of proficient speakers to about 40. The Caddo Nation continues its extensive language revitalization efforts more than a year after its last fluent speaker walked on. It’s an uphill battle for most tribes in the U.S. to retain their language. The new book, “How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words”, examines the global crisis of cultures losing their languages. In a New Yorker review of the book, philosophy instructor Nikhil Krishnan uses the book’s premise to argue that the death of a language is sometimes “just how things go.” That touched off strong opposition from the language advocacy organization, The Endangered Languages Project. They and other organizations say such fatalistic thinking promotes misleading and harmful narratives and undermines efforts to preserve languages globally. We’ll hear from Indigenous language advocates who argue no expense should be spared to revive languages before we lose them.

GUESTS

N. Ha’alilio Solomon (Native Hawaiian), assistant professor of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

Dr. Myrna Cunningham (Miskito), Indigenous Peoples rights activist and educator

Skyler Kuczaboski (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), grants administration support for the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council

Break 1 Music: Caddo Victory Song (song)

Break 2 Music: Aia lā ‘o Pele [Mele Honoring Pele] (song) ‘Iolani Luahine (artist) Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style: Vol. 1 Hula Kuahu (album)

Tribal public health officials are among those reassuring citizens about the safety of their food as reports of new cases of cyclospora infections continue to rise. Michigan continues to be a hotspot with state officials reporting more than 11,000 cases. The actual number is likely much higher than that. One hurdle in tracking the cyclosporiasis outbreak is it has a long incubation period and it can’t be traced through the genetic markers that some other food-borne illnesses have. The infections are traced mainly to tainted lettuce from Mexico. Nearly all other states are also reporting cyclospora cases, many of them from a variety of sources.

GUESTS

Harleigh Moore-Wilson (Osage), director of agriculture for Flower Hill Institute

Dr. Matthew Clark, chief medical officer for the Alaska Area Native Health Service, acting deputy chief medical officer for the Indian Health Service (IHS), and chair of the IHS National Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee

Will Seeley, tribal enterprise manager for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative

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

Break 2 Music: Aia lā ‘o Pele [Mele Honoring Pele] (song) ‘Iolani Luahine (artist) Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style: Vol. 1 Hula Kuahu (album)

Over the course of a few days, a gang war erupts on the fictional Thunderstone reservation in the new film, “Gangland”. Officer Teddy Sharpe (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his trainee must navigate a community affected by a dark secret. The new film features several talented Native actors including Lane Factor (Caddo), Elisha Pratt (Cheyenne and Arapaho), Irene Bedard (Iñupiaq, Yup’ik and Cree), and more.

The famed children’s series “Little House on the Prairie” gets a new screen adaptation for Netflix. The original books the show is based on faced criticism for perpetuating racist stereotypes. Now, the new TV series includes consultation with Osage citizens.

We’ll also remember the late Seminole and Cherokee actor Randolph Mantooth, best known as the lead of the hit 1970s television show “Emergency!” Mantooth died on July 9.

GUESTS

Lou Diamond Phillips, actor and star of “Gangland”

Julie O’Keefe (Osage), cultural consultant for “Little House on the Prairie”

Robert Allen Warrior (Osage), Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Kansas and consultant for “Little House on the Prairie”

Monte Fronk (Red Lake Nation), tribal emergency responder with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and friend of Randolph Mantooth

Tonya Mantooth (Seminole and Cherokee), CEO and artistic director of the San Diego International Film Festival and sister to Randolph Mantooth

Break 1 Music: Wahzhazhe (song) Scott George (artist) Killers of the Flower Moon Soundtrack (album)

Break 2 Music: Show the People (song) Bear Creek (artist) On The Move – Powwow Songs Recorded Live at Apache Gold

Little House on the Prairie. (L to R) Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls, Wren Zhawenim Gotts as Good Eagle in episode 107 of Little House on the Prairie. Cr. Eric Zachanowich/Netflix © 2026

Renowned chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache, Navajo) admits he hid his alcoholism fairly well as he was making a name for himself as a Native chef throughout the 2000s. His memoir, “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef“, details his arduous recovery and how food and the kitchen helped him figure out his purpose and path to healing.

In the debut children’s novel by Christine Hartman Derr (Cherokee), “Raven, Rising“, baking was a favorite pastime for a young Cherokee girl until she is struck with sadness and anxiety at the thought of baking and the smell of ingredients like cinnamon, bread, and chocolate. She learns to cope with loss and works to make her way back to the kitchen.

Chef Candace Stock (Ho-Chunk) is the executive chef of Salt + Scoria, a restaurant in the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. We’ll talk with her about bringing Indigenous ingredients and flavors to the menu.

Break 1 Music: With My Son (song) Vincent Craig (artist)

Break 2 Music: Show the People (song) Bear Creek (artist) On The Move – Powwow Songs Recorded Live at Apache Gold

A bill making its way through Congress offers new hope for five Native communities in Southeast Alaska to secure their own land for the first time. For more than 50 years following the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), the five tribes left out of the pivotal agreement that fundamentally changed tribal governance and land ownership in the state have been working to secure their homelands. Tribal leaders celebrated as the bill cleared the U.S. House of Representatives. But it’s not without opposition; environmental groups and others worry the land transfer will turn over vast expanses of pristine old growth wilderness to a for-profit corporation intent on maximizing financial returns through extensive timber harvests and mining. We’ll hear about what this latest policy momentum accomplishes and discuss how we got here.

GUESTS

Cecilia Tavoliero (Tlingit), president of the Southeast Alaska Landless Corporation

Nicole Hallingstad (Tlingit), Alaska Natives Without Land representative of Petersburg

Sandy Churchill (Tlingit), vice president of the Wrangell Cooperative Association

Albert Rinehart (Tlingit), tribal administrator for Wrangell Cooperative Association

Break 1 Music: Kunax yak’ei gayshagook (song) Khu.éex’ (artist) Siy​á​adlan (album)

Break 2 Music: Show the People (song) Bear Creek (artist) On The Move – Powwow Songs Recorded Live at Apache Gold

A coalition of rural Alaska Native villages is launching an initiative to boost veterinary care as a way to improve public health. They aim to cut down on the increasing number of feral dogs that pose a risk to residents by offering better spay and neuter services. They also hope a vaccination program can lower the spread of rabies. Alaska Native Rural Veterinary Inc. and the Alaska Federation of Natives are moving ahead after federal legislation stalled in Congress. We’ll talk with those called to bring veterinary care to rural communities — with or without government support — to keep animals and people safe.

Robert Mirabel in the film. “Road to Everywhere.” (Photo: courtesy Driven To Films)

We also talk with acclaimed musician and actor Robert Mirabal about his role in the movie, “Road to Everywhere“. Mirabal is performing at a screening of the film in Albuquerque, N.M.

GUESTS

Mike Williams Sr. (Yupiaq), tribal chief of the Akiak Native Community

Adrianna Nicolay (Diné), volunteer with Rez Vet

Angie Fitch, executive director and co-founder of Alaska Native Rural Veterinary Inc.

Robert Mirabal (Taos Pueblo), musician and actor

Break 1 Music: Raising Goats Song [Skip Dance Song] (song) Sweethearts of Navajoland (artist) From the Heart of Diné Nation Traditional Songs of the Navajo (album)

Break 2 Music: Show the People (song) Bear Creek (artist) On The Move – Powwow Songs Recorded Live at Apache Gold

Longtime Phoenix-based professional strongman Jerry Pritchett (Chickasaw) isn’t ready to retire just yet. For now, his focus is on his son, Bubba, who at 15 years old, recently locked out a 615-pound deadlift at a competition. Pritchett is a veteran strongman and powerlifter who was named America’s Strongest Man in 2017 and was later named a World’s Strongest Man finalist. Other Native strongmen who have earned professional titles like Pritchett is Harold “Iron Bear” Collins (Lumbee). Collins was a popular competitor in the 1990s who broke six Guinness World Records, one for pulling a 50,433-pound semitruck and flatbed trailer 160 feet in 44 seconds. In Canada, Colten Sloan (Whitefish Lake First Nation) is working hard to join the ranks of these strongmen. In 2021, he became the first Indigenous man in Canada to earn a pro card in the sport and has since competed around the world.

GUESTS

Jerry Pritchett (Chickasaw), professional strongman

Colten Sloan (Whitefish Lake First Nation), professional strongman

Harold “Iron Bear” Collins (Lumbee), retired professional strongman

Break 1 Music: Bad Dude (song) Joe H Henry (artist) Real Things (album)

Break 2 Music: Show the People (song) Bear Creek (artist) On The Move – Powwow Songs Recorded Live at Apache Gold

Some residents of Zuni Pueblo in northwestern New Mexico were forced to evacuate their homes due to severe flash flooding earlier this week. The community is bracing for more storms and flooding as the monsoon season continues. Tribal leadership is working to protect tribal members and historical structures. We’ll get an update from community members, and the Pueblo’s governor, on recovery efforts and the damage caused.

We’ll also hear from an Indigenous journalist covering the worsening wildfires in Ontario, Canada. More than 13 First Nations communities were displaced.

GUESTS

Arden Kucate (Zuni), governor of the Pueblo of Zuni

Shaun Tsabetsaye (Zuni), co-founder and chief of technology of Major Market Inc.

Willow Fiddler (Sandy Lake First Nation), Indigenous affairs reporter for The Globe and Mail

Break 1 Music: Land of the Shalako (song) Zuni Midnighters (artist) Land of the Shalako (album)

Break 2 Music: I Know [feat. Sebastian Gaskin] (song) Shub (artist) Heritage [Pt. 2] (album)

More than 35 First Nations in Canada have active drinking water advisories, but a new federal bill aims to address the issue. Indigenous leaders are critical of the bill and argue that it limits federal liability and fails to protect clean water as a basic human right. Some Indigenous communities have been without clean water since the 1960s, leading First Nations leaders to demand legislative fixes to industrial pollution and longstanding neglect by the federal government. We’ll hear from leaders and experts about what’s in the new water bill and the ongoing water crisis in parts of the country.

We’ll also hear about a new scientific study by Conservation International that examines how Indigenous stewardship and cultural practices improve the ecological health of lands. Researchers looked at the unique practices of more than 40 Indigenous communities around the world and how they’re adapting to a changing climate.

GUESTS

Linda Debassige (M’Chigeeng First Nation), Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation

Leah Gazan (Wood Mountain Lakota Nation), NDP Member of Parliament

Kerry Black, associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary

Sushma Shrestha Sangat (Newari), conservation scientist and researcher

Break 1 Music: Red Dust Rising (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Break 2 Music: I Know [feat. Sebastian Gaskin] (song) Shub (artist) Heritage [Pt. 2] (album)