Past Shows Archives » Native America Calling

A new 162-page report just released by the White House flags a museum exhibition for what it says is “radical, activist ideology” that “seeks to teach disdain and inspire disgust of our great country.” The report faults Native land acknowledgements, mentions of stolen land, and the use of the term “genocide” connected to an ongoing exhibition by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The report by the White House Domestic Policy Council argues leaders at the Smithsonian Institution have pushed an agenda of social justice advocacy instead of objective historical research. We’ll talk with Native historians and curators about this new escalation of the Trump administration’s drive to change existing narratives about Native history.

GUESTS

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee), a founding trustee of NMAI, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the first Native woman elected to the oldest learned societies in the U.S. – the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rick Hill Sr. (Tuscarora), vice president of the Niagara Academy for Indigenous Relations

Dr. Samuel Torres (Mexica/Nahua), deputy CEO of the National Native America Boarding School Healing Coalition

Sierra Biidaaban Nadeau (Kchi Wiikwedong Anishinaabe), author of “What the Ancestors Say”, award-wining journalist, and reporting specialist for Miigwech Inc.

Break 1 Music: War Dance Song 1 (song) Burton Fisher, George Fisher, Charles Little Oldman, & Clifford Bighead (artist) 12 Northern Cheyenne Songs (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

Named a “legendary Lakota horseman” by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Fred Ecoffey (Oglala Lakota) has enjoyed a celebrated 68-year career as a jockey. After winning his debut race in 1957, Ecoffey went on to compete in more than 17,500 races, earning inductions into both the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame and the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. Ecoffey, 88, has retired from professional racing, though he still helps one of his daughters with her barrel racing from time to time. Today, a new generation of young Native jockeys is taking up the mantle and finding success on the racetrack. Among them is Talliyah Timentwa (Colville Tribes), a two-time national Indian Relay champion who made her debut at Washington state’s Emerald Downs racecourse last year. We’ll speak with Native horse riders about cultivating the art of horsemanship across disciplines, from relay races and jockeying to the sport of dressage.

Fred Ecoffey (Oglala Lakota), retired jockey, elder, and “legendary Lakota horseman”

Talliyah Timentwa (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation), amateur jockey and two-time Indian Relay champion

Kate Nelson (Tlingit), journalist and amateur dressage rider

Break 1 Music: My Horse (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

A piece by artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee) titled “Yet With a Steady Beat” is part of an exhibit in the brand new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which opened to the public in June. The large, colorful canvas is dotted with political buttons that would’ve been seen in movements for Native rights, farmers’ rights, and civil rights. Being handpicked by the Obamas for the exhibit is just one of several prestigious honors and awards garnered by Gibson in recent years. Meanwhile, up-and-coming artist and influencer Tyler Free-LaMere (Winnebago) is being recognized for her music composition work. Her music combines the Ho-Chunk language, which caught the attention of the National Endowment for the Arts. With the organization’s partnership, Tyler is now a published musician and her work was made available for music lessons and curriculums as an example of contemporary Native music. These are two of many Native artists making waves in the arts world.

Break 1 Music: Cherokee County (song) Kalyn Fey (artist) Garden (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

As the country commemorates 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, several galleries are exploring the enduring strengths of Native Americans through both traditional and contemporary works. “Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives” at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, N.M. aims to stretch the boundaries of the paper medium while also examining Native cultural survival in the face of colonization. “Constellations of Place” at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College is centered on a visual history of Native people in Colorado. And Seattle’s Tidelands Gallery compiles a narrative inspired by “Lushootseed Creation Stories”. We’ll talk with artists and curators about how art inserts itself into the narratives being told about the origin of America.

We’ll also hear about the year-long streaming Native film festival, “Everything is Connected”, developed by Vision Maker Media.

This is an encore presentation so we won’t be taking calls

GUESTS

Alana Stone (Sičhą́ǧu Lakȟóta and Diné), curatorial specialist at Vision Maker Media

Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), author, photographer, and CEO of Tidelands Native Art Gallery

Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute), artist and co-curator of “Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives”

Dr. Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute Tribe and Chicana) guest curator for “Constellations of Place”

Break 1 Music: Atomic Drop [feat. Northern Cree] (song) The Halluci Nation (artist) Path of the Heel (album)

Break 2 Music: Tsudadatla Tsisqwa (song) Kalyn Fay (artist) Garden (album)

Carol Juneau (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation) helped build and shape the foundation of what is now the Blackfeet Community College in the late 1970s. Her educational work led her to advocacy and elected office as she served 12 years in the Montana legislature. Juneau is one of six Native leaders in this year’s class of National Native American Hall of Fame inductees.

In this program, we’ll learn more about Juneau and other Native legends including Dwight Birdwell (Cherokee), an honored marine veteran who’s about to mark his 50th year practicing law.

GUESTS

James Parker Shield (Little Shell Chippewa), founder and CEO of the National Native American Hall of Fame

Carol Juneau (MHA Nation), 2026 National Native American Hall of Fame inductee, retired educator, and politician

Brandon Yellowbird Stevens (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), strategist for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin

Dwight Birdwell (Cherokee), 2025 NNAHOF inductee, Army veteran, and attorney

Break 1 Music: 20/20 (song) Blaine Bailey (artist) Indian Country (album)

Break 2 Music: Tsudadatla Tsisqwa (song) Kalyn Fay (artist) Garden (album)

Fifteen days after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the new nation signed its first international treaty with the Wolastoqey and Mi’kmaq Nations of present-day Maine. It’s a history that historian and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians ambassador Osihkiyol Crofton-Macdonald wishes more Americans knew. Brown University assistant professor and Narragansett Nation citizen Dr. Mack Scott III is working to get Black and Indigenous histories better integrated into the K-12 curriculum in northeastern schools. This includes histories like how Narragansett citizens fought in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, a unit long celebrated as an all-Black unit. We’ll hear from Native historians about reclaiming these narratives along with their tribes’ stories from 1776.

GUESTS

Osihkiyol Crofton-Macdonald (Wolastoqey). tribal ambassador for the Houlton Band of Maliseet

Mack Scott III (Narragansett), assistant professor at Brown University

Jeremy Johnson (Delaware Tribe of Indians), cultural education director for the Delaware Tribe of Indians

Break 1 Music: Wolastoq Song by Saqatay (song) Mawi Sakolikapuwicik Singers (artist)

Break 2 Music: Tsudadatla Tsisqwa (song) Kalyn Fay (artist) Garden (album)

A new café in Vancouver, British Columbia faced mounting criticism from the Indigenous community for its questionable use of Indigenous branding. The incident ignited conversations about the potential harms of cultural appropriation.

Santa Ana Pueblo just entered into a partnership with New Mexico’s largest winery. The vineyard on the tribe’s reservation is just one of a handful that are owned and operated by a tribe.

As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we’ll discuss how Indigenous foods are integral to America’s historical origins and culinary identity and how the last 250 years has impacted Indigenous food.

GUESTS

Gov. Myron Armijo (Santa Ana Pueblo)

Inez Cook (Nuxalk Nation), owner of Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro

Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw), author and Cora Lee Beers Price professor at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas

Break 1 Music: Susqwimtmacwaw (song) Nuxalk Radio (artist) Nusximta (album)

Break 2 Music: Tsudadatla Tsisqwa (song) Kalyn Fay (artist) Garden (album)

A Swiss private collector is selling a massive collection of thousands of Indigenous pipes, firearms, and cultural items, valued at over $17 million. A group is leading an effort to repatriate the items that are nearly 200 years old. They originated with First Nations and potentially U.S. tribes. The group is hoping to raise millions of dollars to bring these items home before they fall into another private collector’s hands. We’ll discuss the struggle to reclaim items from overseas private collectors, alongside a broader push to make museums and universities return ancestral items by a 2029 deadline.

Plus, we’ll look at a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case deciding the future of birthright citizenship, just as their current term ends.

GUESTS

Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw), chief executive and attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs

Coleen Rajotte (Cree), journalist, Sixties Scoop survivor, and repatriation advocate

Lance White (Santee Dakota and Arikara), repatriation advocate

Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), law professor at Arizona State University and tribal judge

Gerald Neufeld, repatriation researcher and advocate

Break 1 Music: Ancestors (song) Mike Bern (artist) Ancestors (album)

Break 2 Music: Tsudadatla Tsisqwa (song) Kalyn Fay (artist) Garden (album)

If you’re looking for an alternative to screens for the youngsters and young adults in your life over summer break, a new book by a Native author might be the solution. There is a wealth of new and familiar stories that feature Native characters. We’ll hear from our panel of avid readers — who are also authors of books for kids and young adults — about some of their favorite new reads as well as some that are yet to be released.

GUESTS

Stacy Wells (Choctaw), author and librarian

Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee), author and a PhD student at the University of Arkansas

Byron Graves (Ojibwe and Lakota), author and skateboarder

Break 1 Music: A Turtle’s Honour Song [NDN Jazz] (song) Mwalim (artist)

Break 2 Music: Feels Like [feat. Sheena Shandea] (song) Nataanii Means (artist)

First Nations and Métis leaders in Alberta are actively opposing the province’s secession movement. Alberta will hold a referendum this October on whether to separate from Canada. Premier Danielle Smith is in a war of words with First Nations leaders and faces legal challenges from tribes for pushing forward with the vote. Smith publicly admonished tribal leaders to “check themselves” after the main provincial First Nations chiefs organization said Smith’s actions amounted to “treason”. So far, the public overwhelmingly opposes separation, but the debate is highlighting a very real question whether the provincial government can actually act on separation in light of historic treaties signed with the British Crown long before Alberta was established.

GUESTS

Chief Troy Knowlton (Piikani), Chief of the Piikani Nation and president of the Blackfoot Confederacy

Danette Starblanket (Star Blanket Cree), assistant professor with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina

Bruce McIvor (Métis), founder and senior partner at First Peoples Law LLP and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law

Matthew Wildcat (Ermineskin Cree), assistant professor and director of Indigenous Governance in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta

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

Break 1 Music: Old Alberta (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Break 2 Music: Feels Like [feat. Sheena Shandea] (song) Nataanii Means (artist)