Native America Calling

Native activists and entertainers are among those being caught up in a recent push in several states to curb events connected to 2SLGBTQIA+ issues. A library in Montana canceled a lecture t by a Native Two-Spirit writer and activist because organizers were worried it would violate the state’s new ban on drag performances in public spaces. For the start of Pride Month, we look at the new hurdles Native 2SLGBTQIA+ people are facing. GUESTS Sage Chanell (Shawnee, Ponca, Otoe and Lakota Sioux), drag performer and former Miss International Two-Spirit Lady Shug (Diné), drag artist and community activist Tomahawk Martini (Cheyenne River Sioux and Navajo), current Mother of the Year at the Albuquerque Social Club and former Miss New Mexico Pride 2022 Adria Jawort (Northern Cheyenne), journalist, fiction writer, and director of the non-profit startup Indigenous Transilience

At a time when Australian bands like Men At Work, Midnight Oil, and INXS were reaching worldwide recognition, a number of Aboriginal rock and reggae bands were making their own waves in the music world. Names like Coloured Stone, No Fixed Address, and others were getting broader interest from audiences and notched impressive record sales globally. All the while they faced considerable racism and their peoples’ land rights battles, themes that their songs often invoke. We’ll hear from some of those musicians about how they now look back on this important decade of music.

Arizona officials are still sorting out the details of what they say is among the biggest and costliest fraud scandals in state history. The scheme targeted Native people and involved billing for sham treatment services. Some residents were literally taken off the street and held against their will at fake treatment centers. Officials say the operators of the fraud bilked Arizona’s Medicaid system of some $100 million over several years. Tribal officials in the state say hundreds of their citizens were harmed and some remain missing. GUESTS Ethel Branch (Diné), attorney general of the Navajo Nation Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe), reporter for Native News Online Elizabeth Bryant (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), psychiatric nurse practitioner Reva Stewart (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign Coleen Chatter (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign

An ambitious project in Denver aims to build affordable units for the city’s Native population. It includes plans for a Native health clinic and is intended to address the disparities of homelessness for Native people. It’s one of a handful of housing projects built with collaborative health and program space around the country designed to prioritize the needs of Native people. GUESTS Carla Respects Nothing (Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge), Native American housing advocate for the Native American Housing Circle Paul Lumley (citizen of the Yakama Nation), CEO of the Native American Youth and Family Center Lindsay Goes Behind (Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas), chief program officer for the Chief Seattle Club

While it still happens in some places, Native tourism is moving far beyond selling rubber tomahawks, chicken feather headbands, and other trinkets. Tribes and Native-owned businesses are realizing the value for authentic, Native-made works and meaningful traveler experiences. The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is prime tourism season. We’ll find out how tribes are making the transition to culturally sustainable tourism development. Also, MSNBC is airing a roundtable discussion among accomplished Native women about culture, identity, and representation in a society that so often treats Indigenous people as invisible. It’s an intimate and frank conversation hosted by Alyssa London and airs on the Peacock Network. We'll hear from Alyssa about how the show came about and what it can do to hear powerful Native women voices.

Every weekday in Gualala, Calif., radio listeners can tune into the long-running show Peggy’s Place on KGUA to learn about their neighbors and the rest of the world. The show is just one of the many projects spanning the 50-year radio career of its host, Peggy Berryhill. She started with the show Living on Indian Time on KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. in 1973. She has since worked at National Public Radio, helped develop Native stations, mentored Native broadcasters, and founded the Native Media Resource Center. She has picked up numerous awards and accolades along the way. In this encore show, we’ll get her take on her notable accomplishments and the future of Native radio.

What happens if you're a chef and you lose your sense of smell, something that is crucial for taste? For First Nations chef Gerry Brandon, it was time to call it quits at his restaurant in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario that blended French, American, and Indigenous flavors and garnered positive reviews over the last four years. And a new season of PBS’ The Great American Recipe features two Native home cooks who get to share their Native culinary traditions with the show's judges and audience. That’s on The Menu, the Native America Calling regular feature on Indigenous food.

At 77, Simeon Gipson is preparing to embark on a bicycle journey of more than 1,000 miles from Tahlequah, Okla. to Pittsburgh, Pa. Once there, he plans to compete in the National Senior Games. The thousands of miles Gipson has covered over the years started when he was nearing 70 with a last-ditch attempt to improve his declining health. He’s one of many Native elders and others that embark on epic journeys and inspire the rest of us along the way.

The less glamorous side of writing for television shows and movies is coming to the surface during the strike by the Writers Guild of America. The union says the pay for many of its 20,000 professional writers is low and remains stagnant, even while the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continues to reap new profits from streaming and other platforms.

It was a simple, but contested, proposition: The Cherokee Nation would relinquish its land in the southeast United States in exchange for $5 million and a new homeland in what is now Oklahoma. The document that sparked the Trail of Tears was steeped in fraud and bad faith by the federal government, but remains on the books.

Confronting the bitter legacy of boarding schools in the United States is about more than just reconciliation and healing. It’s also about accountability. American Genocide, the new podcast by Illuminative, zeroes in on the Red Cloud Indian Boarding School, which is now a Catholic school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It sparks the difficult conversation about the past and present trauma perpetrated on Native children and who should have a say in how it’s spoken.

The rate of overdose deaths linked to fentanyl is skyrocketing and Native Americans are many times more likely to be affected. The cheap and potent drug is replacing its related cousins — heroin and oxycodone — as the biggest addiction threat. Among the bright spots: the Cherokee Nation is investing in a state-of-the-art in-patient treatment facility to combat the ravages of opioid addiction.

Mortgage interest rates have trended down recently, but they’re still relatively high compared to previous years. Inflation is also going in a positive direction, but remains a factor for those in the market to buy a home. Whatever the outside variables, there are several resources for Native home buyers.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is readying a new tool to help people search for information about their relatives who attended more than 500 U.S. boarding schools. The online archive will start with digitized versions of 50,000 federal documents. Those organizing the project hope to build on the number and scope of the records over time. Tens of thousands of Native children attended the schools. Some never returned home. What records there are for those children are scattered among various institutions. The NABS’s efforts are among a handful aimed to increasing and consolidating access to information about the boarding school era. GUESTS Selena Ortega-Chiolero (Tarahumara), museum specialist for the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council Fallon Carey (Cherokee Nation), digital archives assistant for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Deidre Whiteman (Meskwaki, Dakota, Ojibwe, Hidatsa), director of research and education for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Shelly Lowe (Diné), chair of the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation offers online college-level language courses. They’re among the efforts to bring new life to Bodéwadmimwen, with only four fluent speakers remaining. And a private Salish immersion school is working with elders to develop lessons. School administrators say they’ve produced dozens of new speakers of their language, both young and old. We’ll hear from Native language educators about the classroom’s role in revitalizing languages. GUESTS LaRae Wiley (Sinixt Arrow Lakes Band), Salish School of Spokane executive director Christopher Parkin, Salish School of Spokane principal Robert Collins (Citizen Potawatomi), Potawatomi Language Professor at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell (Lingít, Haida, Yup’ik, and Sami), Professor of Alaska Native Languages at University of Alaska Southeast

Every weekday in Gualala, Calif., radio listeners can tune into the long-running show "Peggy’s Place" on KGUA to learn about their neighbors and the rest of the world. The show is just one of the many projects spanning the 50-year radio career of its host, Peggy Berryhill. She started with the show "Living on Indian Time" on KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. in 1973. She has since worked at National Public Radio, helped develop Native stations, mentored Native broadcasters, and founded the Native Media Resource Center. She has picked up numerous awards and accolades along the way. We’ll get her take on her notable accomplishments and the future of Native radio. GUEST Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee [Creek] Nation), General Manager of KGUA

Taking on motherhood-by-marriage comes with its own rewards and challenges. The bond between a woman and her partner’s children is often strong and fulfilling. But it might take some informed effort to get there. We take a special focus on stepmothers as we head into Mother’s Day. GUESTS Paula Johnson-Jefferson (Samson Cree), small business owner, wife, and stepmother Nico Williams (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), chef and stepmother Dr. Roger Kuhn (Poarch Band of Creek Indians), licensed marriage and family therapist and college professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University Rebecca Spradlin (Prairie Band Potawatomi), student and storyteller working in media

It’s the time of year for graduations in small, reservation high school auditoriums, big city convention centers, tribal college quads, and manicured Ivy League grounds. It will be a year with and without regalia, depending on where you are. Native graduates are taking the next step in their educational journey. GUESTS: Dr. Lennon Audrain (Cherokee and Shawnee), assistant research professor at Arizona State University and high school teacher at Mesa Public Schools Keely Jones Aliseo (Lumbee), UNC Pembroke graduate and recent Army ROTC second lieutenant Jay Locklear (Lumbee), bachelor's in mass communication Dr. Johnny Poolaw (Delaware, Chiricahua Apache, Comanche, Kiowa), Director of Student Success for American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) AJ Begay (Diné), recent graduate of Ft. Lewis College

Indigenous activists in Central and South America are literally putting their lives on the line trying to protect their land and culture. Places like Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, and parts of Mexico are rife with murders and disappearances of Indigenous people speaking up to save their land and people from large scale mining operations, logging, and other extractive industries. In many cases, those responsible are never brought to justice. We’ll explore the factors that contribute to the threat to Indigenous people standing up against corporate development. GUESTS María Martin, award-winning multimedia journalist, founding executive director of Latino USA, and director of GraciasVida Center for Media Nati Garcia (Maya Mam), capacity building manager for Cultural Survival Edson Krenak (Krenak), Cultural Survival lead on Brazil Karla Mendes, investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay and a Rainforest Investigations Fellow with the Pulitzer Center

For more than 30 years, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act has been an important tool for protecting the authenticity and economic value of work produced by Native Americans. It also helps buyers know they’re getting what they pay for. Now the U.S Department of Interior is reviewing the law and among the outstanding questions is whether it goes far enough. Should artwork from state-recognized tribal artists be excluded as authentic? How should artwork from Native Hawaiians be identified? GUESTS Chuck Hoskin Jr. (Cherokee Nation), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Dr. Sylvia Hussey (Native Hawaiian), chief executive officer for Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Rachel Cushman (member of the Chinook Indian Nation), tribal secretary and treasurer for the Chinook Indian Nation Dr. Joe Candillo (Pascua Yaqui), owner of Authentic Native America Arts