A substantial number of Native Americans are affected by Arizona’s efforts to solidify a strict ban on abortions. Even after Arizona elected leaders repealed the law affirmed by the state Supreme Court that criminalizes nearly all abortions, the state faces a new landscape with it comes to access to the procedure. Abortion access advocates are taking cues from other states with abortion restrictions on the books — a reality that affects at least 75 federally recognized tribes. We’ll get rundown from multiple perspectives on the current trends and realities for abortion access for Native women.

GUESTS

Charon Asetoyer (Comanche), executive director of the Native American Community board, which is a parent organization to the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center

Rachael Lorenzo (Mescalero Apache and Laguna Pueblo), executive director of Indigenous Women Rising

Wes Nofire (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), Native American liaison for the State of Oklahoma

Ann Tweedy, professor at the University of South Dakota School of Law

Break 1 Music: Hope (Featuring Werner Erb) (song) Sihasin (artist) Never Surrender (album)

Break 2 Music: Flyer (song) The Zoniez (artist)

The short video social media platform TikTok is mostly a source of entertainment and information for most Native users. A ban on the app in the United States would cut that off for TikTok fans, but also close off a source of income for several talented Native producers. A new law requires TikTok’s China-based company to sell its interest in the app or lose its U.S. audience, which has a massive, mostly young base. We’ll hear from Native TikTok producers and cybersecurity experts about what’s behind the ban and what it means for users.

GUESTS

charlie amáyá scott (Diné), influencer, TikTok creator, and PhD candidate  

Patuk Glenn (Iñupiaq), executive director of the Arctic Slope Community Foundation and content creator 

Brandon Benallie (Diné and Hopi), cybersecurity expert

Dr. Karaitiana Taiuru (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, & Ngāti Toa), Māori A.I., Data, and Emerging Tech Ethicist and Governance, IP, and Critical Indigenous Researcher

Break 1 Music: Hoka Hey (feat. Jayden Paz & Dancin Dave) [Radio Version] (song) DJ krayzkree (artist) Future Generations (album)

Break 2 Music: Flyer (song) The Zoniez (artist)

In his book Rabbit Decolonizes the Forest, Euchee judge Gregory Bigler uses a mix of legal analysis, first-hand accounts, and traditional animal stories. He also includes lots of references to food and how Euchee people carried culinary tradition with them from Georgia to Oklahoma. Filmmakers in the new PBS documentary One With The Whale follow a Yupik family who endured a barrage of hate messages after a traditional whale hunt. It shows the disconnection between traditional subsistence hunting in Alaska and outsiders who don’t have to rely on nature for their existence. And some Native school gardens are no longer just a class project, but an established part of the curriculum. That’s on this episode of The Menu on Native America Calling, our regular feature on food sovereignty hosted by Andi Murphy.

GUESTS

Gregory H. Bigler (Euchee and enrolled in the Muscogee nation), author, tribal judge in Oklahoma, and attorney  

Takeva Apassingok (Yupik), father of Chris Apassingok

Julie Garreau (Cheyenne River Sioux), CEO of the Cheyenne River Youth Project

Peter Chelkowski, director of One With the Whale

Break 1 Music: Pisa Ay Sobeli (song) The GrayHawk Band (artist) Worth the Wait (album)

Break 2 Music: Flyer (song) The Zoniez (artist)

Jon Proudstar (Pascua Yaqui, Jewish, and Mexican) is coming off a successful run on the TV series, Reservation Dogs, and a starring role in an all-Native movie set on the Osage Nation. On top of that, his ground-breaking 1996 comic, Tribal Force, is enjoying a triumphant return. We’ll catch up with the Pascua Yaqui actor and learn about the wisdom he’s picked up from his more than 40 films and TV shows.

Break 1 Music: Keep Rising (song) House of Shem (artist) Keep Rising (album)

Break 2 Music: Flyer (song) The Zoniez (artist)

The year-round creative drive, Native Guitars Tour, heads up a two-day music and fashion presentation at the annual Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque. It’s a chance for us to hear from some of the musicians including Jir Anderson, Scotti Clifford, and Geneviève Gros-Louis – an hour of live music by Native talent.

GUESTS

Jir Anderson (Cochiti Pueblo), lead singer for the Jir Project and the founder of Native Guitars Tour

Geneviève Gros-Louis (Huron-Wendat), composer, violinist, and producer

Scotti Clifford (Oglala Lakota), singer-songwriter

Sage Nizhoni (Diné), singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer

Break 1 Music: Rumble (Remastered) (song) Link Wray (artist) Rumble (Remastered) (single)

Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

We are in the midst of a new surge of Native writing talent. And their skill for engaging readers with compelling stories is propelling a new, complex and more sophisticated narrative about who Native Americans are. Gone are the Louis L’Amour stereotypes. The new Native characters are miscreants, bored office workers, dysfunctional family members, and reluctant heroes. And they all have a story to tell, with a voice that readers wouldn’t hear otherwise. We’ll explore the arc of Native literature from two writers who are part of the torrent of creative representation.

GUESTS

Deborah Jackson Taffa (Kwatsaán and Laguna Pueblo), author of Whiskey Tender, director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and editor-in-chief of “River Styx” literary magazine   

Ramona Emerson (Diné), former forensic videographer and photographer, filmmaker, and author of Shutter

Break 1 Music: Totah (song) The Delbert Anderson Trio (artist) MANITOU (album)

Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

And listeners in Albuquerque can continue the conversation with a special live panel discussion moderated by Shawn Spruce with writers Deborah Jackson Taffa, Ramona Emerson, and Brandon Hobson at Bookworks at 6 p.m. Friday, April 25:

 

The early bond between Native Americans and horses was both technical and spiritual. For centuries, horses amplified the range and power for tribes, especially in the west. New discoveries are potentially rewriting what we know about the use of horses by the earliest inhabitants of North America. Those ancient bonds translate into a lasting spiritual and vocational connection that continues for those who work with horses. We’ll hear from some of them about how Native knowledge and horses go together.

GUESTS

Dustina Abrahamson (Lemhi-Shoshone and Bannock), member of the Gathering of Nations Horse Parade Committee

George Goode (Yaqui), master farrier and president of the Native American Horseshoeing Education Foundation

Emerson Sam (Diné), horse trainer and farrier

Raquel Sam (Diné), Gathering of Nations horse and rider regalia parade competitor and fashion designer

Tommy Sam (Diné), horseback and professional bull rider

Break 1 Music: For the Horses (song) Randy Wood (artist) My Heart & Soul (album)

Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Some language advocates are excited about potential for AI to help revitalize and promote Native languages. The emerging technology could create more accessible tools for second-language learners. At the same time, AI has implications for both tribes and individuals when it comes to using information they hold dear. AI is advancing fast, and Native experts are expressing the need for policy and legal safeguards to make sure it doesn’t trample Native values.

GUESTS

Dr. Ian Her Many Horses (Lakota), assistant teaching professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

Michael Running Wolf (Lakota and Cheyenne), Ph.D student studying computer science and a language advocate using AI

Dane Malenfant (citizen of Métis Nation Saskatchewan), AI researcher in Montreal

Robbie Jimerson (member of the Seneca Nation), Ph.D candidate at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Break 1 Music: Awe Hai Hai (feat. Andrée Levesque Sioui / Lead vocal & Francois Dorion / Conductor) (song) Francois Couture, Andrée Levesque Sioui, Akienda Lainé & Francois Dorion (artist) Yahndawa’ (album)

Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Native Americans face a six-fold increased risk of flash floods because of climate change in the next two years. That is one of the predictions in a new study led by the University of Oklahoma. One of the study’s authors says “Indigenous communities are grappling with an imminent climate crisis.” And Native groups are both praising and lambasting the Biden Administration’s direction on oil leases on federal lands. Depending on where you stand, new policies are either protecting diminishing land, or denying Native people the jobs necessary to feed their families.

GUESTS

Taylor Patterson (Bishop Paiute), executive director of the Native Voters Alliance Nevada 

Nagruk Harcharek (Iñupiaq), president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat 

Dr. Farina King (citizen of the Navajo Nation), Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and associate professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma

Dr. Mengye Chen, research scientist at the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Oklahoma 

James LeClair (Laguna Pueblo), Otoe-Missouria Tribe Emergency Manager

Break 1 Music: The Gift of Life (song) Randy Wood (artist) The Gift of Life (album)

Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

The torture and gruesome murders of three Navajo men by white high school students touched off a series of racially-fueled conflicts in Farmington, N.M. on the border with the Navajo Nation. The murders in April 1974 became known as the Chokecherry Massacre. One protest organizer at the time called Farmington “the Selma, Alabama of the Southwest,” referring to the simmering racial tensions. Demands by Navajos and other Native activists since then have improved relations in the border town and surrounding areas somewhat. But many residents and observers say the sources of the problems remain just below the surface. We’ll recount this little-known period of Four Corners history and discuss what community relationships are like 50 years later.

GUESTS

John Redhouse (Diné and Ute), longtime activist

Chili Yazzie (Diné), Shiprock community member

Dr. Jennifer Denetdale (Diné), professor and chair of American Studies at the University of New Mexico

Nate Duckett, Farmington mayor

Break 1 Music: Reservation of Education (song) XIT (artist) Silent Warrior (album)

Break 2 Music: Come to Life (song) Toni Heartless (artist) Dark Days (album)

Native Americans are among the populations with the lowest rate of vaccinations, whether it’s for flu, measles, COVID-19, or hepatitis B. Health professionals urge parents to immunize their infants against more than a dozen serious diseases including polio, pertussis, diphtheria, and mumps. But poverty, lack of health insurance, and distance to health providers are among the barriers that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says keep rates for Native Americans low. On top of that, misinformation and confusion about vaccines creates additional hesitation for parents. We’ll talk with doctors about the factors that might improve immunization rates as a way to improve overall health.