Local southern California tribes will share management of a new 4,500-square-mile marine sanctuary. The designation from the Biden Administration cites the need to protect at-risk plants and animals, including whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. Establishing the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is the first such designation initiated by Native Americans. The idea started more than a decade ago by a member of the Northern Chumash Tribe. We’ll find out about how the sanctuary designation came about and what its managers hope it accomplishes. We’ll also check in on the Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative in Alaska, another co-stewardship project tribes are involved in.

GUESTS

Violet Sage Walker (Chumash), chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council

Michael Murray, deputy superintendent for programs at the NOAA Channel Islands

Kenneth Kahn, chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Eugene Paul (Holy Cross Tribe), former tribal chief of the Holy Cross Tribe, chair of the Bering Sea-Interior Tribal Commission and a member of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

 

Break 1 Music: Ocean Waves Song (song) Various Artists (artist) Chumash Story and Song Collection (album)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Tensions are high in New Caledonia as the remote Pacific island nation’s Indigenous people are pushing for independence more than 170 years after the island was colonized by France. At least 13 people have died in protests triggered in May when the French government attempted to institute voting changes that would bolster the political power of New Caledonia’s white settler communities at the expense of the Indigenous Kanak people. There’s been little progress in the four decades after the Kanak tried to force better recognition from New Caledonia’s political leaders aligned with Paris. It’s a fight that has parallels to current and past struggles by Indigenous people in North America and elsewhere.

GUESTS

Joseph Xulue (Kanak and Samoan), executive member and former president of the New Zealand Pacific Lawyers’ Association

Viro Xulue (Kanak), human rights and Indigenous law officer for the Drehu Customary Council of New Caledonia

Dr. Christiane Leurquin (Kanak and French), senior lecturer in Global Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Otago

Dr. Tate LeFevre, cultural anthropologist and Kanaky/New Caledonia specialist

 

Break 1 Music: Atay (song) YATA (artist)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

The stories she heard as a young girl from her own elder relatives inspired Holly Miowak Guise to research and document the experience of Alaska Native veterans of World War II. Her work is compiled in the book, Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II. Her work encompasses the U.S. Government’s occupation of the Aleutian Islands, the trauma of religious boarding schools, and the historic Alaska Native fight to overcome institutionalized discrimination. We’ll talk with Guise about her work and the people she encountered.

GUEST

Dr. Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq), assistant professor of History at the University of New Mexico and the author of Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from WWII

 

Break 1 Music: Flag Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Veteran’s Honor Song (album)

Break 2 Music: Another Night to Cry (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Native Americans have a long and rich tradition of producing artwork from behind bars. In the past, it was both a means of artistic expression and a way to document and communicate important events. Modern inmate artwork is also a vehicle for creative expression. It is also a valuable tool for personal growth and rehabilitation. We’ll hear about artwork’s healing and redemptive significance for incarcerated Native Americans.

GUESTS

Gabe Galanda (member of the Round Valley Indian Tribe), managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman

Genaro Rivas (Shoshone and Paiute), artist and tattoo artist at Feast or Famine Tattoo

Jesus Ancheta (Cowichan First Nation), artist

Dawn Lawson, Leonard Peltier’s personal assistant and a member of the official Leonard Peltier ad hoc committee

 

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

Break 2 Music: Midnite Blues (song) Crystal Shawanda (artist) Midnight Blues (album)

Good pay and a strong job demand are among the factors that make the information technology industry an promising career choice. But a study by the Kapor Center shows Native Americans are significantly underrepresented in the IT workforce. The divide is even wider for Native women. Starting early — offering computer science instruction in high schools — is one way IT advocates say will move the statistics in the right direction. We’ll talk about that and why Native IT experts are needed.

GUESTS

Renita DiStefano (Seneca Nation), president and CEO of Second Derivative, LLC

Gary Burnette (Cheroenhaka Nottoway), current board chair for AISES and vice president of advisory consulting at Kyndryl

Richard Chance (Cherokee Nation), CEO and founder of First Americans Marketplace Exchange (FAME)

Rebecca Fisher (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), account executive at Bulletproof (a GLI company)

 

Break 1 Music: Standing Rock [feat. Nick Ørbæk Jacobsen] (song) Uyarakq (artist) Miseraq (album)

Break 2 Music: Midnite Blues (song) Crystal Shawanda (artist) Midnight Blues (album)

President Donald Trump and Republicans pulled off a decisive victory. Are Native Americans poised to benefit from the change in power? We’ll get the early analysis about what the election results mean from a Native perspective and hear more about how Native candidates fared up and down the ballot. We’ll also find out how tribes might shift strategies to accommodate the change in political winds.

GUESTS

OJ Semans Sr. (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), co-executive director of Four Directions Vote

Allen Wright (Choctaw), president and founder of the Hustings Group

Dr. Aaron Payment (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), tribal councilman and former chairperson for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Rhonda McBride, journalist and producer at our Koahnic Broadcast Corp. flagship station KNBA

 

Break 1 Music: 500 Years O’ Blues (song) Digging Roots (artist) Seeds (album)

Break 2 Music: Midnite Blues (song) Crystal Shawanda (artist) Midnight Blues (album)

 

It’s the final day to cast your vote, setting the political course for the foreseeable future. All the messages to encourage Native voting, the legal and technical work to assure access, and the onslaught of campaign ads come down to Election Day. We’ll get reports from around the country to talk about progress and remaining hurdles as Native voters choose their elected leaders.

GUESTS

Gabriella Cázares-Kelly (Tohono O’odham), Pima County Recorder

April Ignacio (Tohono O’odham), co-founder of Indivisible Tohono

Kevin Killer (Oglala Lakota), former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and member of the South Dakota legislature

Maria Haskins (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe), Wisconsin Native Vote manager and organizer

 

Break 1 Music: Ideal Dub (song) Casper Loma Da-Wa (artist) Honor the People (album)

Break 2 Music: Midnite Blues (song) Crystal Shawanda (artist) Midnight Blues (album)

The Lumbee Nation counts 55,000 members, and although they are not federally recognized and have no tribal trust land, they have a strong cultural identity. The possibility of federal recognition is a factor in who members support in the presidential race. Across the state, the smaller, but federally recognized, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has political and economic muscle and opposes Lumbee recognition. We’ll explore the dynamics of navigating the Native vote in a critical swing state.

GUESTS

John Cummings (Lumbee Tribe), chairman of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners

Christopher Reed (enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), vice chair of the North Carolina District 11 Democratic Party

Jesalyn Kaziah (Lumbee), executive director of the Triangle Native American Society

 

Break 1 Music: Hug Room (song) Chuck Copenace (artist) Oshki Manitou (album)

Break 2 Music: Midnite Blues (song) Crystal Shawanda (artist) Midnight Blues (album)

Before their relocation along the Trail of Tears, southeast tribes found a need to curb cattle rustling and other violations of tribal laws. The Five Tribes organized tribal law enforcement units that came to be known as Lighthorse. They would respond to crimes such as stagecoach robberies, bootlegging and murder. For several years, the Lighthorse acted as judge, jury, even executioner. The Cherokee Lighthorsemen have their origins in Georgia, but were official formed in November 1844. The tribes continue to use the term “Lighthorse” to refer to their community policing units. We’ll hear about the history of “Lighthorse” and how they paved the way for tribal law enforcement.

GUESTS

Scott Ketchum (Choctaw Nation), Chickasaw Nation Endowed Chair in Native American Studies for East Central University

Julie Reed (Cherokee Nation), associate professor in history at Penn State University

Michelle Cooke (Chickasaw Nation), senior staff writer for the Chickasaw Press and author of Protecting Our People: Chickasaw Law Enforcement in Indian Territory

 

Break 1 Music: Two-Sidedness (song) Samantha Crain (artist) You (Understood) (album)

Break 2 Music: Ksm Xaayda (song) Saltwater Hank (artist) Siip’nsk (album)

Halloween is the right time to dive into new spooky books by Native authors. Ramona Emerson’s new sequel, Exposure, checks back in with her character Rita Todacheene, a Navajo forensic photographer introduced in Emerson’s debut novel, Shutter, who continues to be haunted by crime victims. Dark and menacing supernatural entities follow Choctaws along the infamous Trail of Tears to Oklahoma in Devon Mihesuah’s The Bone Picker, a collection of fictional stories set in real-life histories. Nathan Adler co-edited a collection of scary stories along with Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugeen First Nation) called Zegaajimo: Indigenous Horror Fiction. Hunkpapa Lakota humorist and author Tiffany Midge’s newest collection of poetry, Horns, weaves horror through her creative use of language and satire. These authors join us for a conversation about horror in Native literature.

GUESTS

Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler (Anishinaabe and member of Lac de Mille Lacs First Nation), writer, author, and editor

Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw), writer, historian, and the Cora Lee Beers Price Teaching Professor at the University of Kansas

Ramona Emerson (Diné), writer and filmmaker

Tiffany Midge (Hunkpapa Lakota), poet, humorist, and author

 

Break 1 Music: Halloween (song) Blood Dance (artist) Halloween (album)

Break 2 Music: Ksm Xaayda (song) Saltwater Hank (artist) Siip’nsk (album)

Four Native Americans just received the nation’s highest honor recognizing work and dedication to enriching the community. President Joe Biden awarded the 2022-2023 National Humanities Medals to Muscogee poet Joy Harjo, long-time Cherokee educator Dr. Robert Martin, Potawatomi author and scientist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Tlingit cultural advocate Dr. Rosita Worl. The awards, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities, honors individuals and organizations that deepen “the nation's understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.” Native America Calling was the first Native organization to receive a National Humanities Medal in 2021.