Native America Calling

Some Native Americans are already bracing for next year’s semiquincentennial with worries about how patriotism might cloud historical accounts from a Native perspective. Now, the Trump Administration is promoting a program to teach “the first principles of the Founding” in classrooms. The program uses money previously meant to help low-income and underserved students. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s push to end what he says is the “radical indoctrination” of public school students. We’ll talk about what’s being done to include Native voices into an accurate accounting of history.

The summer of 1945 saw three nuclear explosions that ushered in a new era of experimentation, development, and fear when it comes to the potential for such a powerful weapon. Native people are among those suffering the most from the consequences of that path. The first test of the atomic bomb at the Trinity site in New Mexico, and the subsequent use of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, signaled the U.S. Government’s new push to develop nuclear weapons, fueled by millions of tons of uranium ore mined near Native land in New Mexico and Arizona. And ongoing nuclear tests exposed thousands of Native people in the Southwest and in Alaska to dangerous levels of radiation. We’ll explore the ongoing effects on Native people of nuclear weapons and power development.

The Shinnecock Nation in New York is in an ongoing legal battle to have their fishing rights recognized. A lawsuit brought forward by a Shinnecock tribal citizen argues the tribe has never ceded their right to fish in any treaty or agreement. The tribe has no treaty with the federal government, but instead with British colonists from the 1600s. This case could possibly affirm the tribe’s unended aboriginal claim to fish in the Hamptons. We’ll talk with Shinnecock citizens about what’s at stake with the case as it moves forward in federal district court.

Heavy workloads, low pay, and increasing political pressures are among the contributing factors leading to a rise in teacher burnout. A survey by the University of Missouri of 500 public school teachers found 78% of them have considered quitting the profession since the 2020 pandemic. We’ll talk with Native educators about what it will take to recruit and retain Native teachers in the face of growing pressures.

Muscogee Freedmen are closer to tribal citizenship than ever before. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court ruled the tribe must extend the rights of citizenship to the descendants of slaves who also have Muscogee lineage. We’ll hear from Freedman who welcome the ruling, but warn there are likely more hurdles ahead.

We’ll also talk with an Alaska Native engineer working on building clean water systems for rural villages and inspiring Native girls to consider careers in science along the way.

And we’ll hear from both U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the tribal chairman about Sec. Kennedy’s visit to the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho to tout the Trump administration’s commitment to food sovereignty.

After a period of colonial suppression, traditional kapa making is enjoying a sustained resurgence. In recent decades, a growing number of Native Hawaiian artists have mastered the labor-intensive process of harvesting, scraping, and soaking the bark of the wauke plant and embellishing the resulting fabric with colorful traditional designs. A new generation of artists is benefiting from this reclaimed expertise.

This is an encore show so we won’t be taking listener phone calls

President Donald Trump is signaling a shift in the ongoing push to deport immigrants as the reality of taking migrant farmworkers out of the fields, disrupting businesses and the country’s food supply starts to become apparent. About 40% of the 2.6 million farm workers in the U.S. are estimated to be undocumented. A portion of those are Indigenous people from Mexico and Central American countries. We’ll hear about how the Trump administration may be adjusting its stance.

A search for words in their language led a husband-and-wife team to 300-year-old texts where French Jesuit missionaries documented Seneca names for traditional foods, cooking, and even recipes.