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It’s graduation season and it’s time to celebrate graduates. They worked hard for years to get a piece of paper, a stamped seal, a tassel and a change in their educational status. We celebrate Native graduates and find out how their culture mixes in with “Pomp and Circumstance.” Do you have a graduate in your family that you’re proud of? Tune in, call in and shout out.

Guests:

Q Martine (Navajo and Laguna) – Senior at NACA

Bronson Elliott- college engagement director at NACA

Carmen Lopez (Navajo) –  executive director of College Horizons and Graduation Horizon

Break Music: Go My Son (ill Franklyn Remix) (single) ill franklyn (artist)

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Doctor shortages in Indian country make it difficult for patients to get the health care they were promised. The agency overseeing the Indian Health Service acknowledged in a hearing last year, that IHS is short on providers. Officials revealed then that vacancy rates for physicians at IHS reached 20 percent in 2013. The number is even higher in certain areas. What are the long term impacts to doctor and other medical care provider shortages in Indian country? Is more money the answer?

Guests:

Dorothy Dupree (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes) – IHS Deputy Director
Stacy Bohlen (Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa) – executive director of the National Indian Health Board

Break Music: Nose Flute Dub (song) Paula Fuga (artist) Lilikoi (album)

 

Also heard on NAC today:

Full interview with Dr. Doug Kiel about the phrase “off the reservation.”

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The producers of “Frontier of Change” gathered stories from Alaska Native people whose lives are being affected by climate change. The project includes interviews, environmental audio and other sounds that bring this important story to life. We’ll hear from the producers about the project and how Indigenous communities are struggling with disappearing land, vanishing wildlife, erosion, and other catastrophes brought on by climate change. Are you seeing the effects of climate change in your Native community? How can storytelling address the issue?

Guests:

Isaac Kestenbaum – producer on the Frontier of Change audio project

Joaqlin Estus (Tlingit and English-Irish) – news director for KNBA in Anchorage

Eugene Asicksik (Inupiaq Eskimo) – mayor of Shaktoolik

Michael Brubaker – director of the department of community environment and health at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

Break Music: Cauyaqa Nauwa (Where’s My Drum) (song) Pamyua (artist) Drums Of The North: Traditional Yup’ik Songs (album)

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Cradleboards are useful, beautiful and can tell stories about the communities from which they come. For millennia, Native parents have been securely wrapping up their babies in adorned carriers. On this show we’ll explore the history of cradleboards and other baby baskets across tribal nations. We’ll also talk about how some parents are returning to these traditional baby carriers today.

Guests:

Doug Limón (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) – artist and cradleboard maker

Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota) –  curator at the National Museum of the American Indian

Vanessa Jennings (Kiowa, Gila River, Apache) – cradleboard maker

Break Music: Baby Lullaby (song) Eli Secody (artist) Rhythm Of A Songmaker (album)

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First we learn to talk. And then comes reading and writing. In Native America, tribes and tribal members are working hard to revitalize and speak our Native languages. But what about the written word? In the mid-19th century, a Cherokee named Sequoyah invented a syllabary for the Cherokee language, which is still used today in publications and signs across the three Cherokee tribes. Where does the written word fit into your language? Is learning to read or write critical to the future of our languages?

Guests:

Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation) – manager of the Cherokee Language Program

Dr. Brendan Fairbanks (Kickapoo and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) – assistant professor at the University of Minnesota

Lorene Legah (Diné)  – faculty at Diné College

Break Music: Cissy (Fish/Smoke Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

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Thousands of dancers, hundreds of tribes: the annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque is among the biggest powwows in North America. We’ll take you inside the Gathering with a special live broadcast. We’ll learn about the history of the event and preview a few of the dozens of great musicians. We’ll get insights on what makes a great competitor and talk with the reigning Miss Indian World. We take a snapshot of the powwow experience at the 2016 Gathering of Nations.

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The discussion over replacing President Andrew Jackson’s face on the $20 bill reminds us that what we know about history is always evolving. There are dozens of historical figures honored with murals, statues and place names who we now know were not as honorable as we first thought. Native Americans at the University of New Mexico are wondering how they relate to the official seal that depicts a Spanish conquistador and a white frontiersman. The Capitol building in Minnesota displays romanticized paintings that call to mind some of the worst atrocities in Native American history. Should painful historical references in public places be replaced? If so, where do they belong?

Guests:

Dr. Heather Shotton (Wichita, Kiowa and Cheyenne) –  assistant professor of Native American Studies at The University of Oklahoma

Nick Estes (Lower Brule Sioux Tribe) – PDH student at the University of New Mexico American studies

Break Music: Song of The Sun (song) Klee Benally (artist) Respect Existance Or Expect Resistance (album)

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The 1950s Urban Relocation Program had the stated goal to help address poverty in rural reservations. The intent was to move Native American families to a handful of big cities where there were more job opportunities. The program failed to fix poverty. It also diminished Native communities. But it did create a new urban landscape for Native Americans. We’ll take a look inside these urban communities six decades later and see how the “relocatees” have created and maintained a strong Native connection.

Guests:

Pamela Peters (Navajo) – multimedia indigenous documentarian

Dr. Dorene Wiese (Minnesota Chippewa) – president of the American Indian Association of Illinois

Break Music: Canoe Song (song) Chenoa (artist) Spirit of Salishan (Album)