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Ahtna Athabascan elder Katie John’s efforts to get the state of Alaska to open up subsistence fishing in her Native Village of Batzulnetas turned into a series of legal and policy decisions that continue to protect Alaska Native fishing rights to this day. Daring Chickasaw aviator and legislator Eula Pearl Carter Scott was the youngest person in the country to fly an airplane solo. By age 14, she was working as a commercial pilot. She retired from flying to go on to work as the tribe’s Community Health Representative, and later as a tribal legislator. We’ll learn about the contributions of these and other notable Native women.

GUESTS

Jeannie Barbour (Chickasaw Nation), Chickasaw Nation creative development director

Heather Kendall-Miller (Dena’ina Athabascan [Curyung tribe]), Native American Rights Fund attorney

Liz Lovejoy Brown, executive director of the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center

 

Break 1 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

Break 2 Music: Honor Song (song) Blackfoot Confederacy (artist) Hear the Beat (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:43 — 38.3MB) | Embed

The Donald Trump Administration is using the full force of the federal government to compel colleges and universities to do away with scholarships, recruiting, academic programs and any other initiatives that help Native students succeed. Schools risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding in addition to defending against investigations by the Department of Justice and other agencies. At least 50 schools are facing such investigations for what the U.S. Department of Education calls “race exclusionary” practices. We’ll get a look at the sweeping changes the Trump Administration is bringing about and how Native education advocates are responding.

GUESTS

Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota), president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund

Carrie Billy (Diné), education consultant and former president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium

Zonnie Gorman (Diné), historian and daughter of Dr. Carl Gorman, one of the original Navajo Code Talkers

 

Break 1 Music: Mean Things Happenin’ in This World (song) Blackfire (artist) Woody Guthrie Singles (album)

Break 2 Music: Honor Song (song) Blackfoot Confederacy (artist) Hear the Beat (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:29 — 38.1MB) | Embed

Two Native students are among the recent winners of one of the most prestigious science research competitions for high school students. Logan Lee (Native Hawaiian) and Ava Grace Cummings (Lumbee and Coharie) placed in the top 10 among thousands of contestants in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. It’s the first time two Indigenous students were awarded prizes in the competition’s 83-year history. We’ll hear about their drive for science excellence.

We’ll also check in with the author of Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa. It’s a children’s book by Leslie Stall Widener and illustrator Johnson Yazzie highlighting the enduring connection between the Choctaw Nation and Ireland.

GUESTS

Ava Grace Cummings (Lumbee and Coharie), senior at North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Logan Lee (Native Hawaiian), senior at ‘Iolani School

Leslie Widener (Choctaw), author of Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa

 

Break 1 Music: Eagle Dance REMIX (single) Jason Brown/Decontie & Brown (artist)

Break 2 Music: Honor Song (song) Blackfoot Confederacy (artist) Hear the Beat (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:25 — 38.7MB) | Embed

At least 1.2 million Americans have died from COVID-19; thousands of them just since January. As the nation marks five years since the pandemic-causing virus appeared in this country, we’ll look at how Native Americans have recovered — and how they haven’t. Businesses closed down or have yet to regain their pre-pandemic levels, school enrollment remains weakened, and trust in medical science — something Native Americans already lacked — is diminished. We’ll examine what we learned from the unprecedented public health emergency five years later.

GUESTS

Gwendena Lee-Gatewood (White Mountain Apache), former chairwoman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe

Dr. Rebecca St. Germaine (Lac Courte Oreilles), director of tribal health care administration at St. Germaine Data Innovations

Jonathan Nez (Diné), former Navajo Nation President

Lavinia Cody (Diné), certified school Diné counselor

 

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

Break 2 Music: Old Alberta (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

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An entire wall of one school building is buckling after a leaky roof went unattended for 19 years. Students at another school have to go home to use the bathroom during the day because the school’s water pipes burst. Exposed insulation hangs from the ceiling in another school. For more than a quarter century, the Alaska legislature has devoted only a fraction of the funds needed to keep the public school buildings that serve a predominantly Alaska Native student population functioning properly. We’ll hear about the investigation by KYUK in collaboration with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network and NPR’s Station Investigations Team that exposed a problem many years in the making.

GUESTS

Emily Schwing, KYUK senior reporter

Jason Dropik (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), National Indian Education Association executive director

 

Break 1 Music: They Sing to Each Other (song) Pamyua (artist) Side A Side B (album)

Break 2 Music: Old Alberta (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:32 — 38.1MB) | Embed

The death of a 14-year-old San Carlos Apache girl is spurring questions nationally about what could have been done to prevent the tragedy. Emily Pike’s remains were found three weeks after she went missing from a Mesa, Ariz. group home. A candlelight vigil over the weekend honored her memory. At least one other community event is scheduled. Her death also comes after authorities identified the remains found at a Winnipeg landfill as one of the women suspected to be a victim of a serial killer. We’ll hear about both cases in context of pressure to improve the outcomes for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

GUESTS

Mary Kim Titla (San Carlos Apache), executive director of United National Indian Tribal Youth

Jolyana Begay-Kroupa (Diné), chief executive officer of the Phoenix Indian Center

Kim Wheeler (Anishinaabe and Mohawk), journalist and host of The Kim Wheeler Show on Sirius XM

Sandra DeLaronde (Cross Lake First Nation and Métis), MMIWG2S advocate

Kyra Wilson (Long Plain First Nation), Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

Break 1 Music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

Break 2 Music: Old Alberta (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)