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The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is one of the first tribes to pass a moratorium against the construction of hyperscale data centers. The nearby Muscogee Nation also turned down an opportunity to build a data center after Muscogee citizens spoke out in force against the plan. Large tech companies are stepping up the pressure to build hyperscale data centers to house the processing power for data storage and generative AI. The federal government is providing incentives for tribes to get involved in this part of the tech boom. It is part of the Trump administration’s push to unleash American technological power, but such facilities typically require a lot of power and water. Native environmentalists warn data center companies are only looking to take advantage of tribes’ sovereignty and resources.

GUESTS

Cheyenne McNeill (Coharie), editorial fellow at Mother Jones

Jordan Harmon (Muscogee), policy specialist at Indigenous Environmental Network

Ashley Leitka (Absentee Shawnee Tribe and Oglala Lakota), co-director of the sovereignty and self-determination department for Honor The Earth

Dr. Karen Jarratt Snider (Choctaw), professor of applied Indigenous studies at Northern Arizona University

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Paying to have a sandwich delivered to your door or even replacing a broken appliance is as easy as clicking an app and worrying about the bill later. Apps like Klarna and Afterpay allow consumers to pay installments for goods they can have in hand right away. A new report by Lending Tree finds 4 in 10 Americans now use pay later loans for groceries, an increase from the previous year fueled partly in a rise in prices. Financial literacy experts warn of the potential for consumers to quickly lose control of spending with such apps, but even for consumers using conventional methods, keeping on top of increasing costs for food and gas means more disciplined spending, at least in the short term. We’ll go over ideas for keeping a lid on personal finances.

We’ll also hear about the uncertain future of a federal Native financial grant and loan program that is slated for elimination with President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget proposal. The $28 million program aids Native communities with homeownership, credit building, and entrepreneurship, but the administration says it is promoting “cultural Marxism“.

GUESTS

Chantay Moore (Diné), certified financial educator

Pete Upton (Ponca), CEO and chairperson of the Native CDFI Network and the executive director of the Native360 Loan Fund

 

Break 1 Music: C.R.E.A.M. [Instrumental] (song) Wu-Tang Clan (artist) Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers [Instrumentals] (album)

Break 2 Music: Further From the Country (song) William Prince (artist) Further From the Country (album)

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Indigenous women skaters shove and elbow their way around the oval roller derby track — and along the way they are finding sisterhood and a sense of pride. Clad in helmets and knee pads, they take full-contact laps around the track that also serves as an arena for visibility and representation. The international team, Indigenous Rising, is a ground-breaking pack made up of skaters from dozens of tribes who otherwise compete on local teams. The documentary, “Rising Through the Fray”, follows the team’s journey and the personal passions and sacrifice individual players put into this unique and fast-paced sport.

GUESTS

Kristina “Krispy” Glass (Cherokee), coach and manager for Indigenous Rising Roller Derby

Sherry “Sour Cherry” Bontkes (Saulteaux Ojibwe from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba), roller derby player

Angelene “Niketah” Ketah (Tlingit), roller derby player

Kapulani “Hawaiian Blaze” Patterson (Kanaka Maoli)

Courtney Montour (Kanien’kehá:ka), filmmaker, writer, and director of “Rising Through the Fray”

 

Break 1 Music: Head High (song) Wavelengths (artist)

Break 2 Music: Further From the Country (song) William Prince (artist) Further From the Country (album)

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President Donald Trump’s federal budget proposal includes a 75% funding cut to a diabetes prevention and treatment program specifically for Native Americans. It also calls for up to $65 million in cuts to Indian Health Care facilities improvements. The Republican-controlled Congress has a mixed record on supporting Trump’s budget cuts to Native health care, but the proposals are cause for concern for tribes like Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico that is contending with costly repairs for its aging health clinic. It also comes as the country faces the looming dropoff in Medicaid reimbursements that jeopardizes the future for hundreds of mainly rural hospitals across the country. We’ll assess the threats to Native health care as we know it and other potential challenges that the ongoing shift in federal priorities is bringing to the surface.

GUESTS

Liz Malerba (Mohegan), director of policy and legislative affairs for the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund

A.C. Locklear (Lumbee), CEO of the National Indian Health Board

Jerilyn Church (Cheyenne River Lakota), president and CEO of the Great Plains Tribal Leader’s Health Board

Kurt Riley (Acoma Pueblo), chairman of the Acoma Pueblo Health Board and former governor of Acoma Pueblo

 

Break 1 Music: Intertribal (song) Blackfoot Confederacy (artist) Confederacy Style (album)

Break 2 Music: Further From the Country (song) William Prince (artist) Further From the Country (album)

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The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska is telling the story of 11 children taken from the area and shipped off to the Carlisle Indian Boarding School more than a century ago. The museum was instrumental in securing the return of one of those children who was buried on school grounds. It is part of an ongoing effort by the museum to document and repatriate Alaska Native ancestors under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. We’ll hear about their work.

GUESTS

Dehrich Chya (Alutiiq, Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak), director of language and living culture at the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository

Benjamin Jacuk (Dena’ina Athabascan and Sugpiaq), director of Indigenous research at the Alaska Native Heritage Center

Nyché Andrew (Yup’ik/Iñupiaq)

 

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

Break 2 Music: Further From the Country (song) William Prince (artist) Further From the Country (album)

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A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision opens a new path for the controversial practice known as “conversion therapy”, a method aimed at questioning or even changing a person’s sexual orientation. More than 20 states ban the practice. It is condemned by major medial establishments including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. LGBTQ2+ advocates at the Trevor Project call the Supreme Court’s ruling a “tragic step backward“. It is also one in the growing number of legal and policy challenges ranging from a ban on Pride flags to defunding HIV/AIDS treatment. We’ll hear from Native LGBTQ and Two-Spirit advocates and legal experts about the landscape for LGBTQ2 protections.

GUESTS

State Rep. Liish Kozlowski (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa/D-MN), first non-binary person elected to the Minnesota Legislature

Shelby Chestnut (Assiniboine), executive director of the Transgender Law Center

Lenny Hayes (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), owner and executive director of Tate Topa Consulting, LLC

Mattee Jim (Diné), Native transgender advocate

 

Break 1 Music: ‘Cause I Like A Girl (song) Ailani (artist) Heartbroken Bones (album)

Break 2 Music: Further From the Country (song) William Prince (artist) Further From the Country (album)

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A jury convicted Google and social media giant Meta of failing to do enough to prevent the harmful effects of their projects on children. Plaintiffs, including several tribes, argued children too young to be on social media platforms are subjected to bullying and suffer poor self-esteem because of content they encounter online. At the same time, retailers are able to strip personal information from young people — and others — who use social media. Does social media have any redeeming value? We’ll find out what might change in light of the recent legal decision.

GUESTS

Dr. Amanda Cheromiah (Laguna Pueblo), executive director for the Jim Thorpe Center for the Future of Native Peoples at Dickinson College

Dr. Deidre Yellowhair (Diné), research assistant professor in the division of community behavioral health for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of New Mexico

Merri Lopez-Keifer (San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians), executive director of the Center for Indigenous Law & Justice at the University of California Berkeley School of Law

Tim Purdon, partner at Robins Kaplan LLP

 

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

Break 2 Music: Save the World (song) Tribz (artist) Trimmed (album)

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The historic heat dome moving across the country smashed hundreds of high temperature records. Several places in Arizona and California reached 112 degrees — an unheard-of high in March. The Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona issued an extreme heat warning after an official high temperature hit 108 degrees. The temporary weather phenomenon is slowly moving on, but not before drying out watersheds and melting snowpack that are critical sources of summer for people and agriculture. And climate experts say the abnormally hot start to the year is only the beginning. We’ll speak with researchers and others who are keeping track of climate trends for the year on what people can expect in the months ahead.

GUESTS

Roberta “Birdie” Wilcox-Cano (Diné), mayor of Winslow, Ariz.

Mary “Cathy” Cathleen Wilson (Tohono O’odham), climate journalist and advocate

Dr. Eugene Livar, Chief Heat Officer for Arizona Department of Health Services

Alexander “Sasha” Gershunov, research meteorologist for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego

Rob Fairbanks (Leech Lake Ojibwe), comedian aka The Rez Reporter

 

Break 1 Music: To Keep the World We Know (song) Bruce Cockburn (artist) O Sun O Moon (album)

Break 2 Music: Save the World (song) Tribz (artist) Trimmed (album)