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Traditionally, people over 65 years of age have the highest voting rates, so their issues are well represented in elections. But there are several initiatives to get young people to the polls, including registration drives and voter education. Those efforts may have paid off in the 2018 election when the U.S. Census reported a 79 percent increase in voters 18-29 years old. What are the issues that are important to young Native voters? We’ll talk with Native youth who have their eyes on the coming election about the issues that are important to them.

Guests:

Eddy Falcon (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) – youth engagement specialist for Covenant Health Alaska

Isabel Coronado (Mvskoke Nation) – Policy Entrepreneur with the Next100

Jacob Cousin (Oglala Lakota) – research assistant for the Brown School of Public Health

Jazmine Wildcat (Northern Arapaho) – senior at Riverton High School

Break 1 music: Walking In Beauty (song) Jay Begaye (artist) The Beauty Way (album)

Break 2 music: Evolution Revolution (song) Indigenous (artist) Circle (album)

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When domestic violence happens there’s a number of agencies involved including the justice system, police, and social service agencies. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a ten-year-old program called Blueprint for Safety focuses on making sure all of those agencies work together to get the victim help and hold the perpetrator responsible. And the program appears to be working, domestic violence calls are down by 45% since the program started according to the St. Paul Police Department. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In this hour we’ll hear from the St. Paul Police Department including a Native police officer, about how this program works and is seeing success.

Guests:

Jessica Stiffarm (Chippewa/Gros Ventre) – police officer with the St. Paul Police Department

John Riley – investigator assigned to the Family Violence Unit within the St. Paul Police Department

Shelly Cline – executive director St. Paul and Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project

 

Break 1 music: Rattle Dance (song) Asani (artist) Rattle And Drum (album)

Break 2 music: Evolution Revolution (song) Indigenous (artist) Circle (album)

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COVID-19 isn’t the only infectious disease to be concerned about as the weather gets colder. Every year millions of people contract influenza and the common cold. Both are little more than an inconvenience for most people, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports thousands of people develop serious health complications. The CDC also says Native Americans are at a higher risk for developing serious problems from the flu. Pneumonia is among the most common and Native people are at a higher risk. We’ll talk about prevention and treatment.

 

Break 1 music: Rattle Dance (song) Asani (artist) Rattle And Drum (album)

Break 2 music: Evolution Revolution (song) Indigenous (artist) Circle (album)

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The LANDBACK campaign calls out the social and political structures built on stolen land and advocates for returning land to Native nations. But it’s much larger than that. Those behind the movement say it’s also rooted in climate change solutions, global environmental stewardship and dissolving racial inequities. Momentum rose to the surface when Land Defenders greeted President Trump at his July 4 rally at Mt. Rushmore, calling for the federal government to return the Black Hills to Native control. Organizers hope to make #Landback a rallying cry for a brighter future.

Guests:

Ashley Nicole McCray (enrolled absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and Oglala Lakota) – Green New Deal outreach organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network

Joel Moffett (Nez Perce) – natural resources policy coordinator for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians

raktahcu’ reekawi Echo-Hawk (Pawnee and Athabaskan) – founding member of the Indigenize Production/The Go Home Collective

Dr. Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) – president of the Morning Star Institute

 

Break 1 Music: Battle River Style (song) Cree Confederation (artist) Kihtawasoh Wapakwani-Beautiful Flower (album)

Break 2 music: Evolution Revolution (song) Indigenous (artist) Circle (album)

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As Election Day nears, worries about adequate access to the polls increase.
The Pasqua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona is fighting in court to restore the reservation’s only early voting station. In Alaska, the Arctic Village tribe and the League of Women’s Voters won the first round in their legal fight against the state’s new requirements for witness signatures on mail-in ballots. And a Montana judge struck down a state law against collecting absentee ballots that Native voting rights advocates say would’ve limited voting access for tribes. We’ll get the latest in the evolving landscape determining what is limiting and strengthening access for Native Americans.

Guests:

Cheryl Ann Kary (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) – executive director of the Sacred Pipe Resource Center

Eddie Sherman (Navajo and Omaha) – communications consultant with National Urban Indian Family Coalition and partner with Hilltop Public Solutions

Herminia Frias (Pascua Yaqui Tribe) – tribal council member

Natalie Landreth (Chickasaw Nation) – senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund

 

Break 1 music: Old School Hop (song) Cree Confederation (artist) Pakosiyimitan (album)

Break 2 music: Treaty Six and Coastal Hand Game Song (song) Fawn Wood & Dallas Waskahat (artist) Blessings (album)

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In the last moments of her life, Joyce Echaquan (Atikamekw Nation) recorded staff at the Quebec hospital taunting her with racist comments. The hospital fired two workers and opened an investigation. Quebec’s premier issued an apology, but insisted there is not a systemic problem with racism in the medical establishment. At least one 2017 study found a quarter of Native Americans say they experienced discrimination while seeking medical attention. The Association of American Medical Colleges recently released guidelines for addressing racism against students and patients.

Guests:

Dr. David Acosta – chief diversity and inclusion officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges

Dr. Mary Owen (Tlingit) – director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health at the University of Minnesota

 

Break 1 music: Show Stopper (song) BlackStone (artist) On The Oregon Trail (album)

Break 2 music: Treaty Six and Coastal Hand Game Song (song) Fawn Wood & Dallas Waskahat (artist) Blessings (album)

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A new study in JAMA finds nearly a quarter of all Americans now say they are experiencing symptoms of depression. That’s three times higher than the number before the start of the pandemic. Symptoms may come and go, but they can also get progressively worse. And previous studies indicate many of those with clinical depression don’t seek professional treatment because of persistent stigma about the disease. For Depression Awareness Month we’ll get reminders about recognizing and treating depression and how to clear hurdles to treatment when you may feel you’re least able to do so.

Guests:

Cheyenne Kippenberger (Seminole) – Miss Indian World

Dr. Glorinda Segay (Navajo) – director of the Indian Health Service Division of Behavioral Health

Xiomara Owens – director of the Behavioral Health Aide Training Program for Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

 

Break 1 music: Generations (song) P. Town Boyz (artist) P. Town Boyz (album)

Break 2 music: Treaty Six and Coastal Hand Game Song (song) Fawn Wood & Dallas Waskahat (artist) Blessings (album)

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The Trump Administration is moving to lift environmental protections on seven million acres in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. It would allow logging virgin forests that sprouted before first contact with European settlers. Alaska Native tribes are fighting the U.S. Forest Service’s recommendations to remove the Clinton-era “roadless designation” paving the way for roads, logging and other development. The tribes say it poses a serious threat to subsistence hunting, fishing and foraging in the nation’s largest national forest.

Guests:

Dr. Rosita Worl (Tlingit) – president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute

Joel Jackson (Tlingit) – president of the Organized Village of Kake

Lawrence Armour (Tlingit) – tribal administrator for the Klawock Cooperative Association

Norman Skan (Tlingit) – president of Ketchikan Indian Community

 

Break 1 music: Raven’s First Dance (song) Khu.éex’ (artist) Heen (album)

Break 2 music: Treaty Six and Coastal Hand Game Song (song) Fawn Wood & Dallas Waskahat (artist) Blessings (album)

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Teachers, elected leaders and some curious individuals might look to Indigenous Peoples Day as the time to brush up on Native history. There’s a basic level of knowledge every American should know, but so much of what is available comes from non-Native sources and are just plain wrong. We’re cracking the books and bringing in the experts to discuss the go-to sources for learning about history from the Native perspective.

Guests:

Dr. Nicky Michael (Lenape) – executive director of Indigenous Studies and Curriculum at Bacone College and a tribal council member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians

Dr. Kent Blansett (Cherokee/Creek/Choctaw/Shawnee/Potawatomi) – Langston Hughes Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies and History at the University of Kansas

Recommended reading from Dr. Nicky Michael

 

Break 1 music: Wiconi (song) Primeaux & Mike (artist) Road to Peace (album)

Break 2 music: Treaty Six and Coastal Hand Game Song (song) Fawn Wood & Dallas Waskahat (artist) Blessings (album)