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Child support payments could be cut for hundreds of Native American mothers. The looming change revolves around a debate in Congress over access to private IRS information. Child support enforcement efforts use that information to garnish tax refunds going to non-custodial parents. It’s a system that reroutes some $2 billion across the country every year. But tribes fall into a special category that would prevent them from solutions that non-tribal agencies are able to use. North Dakota tribes have already had such child support payments cut off because of an IRS directive, but that decision is now reversed. We’ll hear about the complex issue of child support enforcement for tribes.

GUESTS

Jerl Thompson (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), director of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Child Support Enforcement program

Sunnie Bisonette (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), assistant director of Lac Courte Oreilles Child Support

Tish Keahna (Meskwaki Nation citizen), attorney employed by Lac Courte Oreilles

Break 1 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Break 2 Music: Fancy Dance (Song) Yellow Hammer (artist) Yellow Hammer (album)

 

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Reindeer weren’t always in Alaska, but now there’s a strong connection for Alaska Native herders. It all started in 1891, when the U.S. Government signed onto a plan by a Presbyterian missionary to recruit Indigenous European Sámi people in order to spark economic development and relieve food insecurity in Alaska. The program took off, but was greatly hampered by subsequent policy decisions. Somewhere along the way, the Arctic reindeer herding lifestyle meshed well with the state’s Iñupiaq and Yup’ik residents.

GUESTS

Dr. Sean Asikłuk Topkok (Iñupiaq and Sámi), director of Center for Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks

Bonnie Scheele (Iñupiaq), reindeer herder and program manager for High Latitude Range Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus

Marlene Wisuri (Sámi descendant), chair of the Sámi Cultural Center of North America

Varpu Lotvonen, University of Alaska Fairbanks Anthropology PhD dissertation Ballad of the Laavlaaqs: The Relational Worlds of Sámi Reindeer Herders in Alaska

Martha Jane Sara Jack (Yup’ik and Sámi), daughter of a Sámi reindeer herder in Alaska

Here’s an extended interview with Martha Jane Sara Jack. She talks more about her Sámi father and reindeer herding in Alaska. She also talks about the recent return of the remains of her Sámi cousin, Mary Sara, that were taken by the Smithsonian Institution in 1933.  

 

Break 1 Music: Reindeer (song) Pamyua (artist) Caught in The Act (album)

Break 2 Music: Fancy Dance (Song) Yellow Hammer (artist) Yellow Hammer (album)

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There’s something for everybody on the summer reading lists by our expert panel of Native super-readers. From supernatural slashers to memoirs to poetry, there is an abundance of Native literature available right now to put in your backpack or beach bag. From the usual big names and a few hidden treasures, we’ll have ideas for you to stock up on the printed word.

GUESTS

Samantha Courchane (Chippewa Cree Tribe), library assistant and archive assistant at Stone Child College Library  

Desiderya J. Costello (Diné), library paraprofessional at the San Pedro Public Library in Albuquerque   

Amber McCrary (Diné), writer and poet

 

Reading lists from guests:

Desiderya suggests: 

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology 2023 edited by Shane Hawk and Throdore Van Alst Jr.

Blood Sisters 2023 by Vanessa Lillie

Winter Counts 2020 by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Night of the Living Rez 2022 by Morgan Talty (I am really excited for his new book to come out, Fire Exit out on 6/4/24)

Anoka 2020 by Shane Hawk

 

Amber suggests: 

The Storyteller 2023 by Brandon Hobson

Firekeeper’s Daughter 2021 by Angeline Boulley

mother by m.s. RedCherries out 7/16/24

Removal Acts 2023 by Erin Marie Lynch

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava out 8/6/24

Also mentioned Good Medicine 2021 by Tenille Campbell

 

Samantha suggests: 

Rock Your Mocs 2023 by Laurel Goodluck

Who Am I? 2023 by Julie Buchholtz

Why We Dance 2024 by Deidre Havrelock

Powwow Day 2022 by Traci Sorell

Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior 2023 by Carole Lindstrom

My Powerful Hair 2023 by Carole Lindstrom

 

Andi suggests: 

Survival Food: North Woods Stories by a Menominee Cook 2023 by Thomas Pecore Weso

Whiskey Tender 2024 by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Wandering Stars 2024 by Tommy Orange

Horns 2024 by Tiffany Midge

Moon of the Turning Leaves 2024 and Moon of the Crusted Snow 2018 by Waubgeshig Rice

Medicine Wheel for the Planet: a Journey Toward Personal and Ecological Healing by Dr. Jennifer Grenz out in the US 5/28/24

I was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones out 7/16/24

 

Break 1 Music: In the Balance (song) Sharon Burch (artist) Touch the Sweet Earth (album)

Break 2 Music: Fancy Dance (Song) Yellow Hammer (artist) Yellow Hammer (album)

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This time every year for the past 30 years the Sac and Fox Nation takes a day to celebrate a momentous U. S. Supreme Court decision affirming the tribe’s right to issue vehicle license plates to its citizens. The tribal tags are an important expression of sovereignty and it generates revenue for education and other programs. Dozens of tribes in and outside of Oklahoma now extend their authority to motor vehicle tags. But Oklahoma tribes say that authority is under fire like never before. Tribal citizens are having to defend what tribal officials say is an increase in targeted stops and fines by non-tribal law enforcement. We’ll talk about celebrating a victory for sovereignty and the constant effort required to keep it.

GUESTS

Gregory H. Bigler (Euchee, enrolled in the Muscogee Nation), author, tribal judge in Oklahoma, and attorney

Matthew Fletcher (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and author of the Turtle Talk blog

Audrey Rose Lee (Sac & Fox Nation), second chief of the Sac & Fox Nation

Robert Gifford (Cherokee Nation), Native American law attorney and tribal court judge

 

Break 1 Music: Turtle Island Reggae (song) Quese IMC & Cempoalli 20 (artist) Osahwuh (album)

Break 2 Music: 2 Hour Parking (song) Cris Derksen (artist) The Cusp (album)

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The graduating class of 2024 is taking one of the biggest steps in their academic careers. What’s next? We know that almost three quarters of Native students graduate high school. And college graduates reached an achievement only 1 in 5 Native people attain by age 25. We devote this show to the Native academic stars reaching a major educational milestone.

GUESTS

Dr. Waylon Decoteau (enrolled Standing Rock Sioux; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians), Doctor of medicine from University of North Dakota

Megan Corn (enrolled Chickasaw Nation; Cherokee and Choctaw), University of North Dakota

Jaime Herrell (enrolled Cherokee Nation; European), recent graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts

Jaylon Romine (enrolled Muscogee Creek, Kiowa, and Chickasaw), recent graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University

 

Break 1 Music: Keep Rising (song) House of Shem (artist) Keep Rising (album)

Break 2 Music: 2 Hour Parking (song) Cris Derksen (artist) The Cusp (album)

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

Following August’s U.S. Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action, several states are rushing to rid their higher education institutions of recruitment and inclusion programs that benefit Native students. On top of that, the botched update to the FAFSA process has many families confused about their ability to pay for college in the coming academic year. Native Americans already have among the lowest college enrollment rates. Higher education advocates worry the confluence of factors might erase any recent educational attainment gains.

GUESTS

Secretary Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education

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

Julia Wakeford (Mvskoke and Yuchi), National Indian Education Association policy director

Dr. Corey Still (citizen of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians), senior research director at One Fire Associates, LLC

Break 1 Music: Unity (song) Native Roots (artist) Most High (album)

Break 2 Music: 2 Hour Parking (song) Cris Derksen (artist) The Cusp (album)

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A tribe once targeted for termination has established the first reservation in the state of Illinois. The U.S. Department of Interior transferred 130 acres of Northern Illinois land to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The action comes 175 years after the federal government illegally sold the tribe’s Illinois land — ten times the current trust land size — when the chief was out of the state visiting family. We’ll hear about the new land transaction and other recent notable land achievements.

GUESTS

Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation)

Joe Heath, Onondaga Nation general counsel 

Sara K. Van Norman, founder of Van Norman Law

Samantha MJ Yang (Gabrieleño Tongva Band of Mission Indians), environmental biologist and ethnobotanist

Break 1 Music: “Sovereign Land” – Summit Dub Squad (song) The Native Movement Native Music Compilation (artist) Written In Blood (album)

Break 2 Music: 2 Hour Parking (song) Cris Derksen (artist) The Cusp (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:30 — 38.8MB) | Embed

A big band made up of Native musicians is headlining a jazz festival at the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital this weekend. The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band is billed as the only all-Native jazz band in the world. It’s made up of 16 of the music disciplined genre’s most notable and talented Native musicians, including co-director Delbert Anderson (Diné), Mali Obomsawin (Odanak Abenaki), and Ed Littlefield (Tlingit).

GUESTS

Julia Keefe (Nimiipuu), jazz singer, band leader, actor, and director of Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band

Delbert Anderson (Diné), jazz trumpet artist, composer, educator, and co-director of Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band

Break 1 Music: Water (song) Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (artist)

Break 2 Music: Nd Waza Bat (song) Keith Secola (artist) Circle (album)

Links to Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band performances: