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U.S. citizenship was not a given for the people who occupied the land before there was a United States. Nor was the idea universally welcomed by all Native nations. Citizenship ensured the right to vote in national elections and equal protection under the Constitution. But it also required relinquishing a measure of sovereignty, something the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee refuse to recognize to this day. A century after President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, we’ll look at the strengths and sacrifices of becoming American citizens.

GUESTS

Dr. Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee), president of the Morning Star Institute and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and tribal judge

Sam Deloria (Yankton Dakota enrolled in Standing Rock), former director of the American Indian Law Center and American Indian Graduate Center

Allison Neswood (Navajo), staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund

Break 1 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Dakota Nation (artist) Home of the Champions (album)

Break 2 Music: Alligator Boots (song) Danny T and the Stealing Thunder Band (artist) Fantasyland (album)

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Basketball fans are glued to their teams’ performance in the NBA conference finals, with at least two Native players still battling for the title. And the WNBA just started its season, welcoming Minnesota Lynx draft pick Alissa Pili (Iñupiaq and Samoan) onto the court. We’ll hear from Pili, as well as University of Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson (Lumbee), who the AP just named Coach of the Year, along with some other perspectives on Native representation on the court.

GUESTS

Alissa Pili (Iñupiaq and Samoan), Minnesota Lynx player

Kelvin Sampson (Lumbee), University of Houston coach

Dominic Tiger-Cortes (citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation), basketball trainer and founder and creative director of Hoop Medicine

L.A. Williams (Diné), sportscaster and radio talent

Break 1 Music: Half Time (song) DDAT (artist) DDAT (album)

Break 2 Music: Alligator Boots (song) Danny T and the Stealing Thunder Band (artist) Fantasyland (album)

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Sasquatch, also called Bigfoot, has captured the popular collective imagination around the globe for decades. But in addition to their pop icon status, Sasquatch have a deeper meaning for many Native American cultures. The name that’s often used most likely comes from the Coast Salish word “Sasq’ets.” The Sts’ailes First Nation in Canada consider Sasquatch to be a caretaker of the land. A new exhibition at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore. showcases work by Native artists inspired by Sasquatch. We’ll get a peek at the exhibition along with some context of the enduring cultural connection.

GUESTS

Frank Buffalo Hyde (Onondaga Nation, Beaver Clan, and Nez Perce), painter, mix media sculptor, and art writer  

HollyAnna CougarTracks DeCoteau Little Bull  (Yakama, Nez Perce, Cayuse, and Cree), artist

Rocky LaRock (Sts’ailes Coast Salish)

Break 1 Music: Welcome Song (song) Salish Spirit Canoe Family (artist) Keep Singing, Keep Dancing (album)

Break 2 Music: Muskwa Dance [feat. Quinton Tootoosis & Dawn Desmarais] (song) Dallas Arcand (artist) Modern Day Warrior (album)

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The world is gearing up for the 80^th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Of course, that decisive military action by Allied forces was more than just one day and was supported by actions across Europe. We’ll hear about what the war was like for Native Americans who served, and get a profile of one of the infantry divisions that had among the highest percentage of Native enlisted members in the military.

GUESTS

Dr. Denise Neil (Cherokee Nation), Executive Director of the Oklahoma National Guard Museum

G.M. “Choc” Charleston (Choctaw Nation), 100-year-old World War II veteran

Charles Shay (Penobscot Nation), 99-year-old elder, writer, and veteran of World War II and the Korean War

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

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

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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)