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Nearly three quarters of the children in South Dakota’s foster care system are Native American. That’s in a state with an overall Native population of 13%. And despite the requirements of federal law, a large portion of those children are placed in non-Native households, potentially severing their connections to family and culture. The lack of Native foster parents is one factor. But so is the lack of staff in tribal foster care programs. A comprehensive report by the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and South Dakota Searchlight offers an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of South Dakota’s foster system disparities.

GUESTS

State Rep. Tamara St. John (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate)(R-SD), tribal historian for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate

Annie Todd, state politics reporter for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Makenzie Huber, politics and public policy reporter for South Dakota Searchlight

Toni Handboy (Cheyenne River Sioux), case manager for Wakpa Waste Counseling Services in Eagle Butte, South Dakota

Break 1 Music: Tiny Hands (Reimagined) (song) Quantum Tangle (artist) Shelter as We Go . . . (album)

Break 2 Music: Turtle Island Reggae (song) Quese IMC & Cempoalli 20 (artist) Osahwuh (album)

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There is no more basic need than clean drinking water. That’s a need that the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska has been lacking since the Environmental Protection Agency issued a no drink order in 2019. Wells on the reservation are showing levels the mineral manganese as much as 50 times higher than the agency considers safe. A long-term solution could cost upwards of $40 million. There’s no identifiable source of any funding for even a fraction of that amount.

GUESTS

Chairman Alonzo Denney (Santee Sioux), chairman of the Santee Sioux Nation

Vice Chairman Kameron Runnels (Santee Sioux), vice chairman of the Santee Sioux Nation

Mike Crosley (Santee Sioux), land manager for the Santee Sioux Nation

Lisa Sockabasin (citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe), co-CEO of Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness

 

Break 1 Music: The Water Will Cleanse Me (song) Russell Wallace (artist) Russell Wallace (album)

Break 2 Music: Turtle Island Reggae (song) Quese IMC & Cempoalli 20 (artist) Osahwuh (album)

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Teams of Native junior and high school students are competing to build the best robots. They have to build their machines from scratch to accomplish tasks competition organizers set each season. Those tasks might be as simple as moving an object to a specific space, but they also might have to get around their opponents who are trying to stop them. Just like in sports, there are competitions on the regional, state, and national levels. We’ll hear from some Native robotics competitors and their coaches who are fired up about robots.

GUESTS

Nekoda Altaha (White Mountain Apache), STEM tech and robotics coach at Alchesay High School

Triscinda Miller (San Carlos Apache), instructor, coach, and mentor at Theodore Roosevelt School

Dan Mantz, CEO of the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation

Break 1 Music: Standing Rock (feat. Nick Ørbæk Jacobsen) (song) Uyarakq (artist) Miseraq (album)

Break 2 Music: Turtle Island Reggae (song) Quese IMC & Cempoalli 20 (artist) Osahwuh (album)

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This year the collection of Native films by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian includes 35 films from six different countries. A selected list of films in the Native Cinema Showcase is going online free of charge. The films include a documentary about a young Navajo woman exploring the source of environmental threats on the Navajo Nation and a dramatic account of a woman’s interaction with a Maori stranger. We’ll hear about the films and filmmakers in this new curated selection of Native-produced and Native-themed film.

GUESTS

Peshawn Bread (Comanche), writer, producer and director for the film The Daily Life of Mistress Red 

Jason Asenap (Comanche and Muscogee), writer and director for the film Marlon 

Lydell Mitchell, produced the film Heroes of the West

Cynthia Benitez, program manager for the Native Cinema Showcase for the National Museum of the American Indian

Break 1 music: Wild Band of Comanches – Men’s Fancy (song) Gathering Of Nations Powwow (artist) A Spirit’s Dance (album)

Break 2 Music: Residential Redemption (song) Brock Stonefish (artist) Turtle Island (album)

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Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disorder that affects deer, elk, and other big game animals. It has growing implications for wildlife and the people across the country who manage them. In Minnesota, tribes are teaming up with wildlife officials and researchers in a unique collaboration aimed at reducing the spread of the disease on and near tribal lands.

GUESTS

Souta Calling Last (Blackfeet and Blood Tribe), founder and director of Indigenous Vision

Jesse DesRosier (Blackfeet), hunter and language teacher

Doug McArthur, wildlife manager at the White Earth Reservation

Marc Schwabenlander, associate director for the Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach

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

Break 2 Music: Residential Redemption (song) Brock Stonefish (artist) Turtle Island (album)

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As Head Start approaches its 60^th year, federal funding for the pre-kindergarten program remains well short of what it would take to cover the number of children eligible. Now, it is among the proposed budget cuts on the table as Congress works to avoid a shutdown. There’s evidence Head Start provides a life-long boost for Native children, but its future is in doubt in Alaska and some other places where the potential need is greatest.

GUESTS

Kathleen Sando (Jemez Pueblo), San Felipe Head Start director 

Anne Shade, Bristol Bay Native Association childhood development director, Alaska Head Start Assocation’s co-treasurerm and the Head Start representative on the Alaska Early Childhood Coordinating Council

Alicia Allard, tribal Head Start consultant and specialist for Little Hawk Consulting

Andrea Pesena (Isleta Pueblo), executive director for Isleta Pueblo Head Start and Child Care Program

Lola Henry (Hupa), manager and director for Hoopa Tribal Head Start

MaryEllen Fritz (Inupiaq), Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association Department of Family and Community Development director

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

Break 2 Music: Residential Redemption (song) Brock Stonefish (artist) Turtle Island (album)

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After reaching out to tribal leaders and citizens, the museum on the home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina re-launched with a new name and purpose. It’s a major makeover that officials with the Museum of the Cherokee People say now pulls together aspects of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. It’s one of several Native organizations and businesses that recently saw a need to refresh their image to better reflect their changing goals and purpose. We’ll talk with museum officials as well as branding experts about taking on a change in direction.

GUESTS

Tim Neal (Cree), owner of a Saskatoon design and advertising studio  

Alex Lane (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), manager of visitor services at the Museum of the Cherokee People

Break 1 Music: Pomok naka Poktoinskwes (song) Jeremy Dutcher (artist) Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (album)

Break 2 Music: Residential Redemption (song) Brock Stonefish (artist) Turtle Island (album)