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The U.S. Supreme Court ruling denying race-conscious college admissions has Native business owners on alert over the far-reaching implications beyond higher education. A recent federal judge’s decision puts an additional hurdle in front of Native businesses when it comes to a program in place to diversify federal contracts. Some experts and Native small business owners worry it’s only the beginning of a new system that will mean fewer successful Native entrepreneurs.

GUESTS

Annette Hamilton (member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas), vice president and Chief Operating Officer of Ho-Chunk, Inc.

Stephine Poston (Sandia Pueblo), CEO and president of Poston and Associates, LLC

 

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

Break 2 Music: Blue Dream Wedding Cake (song) Def-I (artist) Blue Hour (album)

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The Center for Native Futures (CfNF) opens this weekend in the heart of downtown Chicago. The gallery art space is the first of its kind in the Windy City and it’s dedicated to contemporary Native artists interested in visualizing the future and setting the tone for the future of Native art. We’ll visit with the founders and artists at the new center.

GUESTS

Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo and Korean), co-founder/co-director of Center for Native Futures and visual artist

Noelle Garcia (Klamath), assistant professor of art at National Louis University

Jason Wesaw (Potawatomi), artist

Hattie Lee Mendoza (Cherokee Nation), mixed media artist

 

Break 1 Music: Burn Your Village to The Ground (single) The Halluci-Nation (artist)

Break 2 Music: Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (song) Twice As Good (artist) That’s All I Need (album)

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The Biden Administration reversed oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), earning praise from environmental advocates and Alaska Native wildlife and subsistence hunting protectors. But the move also received criticism from Alaska Native corporations and the state’s entire congressional delegation. We’ll look at the ongoing political back-and-forth that defines the pristine but resource-rich tundra of Alaska. Plus, a preview of what could be an historic marine sanctuary set-aside initiated by the Chumash Tribe in California.

GUESTS

Dr. Charlene Stern (Native Village of Venetie), technical advisor for the Arctic Village Council and Native Village of Venetie Tribal Council

Violet Sage Walker (Chumash), chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council

Mia Lopez (Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation), advisor for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary and former chairwoman of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation

Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at the Alaska Wilderness League

 

Break 1 Music: Ocean Waves Song (song) Various Artists (artist) Chumash Story and Song Collection (album)

Break 2 Music: Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (song) Twice As Good (artist) That’s All I Need (album)

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The good news is high school sports injuries are decreasing, according to a study released this year by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The bad news is the severity of those injuries are getting worse. As fall seasons get underway, Native trainers are responding to new awareness of the dangers of life-long injuries from high school sports. Young athletes could encounter serious injuries including concussions, broken bones, ruined joints, and even anxiety and other mental health problems. The one-time advice to “walk it off” is replaced with sophisticated attention to long-term health.

GUESTS

John Sunchild (Chippewa Cree from Rocky Boy Reservation), athletic trainer

Jasmine Velasquez (Mvskoke), athletic trainer

Drew Babcock (Amskapi Pikuni), American Indian and Alaska Native outreach coordinator, Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana

Plus, we ended today’s program with breaking news from Alaska, where Gene “Buzzy” Peltola died in a plane accident. Shawn Spruce spoke with his longtime friend LaMont Albertson about his life and legacy. Photo and reporting by Rhonda McBride.

 

Break 1 Music: Intertribal (song) Cree Confederation (artist) Pakosiyimitan (album)

Break 2 Music: Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (song) Twice As Good (artist) That’s All I Need (album)

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The Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe just took ownership of almost 900 acres of ancestral land in Virginia, thanks, in part, to $3 million in federal funds. And legislation in Minnesota would transfer a state park to the Upper Sioux Community in a historic act recognizing atrocities committed by state and federal officials against the Dakota people that culminated in the mass execution of 38 Dakota men in 1862. Those are two examples of a trend in governments, organizations, and individuals facilitating the return of important land to tribal control.

GUESTS

Chief Frank Adams (Upper Mattaponi)

Michelle Vassel (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), tribal administrator for the Wiyot Tribe

Dr. Amber Annis (Cheyenne River Lakota), director of Native American Initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society 

Scott Roemhildt, regional director for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources southern region

 

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

Break 2 Music: Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (song) Twice As Good (artist) That’s All I Need (album)

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Many of the roads, hiking trails and even railroads that crisscross the landscape began thousands of years ago as trails by Indigenous hunters and traders. Many tribes have since lost their connections to those trails. But some are trying to re-connect their strong cultural links to the ancient routes, and tell their own stories about what they mean.

GUESTS

Wade Campbell (Diné), archaeologist and assistant professor at Boston University

Shannon Holsey (Mohican), president of the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Band

Kevin Belle, rail-to-trail project manager for the Great American Rail-Trail

 

Break 1 Music: This Land (song) Keith Secola (artist) Native Americana – A Coup Stick (album)

Break 2 Music: Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (song) Twice As Good (artist) That’s All I Need (album)

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A number of Native-led live productions are taking the stage. They include an all-Indigenous production about Canadian residential schools written by a First Nations playwright – and the Rolling World Premiere of “Where the Summit Meets the Stars” by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse (Tlingit) at the Autry Museum of the American West‘s Wells Fargo Theater in Los Angeles. We get a look at upcoming theater productions.

GUESTS

Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch (Algonquin-Anishinaabe), librettist and co-composer for “Canoe” 

Frank Henry Kaash Katasse (Tlingit), playwriter, educator, and actor  

Kim Gleason (Diné), artistic director of Two Worlds Native Theater

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

Break 2 Music: Memory Lane (song) Nitanis “Kit” Largo (artist) Serenity (album)

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The state of Alaska released its first-ever list of missing Alaska Natives and Native Americans. The list also includes basic details about each case, including whether or not it’s suspicious. The report includes 280 names going back to 1960. It’s part of the state’s efforts to address the disproportionate percentage of Native people among missing persons cases. Meanwhile, two years after Oklahoma passed a law to address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, the effort remains largely unfunded. We’ll assess how some specific programs are progressing after a high profile push to address law enforcement disparities.

GUESTS

Charlene Aqpik Apok (Inupiaq), executive director of Data for Indigenous Justice

Kendra Kloster (Tlingit), co-director of law and policy at the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center

LaRenda Morgan (Cheyenne and Arapaho), cousin of Ida Beard and advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Break 1 Music: Red Dress (feat. Chantal Kreviazuk) (song) Amanda Rheaume (artist) Red Dress (feat. Chantal Kreviazuk) (single)

Break 2 Music: Memory Lane (song) Nitanis “Kit” Largo (artist) Serenity (album)

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Many low-income families got an unwelcome surprise after supplemental COVID food security programs expired earlier this year. Funds available for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dropped to a fraction of what they were previously. Suddenly, people didn’t have enough to eat and no remedies in sight. Those cuts hit Native American families hardest, as they have a much higher percentage of SNAP participation than the population as a whole.

GUESTS

Karmela Martinez (San Ildefonso), director of the income support division at the New Mexico Human Services Department

Toni Stanger-McLaughlin (Colville Tribe), CEO of Native American Agriculture Fund and board member of Feeding America

Break 1 Music: Ch’iya’a’n Biyiin/Native Food Song (song) Radmilla & Herman Cody (artist) Shi Kéyah (album)

Break 2 Music: Memory Lane (song) Nitanis “Kit” Largo (artist) Serenity (album)