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It’s coming down to the wire for the South Dakota State Board of Education Standards to decide on the social studies standards submitted by the state Department of Education. Those standards took out many references to Indigenous history recommended by a workgroup comprised of tribal representatives and educators from across the state. Tuesday on Native America Calling, we find out why South Dakota’s nine tribes and the state School Superintendents Association oppose the standards as written with Dr. Sherry Johnson, education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate); Sarah White (Oglala Lakota), executive director of the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition; and Josie Green (Oglala Lakota), executive director for Waawanglake, the South Dakota region of Teach for America.

Break 1 music: New Way Of Life (song) William Horncloud (artist) Rabbit Dance Songs Of The Lakota (album)

Break 2 music: A Song for Mosom (song) Fawn Wood Featuring Alan DiPerna (artist) Kikāwiynaw (album)

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Researchers and environmental advocates don’t know much yet about mining minerals off the bottom of the ocean floor, but the race to learn is on because large mining companies will soon start scooping up unrefined cobalt, manganese, copper, and nickel from the sea bed to help satisfy growing demand for such metals for things like batteries. The environmental activist group Greenpeace lists Indigenous groups from at least 34 nations that have come out against the practice. Today on Native America Calling, we do a deep dive with Dr. Brittany Kamai (Native Hawaiian), astrophysicist, water woman, and ocean advocate, and Noah Paoa (Rapa Nui), Ph.D candidate with a focus on sea level rise at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

Break 1 music: No Ko’olau Ku’u Aloha (song) Mailani (artist) Manawa (album)

Break 2 music: A Song for Mosom (song) Fawn Wood Featuring Alan DiPerna (artist) Kikāwiynaw (album)

 

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When the United States took action to preserve what is now known as Yosemite National Park, they encountered a major problem: it was home to a number of Indigenous people from several tribes. The federal government expelled the Native residents. Some right away, others over time. It’s a scene that continues to play out across the globe. Today on Native America Calling, we take a look at a new graphic comic by Gord Hill (member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation) and a series of articles from Grist which reveal the bloody legacy of conservation in light of the current push to preserve 30% of the Earth’s land by 2030 with Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa), editor-at-large at Grist; environmental journalist Blanca Begert; and Maria Parazo Rose, spatial data analyst at Grist.

Break 1 music: Original Gourd Song Sung By The Old Warriors (song) Kiowa Tiapiah Society (artist) Kiowa Gourd Dance Vol. 1 (album)

Break 2 music: Heeia (song) Henry Kapono (artist) The Wild Hawaiian (album)

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The nation’s largest federally-owned public utility is making moves to repatriate nearly 4,800 human remains and 1,400 ceremonial objects. It is just a portion of what ProPublica reports is the 8th largest collection of unrepatriated Native American remains in the U.S. held by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). TVA collected the remains it encountered as it developed land in at least three states. The agency, and five affiliate institutions including the University of Tennessee, are holding the remains. Today on Native America Calling, we learn more about this major repatriation effort with Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw), attorney and CEO of the Association on American Indian Affairs; Meg Cook, TVA senior archaeologists and NAGPRA; and Marianne Shuler, TVA senior specialist and tribal liaison.

Break 1 music:  Reunion (song) Samantha Crain (artist) A Small Death (album)

Break 2 music: Heeia (song) Henry Kapono (artist) The Wild Hawaiian (album)

 

 

 

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After removal from their home and an arduous and deadly forced march, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation arrived in Oklahoma with little more than a promise that they could revive and rebuild their homeland. Now, a century and a half later, the U.S. Supreme Court re-established the keystone of that promise in the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision that reasserted Muscogee agency over the land provided in treaty. Today on Native America Calling, Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), law professor at Arizona State University and tribal judge. and Robbie Ethridge, professor emerita of anthropology at University of Mississippi, explore the importance of the decision in its historical and legal context, as laid out in their new book A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt V. Oklahoma.

Break 1 Music: Stomp Dance (song) Various Artists (artist) Stomp Dance Songs Of The Muscogee Nation, Volume 1 (album)

Break 2 music: Heeia (song) Henry Kapono (artist) The Wild Hawaiian (album)

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A new study confirms many tribes’ oral histories that Native Americans utilized horses long before Europeans entered the picture. Previous theories attributed Spanish settlers with introducing horses to the Indigenous people they encountered in North America. Today on Native America Calling, we dig into a new study, published in the journal Science, that finds anthropological evidence which suggests tribes domesticated horses almost a century before the Spanish brought horses to tribes in New Mexico with Chance Ward (Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), grad student at the University of Colorado Boulder and a graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History; Carlton Shield Chief Gover (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma), assistant professor of anthropology at Indiana University and curator of public archaeology at the Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; Yvette Running Horse Collin (Oglala Lakota Nation), Executive Director and Principle Science Officer of Taku Škaŋ Škaŋ Wasakliapi: Global Institute for Traditional Sciences; and Will Taylor, Assistant Professor, Curator of Archaeology, University of Colorado Boulder.

Break 1 music: For the Horses (song) Randy Wood (artist) My Heart & Soul (album)

Break 2 music: Heeia (song) Henry Kapono (artist) The Wild Hawaiian (album)

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A proposed gold mine in southwest Alaska promises riches for investors and Alaska Native workers alike over nearly three decades. The open pit Donlin Gold Mine has the necessary federal permits in place. But several Alaska Native villages and environmental groups say the cost to retrieve the gold is too high, harming the health and livelihoods of the people who live there. A coalition of tribal and environmental groups are suing to halt the mine. Today on Native America Calling, we hear more about the history, economic promise, and potential threats to the people, wilderness, and wildlife the Donlin Gold Mine poses with Thom Leonard (Tribal member, Chevak Native Village), Calista Vice President of Corporate Affairs; Tisha Kuhns (Tribal member, Akiachak Native Community), Calista Vice President of Land and Natural Resources; Tom Waldo, senior advisor for Earthjustice and the tribes; Sophie Swope (Yup’ik), director of Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition; Council member and elder John Andrew (village of Kwethluk); and Organized Village of Kwethluk president Boris Epchook.

Break 1 music: Cauyaqa Nauwa (Where’s My Drum) (song) Pamyua (artist) Drums of The North: Traditional Yup’ik Songs (album)

Break 2 music: Heeia (song) Henry Kapono (artist) The Wild Hawaiian (album)

 

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This week the Reservation Economic Summit (RES) is celebrating the new class of Native 40 under 40. The annual group selected by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development includes attorneys, educators, business owners, visionaries, and elected leaders who are making a difference in their respective communities, including Andi Murphy, our own senior producer and host of the Toasted Sister podcast. Today on Native America Calling, we meet Travis Ruiz (Cheyenne and Arapaho), speaker of the legislator for the Arapaho District 3 of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes; model and activist Quannah Rose Chasinghorse (Hän Gwich’in and Sicangu-Oglala Lakota); and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren (Diné).

Break 1 music: The Move (song) DDAT (artist) DDAT (album)

Break 2 music: Five Kiowa “49” Dance Songs (song) Bill Koomsa, Sr. & Kiowa Dance Group Singers (artist) Kiowa – Traditional Kiowa Songs (album)

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Spring is the time when many Native athletes dust off their running shoes and compete in events like the 400-meter sprint, hurdles, relay, high jump, and shot put. Today on Native America Calling, we speak with Kutoven “Ku” Stevens (Yerington Paiute), cross country runner at the University of Oregon; Ahli-sha Stephens (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), Cherokee High School head track and field coach and head cross country coach (boys and girls); Tiajhae Nez (Navajo), Haskell Indian Nations University sophomore and long-distance runner; and Jeremy Bockus (Blackfeet), Haskell Indian Nations University freshman and middle distance runner.

Break 1 music: Learned from the Late Ernest Redbird, Sr. (song) Kenneth Cozad & Group (artist) Songs of Our Old People – Old-Time Round Dance Songs of Oklahoma (album)

Break 2 music: Five Kiowa “49” Dance Songs (song) Bill Koomsa, Sr. & Kiowa Dance Group Singers (artist) Kiowa – Traditional Kiowa Songs (album)

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For Native folx, raising public awareness about the importance of hair is an ongoing struggle. Some North Carolina families are fighting a school policy that says their first graders must cut their hair. Their parents say the school is forcing the boys to give up an important part of their culture. A Native hair dresser helped change policy about hair in her states. And bestselling author Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe/Métis) and illustrator Steph Littlebird (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) are working to inform people with their children’s book My Powerful Hair. Today on Native America Calling, we check in on the meaning and importance of Native hair with Carole Lindstrom, author of My Powerful Hair; Ashley Lomboy (Waccamaw Siouan), mother of Logan Lomboy; and Afro-Indigenous activist Amber Starks (Muscogee Creek Nation and African-American) in a pre-recorded interview.

Break 1 music: Metropolis (Mix) The Halluci-nation (artist)

Break 2 music: Five Kiowa “49” Dance Songs (song) Bill Koomsa, Sr. & Kiowa Dance Group Singers (artist) Kiowa – Traditional Kiowa Songs (album)