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The post Roe vs. Wade landscape changes some reproductive health choices, but informed planning about starting and building families remains the best chance for health outcomes for everyone concerned. The federal government recently distributed $350 million to states to help address health disparities for mothers and babies who are most at risk. Today on Native America Calling, we get updates from Captain Stacey Dawson, Senior Women’s Health Nurse Consultant for IHS Division of Nursing Services; Sarah Adams (citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), co-founder of Matriarch; Charon Asetoyer (Comanche), executive director and CEO of the Native American Community board, parent organization to the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center; and Nicole Martin (Navajo, Laguna, Chiricahua Apache, Zuni), co-founder and sex educator with Indigenous Women Rising.

Break 1 music: The Gift of Life (song) Randy Wood (artist) The Gift of Life (album)

Break 2 music: Soar (song) Injunuity (artist) Spirits (album)

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Increasing demand for electric vehicles and other electric storage devices makes lithium an important and valuable commodity. The metal is used in batteries. Today on Native America Calling, we learn about plans to expand the only lithium mine in the United States to meet the demand and why it’s considered an environmental and cultural affront to tribes in Nevada with Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Chairman Arlan Melendez; Ft. McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribal member Arlo Crutcher; and Gary McKinney (Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley), spokesperson for the People of Red Mountain and American Indian Movement Northern Nevada chapter member.

Break 1 music: Money Cannot Be Eaten (song) Rosary Spence (artist) Maskawisiwin (album)

Break 2 music: Soar (song) Injunuity (artist) Spirits (album)

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The research on the overrepresentation of Native Americans behind bars is long and vast. But a new report shows numbers that exceed what we’ve seen in the past: Native people are incarcerated at a rate 38% higher than the national average and are held in proportions higher than any other ethnic group in at least 19 states. Today on Native America Calling, we’ll look at how, according to the report, tribes and tribal courts are part of the problem and could be part of the solution with Nikcole Whipple (Round Valley Indian Tribe member), Justice Fellow at the Education Trust; Amber Miller, reentry staff attorney for the Yurok Tribal Court; and attorney Nikki Borchardt Campbell (Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and Ute Indian Tribe), executive director of the National American Indian Court Judges Association.

Break 1 music: Healing Song (song) Judy Trejo (artist) Circle Dance Songs of the Paiute and Shoshone (album)

Break 2 music: Soar (song) Injunuity (artist) Spirits (album)

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You already interact with artificial intelligence when you ask Siri for directions or create an algorithmic path by thumbing through TikTok videos. But AI is fast becoming a place for individual—and corporate—creativity and technology. That brings up a lot of questions about copyright protections for Native creatives and worries about appropriation. Today on Native America Calling, we look at how it all works with Michael Running Wolf (Lakota and Cheyenne), a Ph.D student studying computer science and a language advocate using AI; Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma), artist, technologist, and the Banks endowed chair and associate professor of artificial intelligence and the arts at the Digital Worlds Institute at the University of Florida; Dr. Jason Edward Lewis (Hawaiian, Samoan), university research chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada; and Suzanne Kite (Oglala Lakota), artist and organizer of the group Indigenous AI.

Break 1 music: Light Is All I Have (song) Indian Agent (artist) Meditations in the Key of Red (album)

Break 2 music: Soar (song) Injunuity (artist) Spirits (album)

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Alligators are known as large and fearsome reptiles. But they are also traditional touchstones and an important source of food for Southern and Southeastern tribes. Overhunting and human encroachment nearly drove the animal to extinction, but protections and habitat improvement helped them make a dramatic recovery. Today on Native America Calling, we’ll hear about ongoing tribal efforts to manage populations of the animal that continues to have an important and enduring connection with Everett Osceola (Seminole Tribe of Florida), cultural ambassador for the Seminole Tribe of Florida; Principal Chief Lora Ann Chaisson (United Houma Nation); and RJ Molinere (United Houma Nation), alligator hunter, arm wrestling champion, and star on the History Channel reality series “Swamp People”.

Break 1 music: Big Alligator (song) Chief Jim Billie (artist) Alligator Tales (album)

Break 2 music: Mistahi Mewasin (Really Delighted) (song) Young Spirit (artist) Akameyimoh Baby Boy (album)

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Montana—home to 12 federally recognized tribes—is the latest battleground over damaging rhetoric by public officials. One legislator floated a resolution calling on Congress to abolish reservations. The text was reportedly drafted by a businessman heading up what he calls “The States Rights Coalition”. Another official publicly questioned why Native Americans should be allowed to vote. He told a reporter that view is “the consensus opinion among conservatives” in the state. Today on Native America Calling, we’ll look at the continuing verbal, legal, and legislative affronts to tribal sovereignty based on outdated, stereotypical, and uninformed perspectives to which tribal officials are forced to respond with Ta’jin Perez (Totanac), deputy director for Western Native Voice; State Sen. Shane Morigeau (D-MT 48th/member of the Confederated Tribes of Salish and Kootenai Tribes); and State Sen. Susan Webber (D-MT 8th/member of the Blackfeet Nation).

Break 1 music: Wake Up Song (song) Voices of Salish & Ped d’Oreille Women (artist) Heart of the Bitterroot (album)

Break 2 music: Mistahi Mewasin (Really Delighted) (song) Young Spirit (artist) Akameyimoh Baby Boy (album)

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The Battle of Hayes Pond in 1958 wasn’t much of a battle. But it was a major victory in the effort to stop the momentum of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. Today on Native America Calling, on the 65^th anniversary of the night members of the Lumbee tribe showed up in force to stop a KKK rally in Robeson County, we’ll revisit the event and how it continues to be a source of strength and pride for a tribe as it struggles for federal recognition with Dr. Lawrence Locklear (Lumbee), director of the Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity and adjunct associate professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Dr. Ryan Emanuel (Lumbee), associate professor at Duke University; Chelsea Barnes (Lumbee), attorney and senior associate at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough; and Tammy Maynor (Lumbee), Director of Governmental Affairs for the Lumbee Tribe.

Break 1 Music: Remembering The Warrior (song) Porcupine Singers (artist) Alowanpi – Songs Of Honoring – Lakota Classics: Past & Present, Vol. 1 (album)

Break 2 music: Mistahi Mewasin (Really Delighted) (song) Young Spirit (artist) Akameyimoh Baby Boy (album)

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Native educators have a keen eye for guiding how schools teach students about Native history and culture. Does that experience also help when teaching Native students about other races and cultures? We’re well aware that colonial educational influences steered generations of students wrong when it comes to understanding Native people. Today on Native America Calling, we’ll find out what Native educators do to avoid the same mistakes with Jerad Koepp (Wukchumni), Native student program specialist and 2022 Washington state teacher of the year; Alberta Nells (Diné), art, social studies, and service learning teacher at the STAR School; Nate Taylor (Member of the Red Lake Nation), director of Red Lake’s Waasabiik Ojibwemotaadiwin Immersion Program and founder of Red Lake’s Charter School, Endazhi-Niitaawiging; and Zane Rosette (Chippewa-Cree tribal member), executive director of the Native American Community Academy.

Break 1 music: Pow Wow Song #7 (song) Red Lake Singers (artist) Old Times (album)

Break 2 music: Mistahi Mewasin (Really Delighted) (song) Young Spirit (artist) Akameyimoh Baby Boy (album)

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The creators of the new Avatar sequel continue what they see as a science fiction account of colonialism and Indigenous resistance. It’s getting plenty of pushback from Native audiences for some significant missteps. The good news is there are plenty of films, comics, and artwork from Native creators that have a more informed take. Today on Native America Calling, we’ll hear from artist Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo); Sadekaronhes Esquivel (Tyendinaga Mohawk), art lead and character designer for “Hill Agency: PURITYdecay”; Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo), artist and founder and technologist at alterNative Media; and Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), founder of A Tribe Called Geek and co-founding member of the Fan Organizer Coalition.

Break 1 music:  Tha Tribe (World) (song) Anthony Wakeman (artist) Butterfly Dreams – Native American Flute Music (album)

Break 2 music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)