Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:43 — 38.3MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

There’s a fair amount of romanticizing historical outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James. A fistful of Native Americans like Cherokee Bill, Willie Boy, and Henry Lowry were among the criminals who terrorized citizens on their own or as part of a gang of ne’er-do-wells. Some were lawless marauders out for their own gain. Others were folk heroes who railed against Colonial oppression.

Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Nancy Fields (Lumbee), director and curator at The Museum of the Southeast American Indian; elder John Anderson (Potawatomi), great-grandson of a Bly gang victim and chairman emeritus and director at F&M bank in central Oklahoma; elder Matthew Leivas Sr (Chemehuevi), member of The Cultural Conservancy; and author and historian Art T. Burton.

Break 1 music: Mean Things Happenin’ in This World (song) Blackfire (artist) Woody Guthrie Singles (album)

Break 2 music: Don’t Make Trouble in Your Heart (song) Cheevers Toppah (artist) Renewed Spirit – Harmonized Church Hymns of The Kiowa (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:34 — 38.2MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the latest institution going through a repatriation process starting this month. The museum, which has dozens of human remains and hundreds of Indigenous funerary objects in its collection, hasn’t been in compliance with NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act of 1990.  The University of Montana-Missoula handed over a handful of items that will now be in the care of the Fort Peck Interpretive Center. The tribes continue to fight for the remainder of the university’s Native collections. Several other institutions still have collections containing thousands of human remains and objects that fall under NAGPRA but it’s been slow work by tribes to get them back.

Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks with Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw), executive director of the Association on American Indian Affairs; Steve Murray, director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History; and Dyan Youpee (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota), Fort Peck Tribes cultural resource director and tribal historic preservation officer about current efforts.

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

Break 2 music: Don’t Make Trouble in Your Heart (song) Cheevers Toppah (artist) Renewed Spirit – Harmonized Church Hymns of The Kiowa (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:43 — 38.3MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

The new legislation just signed into law includes unprecedented investment into measures intended to reduce climate change. It sends millions of dollars to tribal projects, but also keeps in place reliance on polluters. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce finds how the Inflation Reduction Act is a boost for the planet with Pilar Thomas (Pascua Yaqui), partner in the Quarles and Brady law firm’s Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Practice Group and a law professor at Arizona State University; Jordan Harmon (Muscogee Creek), policy analyst and legislative advocate for the Indigenous Environmental Network; Brett Isaac (Diné), executive chairman at Navajo Power; and Jill Sherman-Warne (Hoopa), executive director for the Native American Environmental Protection Coalition and a Hoopa tribal councilmember.

Break 1 music: Earth Song (song) Elizabeth Hill (artist) Peacemakers Lullaby (album)

Break 2 music: Don’t Make Trouble in Your Heart (song) Cheevers Toppah (artist) Renewed Spirit – Harmonized Church Hymns of The Kiowa (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:13 — 38.6MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

The resurgence of language revitalization helps keep cultural connections and exercise sovereignty. Those connections are diminished somewhat for those who are visually impaired and can’t read the written page. But there are those who are taking on the work of merging Native languages with braille, extending the full power of their culture to more of their citizens. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Carol Begay Green (Diné), teacher of students with visual impairments at Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind; students Heather Joe and Bryant Becenti (Diné); and Christine Muise, contract Braille transcriber and tactile illustrator.

Break 1 Music: The Four Essential Elements (Diigo Bee’iináanii) (song) Radmilla Cody (artist) K’é Hasin (album)

Break 2 music: Don’t Make Trouble In Your Heart (song) Cheevers Toppah (artist) Renewed Spirit – Harmonized Church Hymns of The Kiowa (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:51 — 38.4MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

A federal court ruling has implications for Southeast Alaska commercial salmon fishing. The ruling says federal fisheries officials neglected to consider dwindling orca populations when approving Chinook salmon harvests. At the same time, tribes in the Pacific Northwest are putting additional pressure on federal officials to come up with a sustainable plan for endangered salmon in the Snake River system. Wednesday on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce gets updates on trouble spots for salmon with Bob Chamberlin (Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis), chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance and previous vice president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs; Michael Orcutt (Hupa), fisheries department director for the Hoopa Valley Tribe; and Olivia Ebertz, KYUK news reporter.

Break 1 music: Cissy (Fish/Smoke Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

Break 2 Music: On the Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:25 — 38.7MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

During his peak, Elvis Presley’s appeal crossed cultural boundaries. His profound popularity continues to resonate with many Native Americans, including a handful who are Elvis tribute artists and a hilarious Elvis reference in the hit series Dark Winds. On the anniversary of his death in 1977, Shawn Spruce checks in with Elvis fans about what the King of Rock and Roll means to them these many years later and speaks with Gerry “Ojibwe Elvis” Barrett (Saugeen First Nation), musician, stand-up comedian, veteran radio personality, and Elvis tribute artist; Donovin Sprague (Cheyenne River Sioux), professor of history at Sheridan College, musician, and Elvis aficionado; Michael Loman aka NDN Elvis (Choctaw); and in a pre-recorded conversation due to his Australian time zone, Elvis tribute artist Len Connolly (Wiraadjuri).

Break 1 Music: Truck Stop Cheii (song) James Bilagody (artist) Sacred Stage (album)

Break 2 Music: On the Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:29 — 38.1MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

With some success, Native Americans have fought hard to have their voices heard in the narratives about them by predominantly non-Native sources. Those gains are under assault by a new surge of efforts to ban books by Native authors and other works that challenge colonial conventional wisdom. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce gets a sampling of books that well-meaning parents, administrators, and policy-makers want to keep off of school reading lists and public spaces with Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo), founder of American Indians in Children’s Literature blog; Kevin Maillard (Seminole), author and professor of Law at Syracuse University; Mandi Harris (Cherokee), a children’s librarian and PhD student in Information Science at the University of Washington; and Lynette Dial (Lumbee), a library supervisor for Hoke County Library.

Break 1 Music: The Last World of Fire and Trash (song) Joy Harjo (artist) Native Joy for Real (album)

Break 2 Music: On the Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:31 — 38.1MB) | Embed

Host: Shawn Spruce

The fragile-looking Monarch butterfly possesses a strength and resilience that allows it to survive a migration that covers thousands of miles through the heart of the country. That resilience is now put to the test, as habitat destruction and climate change have made it necessary to officially list the insect’s status as “endangered”. Tribes are among those helping to protect Monarchs, for both cultural and environmental reasons. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with Jane Breckinridge (Muscogee Creek Nation and Yuchi), director of the Tribal Environmental Action for Monarchs (TEAM); artist and designer Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota); Melanie Kirby, extension educator at the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA); and Kevin Pourier (Oglala Lakota), a buffalo horn artist.

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

Break 2 music: Nitohta (song) Asani (artist) Listen (album)