Native America Calling

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 – Uranium: threat and promise

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Remnants of more than 500 uranium mines on the Navajo Nation have been a threat to residents for decades. But on the horizon is the promise of jobs and economic development funded by corporate settlements and federal sources to clean up the tailings and other contaminated waste left behind. There are many details and concerns to be worked out, but some Native entrepreneurs are laying the groundwork for a brighter, safer future.

 

GUESTS

Marjorie Childress, managing editor for New Mexico In Depth

Dariel Yazzie (Diné), environmental program supervisor for the Navajo EPA Superfund Program

Rose Rohrer, research scientist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Mexico

Dr. Abhishek Roychowdhury, assistant professor of environmental science and natural resources at Navajo Technical University

 

Read UNMBBER’s 2020 report THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF URANIUM MINE CLEANUP IN NEW MEXICO

 

 

BROADCAST BREAK MUSIC

Break 1: 5TH WORLD ORDER instrumental (song) Randy Boogie (artist) THE BLESSINGWAY BOOGIE (Deluxe Edition) (album)

Break 2: Smoke Dance One (feat. Frazer Sundown) (song) DJ Shub (artist) PowWowStep EP (album)

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 – The future of the Great Salt Lake

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Long before it became the inspiration to build what became Utah’s largest city, the Great Salt Lake was an important place for the Ute, Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone nations among many others. Now, the lake is at half the volume it was just a few decades ago and it continues to shrink. Ongoing climate change and over committed water resources point to a future without the lake recovering to its ideal volume.

 

GUESTS
Tamra Borchardt-Slayton (Paiute), Vice-Chairperson of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and Chairperson of the Indian Peaks Band
Darren Parry (Shoshone), Former Chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
Break 1 music: Biioo pahna (Healing Song) (song) Judy Trejo (artist) Circle Dance Songs of the Paiute and Shoshone (song)
Break 2: Smoke Dance One (feat. Frazer Sundown) (song) DJ Shub (artist) PowWowStep EP (album)

Monday, April 4, 2022 – Pivot art exhibition: balancing traditional and contemporary

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Native graphics and images are at the heart of the new art exhibition “Pivot” at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. What’s different is the images are all on skateboard decks. The creators of the show say it melds together the resilient Native work adapted to a decidedly non-Native medium.

 

GUESTS

Landis Bahe (Diné/Navajo), creator and co-curator of the PIVOT exhibit, tattoo artist and painter

Kandis Quam (Zuni), co-curator of the PIVOT exhibit

Elroy Natachu Jr. (Zuni), artist

Mallery Quetawki (Zuni), artist

 

Break 1 Music: Just Lie Down (song) Black Belt Eagle Scout (artist) Mother of My child (album)

Break 2 music: Smoke Dance One (feat. Frazer Sundown) (song) DJ Shub (artist) PowWowStep EP (album)

 

Friday, April 1, 2022 – Just kidding

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Host: Shawn Spruce

It’s the day to question (more than usual) every news article, social media post, and conversation. Every year, April Fools’ Day recalibrates our gullibility meter. We’ll spend an hour getting the absolute truth from Native comedians and others about what makes things funny.

 

GUESTS

Howie Miller (Cree from the Paul Band First Nation) – comedian and actor

Darrell Lawrence Felipe (Acoma Pueblo) – entertainer

Rob Fairbanks (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) – comedian known as The Rez Reporter

Brett Mooswa (Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation) – comedian

 

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

Break 2 Music: 10000 Generations (song) Khu.éex’ (artist)

Thursday, March 31, 2022 – Indigenous farmworkers

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Itinerant farm work means putting in long, hard hours. It’s a job most people pass up. But it’s long been an avenue for employment for people from south of the U.S. border. Numbers are hard to come by, but one survey found the number of Indigenous farmworkers in California alone reached 140,000. On a day set aside to recognize noted farmworker advocate Cesar Chavez, we’ll get a better understanding of the role Indigenous people play in working the nation’s agricultural economy.

 

GUESTS

Chuy Martinez, cultural activist and a co-founder of the Recuerda a César Chávez Committee

Matt Nelson, executive director of Presente.org

Felipe Guevara, workers’ rights attorney at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty

Rosalinda Guillen, founder of Community to Community

 

BREAK MUSIC (BROADCAST ONLY)

Break 1: People of the Sun (song) Rage Against the Machine (artist) Evil Empire (album)

Break 2: 10000 Generations (song) Khu.éex’ (artist)

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 – The wrestling tradition

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Native Americans are well-represented on the wrestling mat at the high school and college levels. The NCAA wrestling championships have just ended and athletes and coaches are already eyeing prospects for next season. We’ll hear about notable Native wrestlers and find out the appeal wrestling presents for Native athletes.

 

 

GUESTS

Mark Branch (Kaw Nation) – head wrestling coach for the University of Wyoming Cowboys

Kirk Bahr, outgoing wrestling coach at Menominee Indian High School in Shawano, WI

Zach Blankenship (Cherokee and Navajo) – senior at Bixby Oklahoma High School and a wrestling recruit for Oklahoma State University

Seth Duckworth (Muscogee (Creek) Nation) – wrestling reporter for Pistols Firing

 

Break 1 Music: Electric Pow Wow Drum (song) The Halluci Nation (artist) A Tribe Called Red (album)

Break 2 music: 10000 Generations (song) Khu.éex’ (artist)

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 – Recognizing Native Vietnam veterans

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Host: Shawn Spruce

More than 42,000 Native Americans fought in Vietnam. Nearly all were volunteers. We’ll take time on Vietnam Veterans Day to honor all those who served during what was initially called “a policy action” – and hear the stories of heroism and healing from and about those who were there.

 

GUESTS

Michael Coon (Muskogee Creek ) – Vietnam War-era veteran

Tinisha Mitchell (Muskogee) – president of the Broken Arrow Intertribal Veterans Association

Walter Larney (Absentee Shawnee and Seminole) – lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps

Gerald Williams (Seminole) – Cold War veteran

 

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

Break 2 music: 10000 Generations (song) Khu.éex’ (artist)

Monday, March 28, 2022 – Setbacks for basic respect

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Host: Shawn Spruce

A series of troubling incidents around the country appear to harken to a time of unchecked discrimination, racism and basic disregard for Native people. A South Dakota hotel owner publicly announces a ban on all Native Americans. Students at an Oklahoma school forcibly cut off a Kickapoo first grader’s hair. And a Texas high school doubles down on fake headdresses and other made-up imagery to bolster its “Cherokee values” brand. How, after all the media interviews, op-eds, awareness campaigns and personal pleas for change, can such ignorance of fundamental respect keep surfacing in 2022?

GUESTS

Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation) – attorney and co-founder of Not Your Mascot

Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota) – CEO of the NDN Collective

 

Break 1 music: The Real People (song) RiverFlowz (artist) RiverFlowz (album)

Break 2 music: 10000 Generations (song) Khu.éex’ (artist)

Friday, March 25, 2022 – The Menu: Pyet DeSpain, shellfishing rights, and Native food videos

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Host: Andi Murphy

Chef Pyet DeSpain takes cooking to the Next Level, Tulalip citizens are cleared of illegal shellfish trafficking, and a Midwest tribal consortium gets funding to create cultural instructional videos. Those are some of the food highlights that are on The Menu with our resident foodie Andi Murphy.

 

 

GUESTS

Jerry Jondreau (Wiikwedong), owner of Dynamite Hill Farm

Joey VanAlstine (Little Travers Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), chairman of Ziibimijwang Inc. and vice president of the of the National Association of Food Distribution Programs on Indian Reservations

Hazen Shopbell (Tulalip), sitting council member for the Tulalip Tribes, entrepreneur and treaty fighter

Mentioned during the show:

Article: “Tribal leaders allege state intentionally ignores treaty rights”

Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan’s “Anishinaabek Cooking Resources”

Chef Stephanie Pyet DeSpain on the Toasted Sister Podcast:

Break 1 Music: The Menu Song (song) Arigon Starr (artist) The Red Road – Original Cast Recording (album)

Break 2 music: Sisters (song) The Halluci Nation (artist) Nation II Nation (album)

Thursday, March 24, 2022 – Everything costs more

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Host: Shawn Spruce

Affording the basics is becoming harder every day as inflation continues to creep higher. Add to that the rising costs for gas and lingering supply-chain breakdowns. And a new study reminds us that people of color pay a steeper cost during economic hard times than the rest of the population. Shawn Spruce examines where and how inflation is surfacing and points out some hopeful signs that put the current financial concerns in context. This is an encore show so we won’t be taking live phone calls)

GUESTS

Eric Henson, research fellow at The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and lecturer at Harvard University

Toni Stanger-McLaughlin, CEO of the Native America Agriculture Fund

Richard Driskell, director for retail operations for FireLake Discount Foods and the FireLake Express Grocery stores in Tecumseh and McLoud for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Break 1 Music: Oldest Rabbit Dance Song (song) William Horncloud (artist) Rabbit Dance Songs of The Lakota (album)

Break 2 music: Sisters (song) The Halluci Nation (artist) Nation II Nation (album)

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