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Taking on motherhood-by-marriage comes with its own rewards and challenges. The bond between a woman and her partner’s children is often strong and fulfilling. But it might take some informed effort to get there. We take a special focus on stepmothers as we head into Mother’s Day.

GUESTS

Paula Johnson-Jefferson (Samson Cree), small business owner, wife, and stepmother   

Nico Williams (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), chef and stepmother

Dr. Roger Kuhn (Poarch Band of Creek Indians), licensed marriage and family therapist and college professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University

Rebecca Spradlin (Prairie Band Potawatomi), student and storyteller working in media

Break 1 music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

Break 2 music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

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

It’s the time of year for graduations in small, reservation high school auditoriums, big city convention centers, tribal college quads, and manicured Ivy League grounds. It will be a year with and without regalia, depending on where you are. Native graduates are taking the next step in their educational journey.

GUESTS:

Dr. Lennon Audrain (Cherokee and Shawnee), assistant research professor at Arizona State University and high school teacher at Mesa Public Schools

Keely Jones Aliseo (Lumbee), UNC Pembroke graduate and recent Army ROTC second lieutenant

Jay Locklear (Lumbee), bachelor’s in mass communication

Dr. Johnny Poolaw (Delaware, Chiricahua Apache, Comanche, Kiowa), Director of Student Success for American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)

AJ Begay (Diné), recent graduate of Ft. Lewis College

 

Break 1 music: Sisters (song) The Halluci-Nation (artist) Nation II Nation (album)

Break 2 music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

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

Indigenous activists in Central and South America are literally putting their lives on the line trying to protect their land and culture. Places like Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, and parts of Mexico are rife with murders and disappearances of Indigenous people speaking up to save their land and people from large scale mining operations, logging, and other extractive industries. In many cases, those responsible are never brought to justice. We’ll explore the factors that contribute to the threat to Indigenous people standing up against corporate development.

GUESTS

María Martin, award-winning multimedia journalist, founding executive director of Latino USA, and director of GraciasVida Center for Media

Nati Garcia (Maya Mam), capacity building manager for Cultural Survival

Edson Krenak (Krenak), Cultural Survival lead on Brazil

Américo Mendoza–Mori, scholar who teaches Indigenous and Latinx issues at Harvard University

 

Break 1 music: Mundo Enganador (song) Quetzal Guerrero (artist) Coiza Boa (album)

Break 2 music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

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For more than 30 years, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act has been an important tool for protecting the authenticity and economic value of work produced by Native Americans. It also helps buyers know they’re getting what they pay for. Now the U.S Department of Interior is reviewing the law and among the outstanding questions is whether it goes far enough. Should artwork from state-recognized tribal artists be excluded as authentic? How should artwork from Native Hawaiians be identified?

GUESTS

Chuck Hoskin Jr. (Cherokee Nation), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Dr. Sylvia Hussey (Native Hawaiian), chief executive officer for Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)

Rachel Cushman (member of the Chinook Indian Nation), tribal secretary and treasurer for the Chinook Indian Nation

Dr. Joe Candillo (Pascua Yaqui), owner of Authentic Native America Arts

 

Break 1 music: Intertribal (song) Sweetgrass (artist) Follow the Trial (album)

Break 2 music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

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Hawai’i has a long association with pineapples. Although the precious fruit likely came to the islands in the 18th Century, it wasn’t until industrialized agriculture arrived with the Dole corporation — backed by U.S. military support to overthrow the existing Hawaiian government — that the pineapple became so ubiquitous. Sugar cane has a similar role in colonizing places like Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, and the American Southeast with plantations that flourished at the expense of Indigenous people and culture.

GUESTS

José Barreiro (Taino), scholar emeritus from the Smithsonian Institution, writer and author of Taino: A Novel

Dr. Sydney Iaukea (Native Hawaiian), author of The Queen and I: A Story of Dispossessions and Reconnections in Hawaiʻi and Kekaʻa: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui

Dr. Gary Okihiro, visiting professor of American studies at Yale University; professor emeritus at Columbia University

 

Break 1 music: Taino-Arawak Welcome Song (song) Joan Henry (artist) Kanogisgi – Song-Carrier (album)

Break 2 music: Women’s Honoring Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

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After decades of drought, the Navajo and Apache reservations in Arizona are now recovering from flooding that destroyed homes and property. Tribes in California endured record-breaking rains and are bracing for overflowing rivers from mountain snowmelt. California flooding also threatened sacred tribal burial grounds. Tribes are working with state and federal sources to both prepare for such natural disasters and also recover from the devastating damage in the wake of climate change.

GUESTS

Lisa Christensen (Washoe tribal member), Washoe Tribe Emergency Operations Center operations planning chief

Dr. Crystal Tulley-Cordova (Diné), principal hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources

Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie (Diné), assistant professor of community and regional planning at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico

Sandra Warlie (Bishop Paiute Tribe), public works director for the Bishop Paiute Tribe

Brian Adkins, environmental director for the Bishop Paiute Tribe

 

Break 1 music: Sweet Grass Water Is Life (single song) Miracle Dolls (artist)

Break 2 music: The Beautiful Dance (song) Black Eagle (artist) Flying Free (album)

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Longform stories, deep dives into exclusive content, and vivid photos all presented on glossy pages are some of the reasons people continue to read magazines. Titles like “First American Art” and “Native Max” are among the Indigenous-led magazines in the evolving industry that mixes social media, online extras, and the printed page to keep readers coming back. We’ll talk with Native publishers about the continuing appeal of magazines.

GUESTS

America Meredith (enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation), publishing editor of First American Art Magazine, writer, visual artist, and independent curator

Kelly Holmes (Cheyenne River [Mnicoujou] Lakota), founder and editor-in-chief of Native Max Magazine

Montoya Whiteman (Cheyenne and Arapaho), managing director of editorial and special projects at American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)

Break Music:  Tha Chosen One (song) Southern Style (artist) Blacked Out (album)

 

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The Boy Scouts of America is asking its membership whether the organization should reconsider its long practice of incorporating Native words, concepts and ceremonial dances. We look at the organization’s history of problematic appropriation including headdresses, fake ceremonies, and public performances based on dances tribes consider sacred.  

GUESTS

Graham Lee Brewer (citizen of Cherokee Nation), investigative reporter for NBC News

Stewart Koyiyumptewa (Hopi), Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Hopi Tribe

Robert DesJarlait (Red Lake Ojibwe), writer, artist, and dancer

Chief Brad Kills Crow (Delaware Tribe of Indians), Chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians

Break 1 music:  I’M NOT A MASCOT – I’M NOT A STEREOTYPE – I’VE BEEN WATCHING (single song) Michael Bucher (artist)

Break 2 music: The Beautiful Dance (song) Black Eagle (artist) Flying Free (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:56 — 38.4MB) | Embed

The battle over transgender rights is playing out in school bathrooms, sports fields, and doctors’ offices. States are enacting strict rules over gender-affirming care, and trans athletes, and even dress codes. Many of the laws face legal challenges over constitutional bans on discrimination. Native trans and Two-Spirit people look at how the new trend could play out.

GUESTS

Mattee Jim (Diné), trans advocate  

Stephanie Byers (Chickasaw), former Kansas state representative for district 86   

Montana Wilson (Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, and Sioux), vice chair for Western Native Voice

 

Break 1 music: Two Spirit (song) Tony Enos (artist)

Break 2 music: The Beautiful Dance (song) Black Eagle (artist) Flying Free (album)