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Native borrowers have a number of choices beyond the bank loan to finance big items like homes and starting a business. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce looks at who’s eligible for various alternative financing options and whether they’re appropriate for your next major endeavor with Jaime Gloshay (Navajo, White Mountain Apache, and Kiowa), co-founder of Native Women Lead; Jodi Fisher (Wyandotte), senior projects manager at First Nations Community Financial; and Russ Seagle, executive director of the Sequoyah Fund.

Break 1 music: Five Kiowa “49” Dance Songs (song) Bill Koomsa, Sr. & Kiowa Dance Group Singers (artist) Kiowa – Traditional Kiowa Songs (album)

Break 2 music: Beat Goes On (song) Donna Kay (artist) The Journey (album)

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Nicole Aunapu Mann is scheduled to become the first Indigenous woman in space later this month with the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew Dragon. The Wailacki Nation astronaut is headed to the International Space Station as the mission commander. The space flight also comes as NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope is providing awe-inspiring images and scientific revelations that promise new insights into the origins of the universe. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce hears from Dr. Aaron Yazzie (Diné), mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; George Gorospe (Laguna Pueblo), senior research engineer at NASA Ames Research Center; and Edward Gonzales (Apache and Mexican), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lead for NASA about how Native people are playing bigger roles in major space exploration advances.

 

Break 1 music: Mud & Stardust (song) Fly My Pretties (artist) String Theory (The Complete Show) (album)

Break 2 music: Beat Goes On (song) Donna Kay (artist) The Journey (album)

Watch Antonia Gonzales’ interview with Commander Mann

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TheRA11N, Pooky G, She Rōze, and Sten Joddi are some of the artists who won big this year at the annual International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce gets to know some of the artists and hear their perspectives of the awards and the direction of Native Hip Hop with Melody McArthur (Big Stone Cree Nation), Best R&B Single of the Year winner; Sten Joddi (Muscogee Creek from Oklahoma), Best Male Artist of the Year winner, tattoo artist, musician, rapper, actor, and entrepreneur; Roni Gauthier AKA Pooky G (Treaty 6, Misquitchi weskiegen First Nation), Best Hip Hop Album of the Year winner, hip hop artist, model, and actor; and Michelle Lee Runns AKA MZShellz (Cree), Best Female Artist of the Year winner, hip-hop artist, and owner of “Native by Nature” apparel.  

Break 1 music: Wildling (song) Melody McArthur (artist) Kizmet (album)

Break 2 music: Mirror Song (song) Michael Heralda (artist) Miccailhuitl (album)

 

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A number of Native DIY-ers are taking on what is traditionally the largest expense of their lives: their own home. By putting the work in, homeowners are reducing their mortgages – or eliminating it altogether. One initiative also has home owner/builders share their experience with others just getting started. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce speaks with those who are sweating it out like Carmirae Holguin (Diné), co-founder and executive director of the Nááts’íilid Initiative, and Bettina Sandoval (Pueblo), who is in the process of building her own home.

Break 1 music: We’re Going Home (song) Clark Tenakhongva (artist) Hear My Song, Hear My Prayer – Songs from the Hopi Mesas (album)

Break 2 music: Mirror Song (song) Michael Heralda (artist) Miccailhuitl (album)

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The failed water treatment system in Jackson, Miss. disproportionately affects that state’s Black residents. The crisis there is a reminder of the dozens of failed drinking water systems for tribes across the country. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce examines the lingering problem of failing to provide the most basic utility for all of America’s residents with State Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr. (D-MS), executive director for New Horizon Ministries Incorporated; Dr. Carrie Nuva Joseph (Hopi), director of the department of natural resources for the Hopi tribe; Clayton Dumont Jr. (Klamath), chairman of the Klamath Tribes; Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell; and Dr. Tommy Rock (Diné), environmental scientist and postdoctoral researcher fellow at Princeton University.

Break 1 music: Water Is Life (single song) Native Roots, Joy Harjo, Def-I & Innastate (artist)

Break 2 Music: Mirror Song (song) Michael Heralda (artist) Miccailhuitl (album)

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As the nation’s mental health crisis worsens, Native American youth are those at highest risk. Native Americans and Alaska Natives have the highest suicide rate of any other group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list suicide as the second leading cause of death for Native people between the ages of 10 and 34. National experts warn mental health has reached emergency crisis levels. The good news is there are increasing numbers of tools and methods to fight the problem.

Tuesday on Native America Calling, as part of National Suicide Prevention Week, Shawn Spruce looks at the factors contributing to the problem and what is available to turn it around with Cheyenne Kippenberger (Seminole), communications coordinator for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute; Dr. Mark Standing Eagle Baez (Mohawk, Pawnee, Coahuiltecan and Mexican descent), assistant professor of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Bemidji State University; and behavioral health consultant Ray Daw (Diné).

Break 1 music:  Consumed by the Blues (song) The Osceola Brothers (artist) Out of Nowhere (album)

Break 2 Music: Mirror Song (song) Michael Heralda (artist) Miccailhuitl (album)

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From the rich colors used in Navajo weaving to all the colors of the rainbow beaded into medallions and regalia, Indigenous hues carry meaning, stories, and emotion. Some colors specific to tribes represent the available animals, plants, and minerals used to make them. This Labor Day on Native America Calling in a special encore presentation, Shawn Spruce talks with Native artists about traditional and contemporary meanings, sources, and uses of color: Anong Beam (M’Chigeeng), founder of Beam Paints; Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo), founder and technologist at alterNative Media; Zefren Anderson (Diné), experimental archaeological weaver and silversmith.

 

Break 1 music: Dancing Colors (song) Black Eagle (artist) Flying Free (album)

Break 2 music: Mirror Song (song) Michael Heralda (artist) Miccailhuitl (album)

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Depression and anxiety disorders are on the rise — and there is little progress in reducing the effects of historical trauma among Native Americans. There are, however, a number of potential solutions that are providing results in relieving what has become a mental health crisis. Art therapy is an effective means to relieve mental health trauma, particularly among people who have difficulty expressing their concerns verbally. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce hears about efforts to use artistic expression as a mean to help Native Americans’ mental health with First Nations art educator Michael “Cy” Cywink (Odawa Anishinaabe); Carey MacCarthy, founder and CEO of Start Up! Art Therapy and the Indigenous Healing Arts Alliance; and Danielle Rose (Cheyenne River Sioux), clinical social worker, addictions counselor, and auricular acupuncturist.

Break 1 music: Eternal Circle (song) Spirit Voices/Ceshia Anaquod (artist) Spirit Voices (album)

Break 2 music: Tataria (song) Gabriel Ayala (artist) Shades of Blue (album)

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The Native American Rights Fund and other organizations filed a legal challenge against the state for discounting ballots in a way that disproportionately affects Alaska Native voters. The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld voter restrictions in the state constitution originally instituted by white supremacists specifically to limit participation by people of color. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce gets a rundown of the evolving landscape of voter restrictions that affect Native Americans with Megan Condon, staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund; O.J. Semans Sr. (Rosebud Sioux), co-executive director of Four Directions Vote; and Nicole Donaghy (Hunkpapa Lakota), executive director of North Dakota Native Vote.

Break 1 music:  Get Up Stand Up (song) Bailey Wiley, Che Fu, King Kapisi, Laughton Kora, Maisey Rika & Tiki Taane (artist)

Break 2 music: Tataria (song) Gabriel Ayala (artist) Shades of Blue (album)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:50 — 38.3MB) | Embed

Just in time for the mid-term elections, President Joe Biden announced his executive action to extend the current student loan payment pause until January and forgive up to $20,000 of debt. It’s a compromise between the full forgiveness pushed for years by progressive Democrats and the inflationary concerns of moderate Democrats and conservative Republicans. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce gets an assessment for what’s in the student loan forgiveness plan, who qualifies, and what it might do for current and future Native college students with Carmen Lopez (Navajo), executive director of College Horizons and Graduate Horizons, and Carrie Billy (Navajo), CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

Break 1 Music: Go My Son (ill Franklyn Remix) (single) Ill Franklyn (artist)

Break 2 music: Tataria (song) Gabriel Ayala (artist) Shades of Blue (album)