Native America Calling

The Muscogee Nation will assume some law enforcement duties in the city of Tulsa, Okla., when it comes to tribal citizens. The development over jurisdiction ends a federal lawsuit filed by the Muscogee Nation in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark McGirt decision in 2020. The Cherokee and Osage Nations also potentially have jurisdiction claims in Tulsa and other cities. Local law enforcement officials and Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) oppose the agreement, saying it creates a two-tiered system of justice. We’ll find out what the new agreement solves and what it leaves unanswered.

Also, tribes connected to Florida are speaking out against the Trump administration’s fast track plans to establish a detention center for immigration actions near the Florida Everglades. Miccosukee and Seminole tribal officials and citizens say the center, dubbed the “Alligator Alcatraz,” infringes on land that is their “cultural, spiritual, and historical identity.”

The violent attacks on legislators in Minnesota are a shocking reminder of the pervasive threats rising from political divisions. The Brennan Center for Justice finds the volume and severity of abuse directed at public officials is increasing, and is disproportionately directed at women and people of color. As officials in Minnesota and the rest of the nation grieve the recent tragedy, we’ll look at the potential effect rising threats has on the willingness of Native Americans, and others, to hold public office.

We’ll also learn more about a theatrical production offered by a church in the Navajo border town Gallup, N.M. that has many Navajo citizens upset over insensitive portrayals of Navajo spiritual culture.

An illegal voting case in Alaska highlights lingering confusion over the rights extended to the citizens of American Samoa, a U.S. territory. Eleven Samoans from Whittier, Alaska are charged with felonies for alleged voter fraud by participating in their local election. All have U.S. passports, were born on U.S. soil, and can even participate in the presidential primary process. The territory has been under heavy colonial pressure for centuries and has been under U.S. oversight for more than 125 years. But Congress never granted its citizens the right to vote in national elections.

In another case, tribes in North Dakota were dealt a serious blow in their ongoing fight against redistricting that reduces their collective power in state elections.

Minnesota is the first state to sign compacts with tribes for cannabis operations. The White Earth Nation just opened that state’s first off-reservation recreational marijuana retail store. A second store is already in the works with the tribe envisioning as many as eight dispensaries statewide. But as some tribes lead the way with economic development potential for cannabis, some other tribes elsewhere are subject to law enforcement actions and regulatory hurdles. We’ll hear about both the success stories and dead ends for tribal cannabis operations.

Deb Haaland’s (Laguna Pueblo) political star rose fast, from heading her state party to congresswoman to U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Each step of the way she blazed a trail for Native women. As the head of the agency that oversees Indian Affairs, Haaland championed a first-of-its-kind documentation of the U.S. Government’s role in the Indian Boarding School Era, drawing on both public records and first-hand testimony from survivors and their descendants. Now, she aims to become the first female Native American governor in her home state of New Mexico. We’ll hear from Haaland about her legacy as Interior Secretary and her hopes for the future.

We’ll also get perspectives on the historic agreement between the federal government and Northwest tribes to protect endangered salmon, and the equally historic decision by President Donald Trump to rescind that agreement. We’ll discuss what it means for salmon and the trust in the federal government.

The stage drama “Unto These Hills“, put on by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is celebrating 75 years of telling southeast American history from a Native American perspective. It is a major tourism draw every summer to the outdoor Mountainside Theatre on the Qualla Boundary.

One enterprising Navajo entrepreneur is helping out southwest tourism destinations, connecting travelers with the places they want to go while tribal businesses can hang on to more of their money.

What better time than the Summer Solstice to look around at Native American tourism draws for the season?

Tulsa, Okla. Mayor Monroe Nichols is championing a $105 million reparations package for the survivors and families of his city’s 1921 Race Massacre. It’s a philanthropy-driven city and housing rejuvenation project to offset the continuing repercussions from the coordinated attack more than a century ago. At the time, thousands of white residents besieged what was among the most successful and affluent Black communities in the early 20th century. Three hundred Black people died and more than a thousand homes and businesses were destroyed. Years of efforts to compensate descendants for the violence have failed. We’ll get perspectives from Freedmen descendants about the importance of this ambitious effort to set things right.

Also, we’ll learn about a swamp with connections to Indigenous people going back thousands of years. On the homelands of the Nansemond Indian Nation in Virginia, the Great Dismal Swamp was a safe space for tribes. It also became a refuge for Black freedom seekers escaping slavery. Federal officials are exploring it as a new National Heritage Area.

A new study finds the death rate for Native Americans — which was already higher than other groups — is much higher than previously thought. The analysis just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds the gap in life expectancy between Native Americans and Alaska Natives and the national average is almost three times wider than what official statistics say it is. The researchers point to the fact that more than 40% of death certificates misidentify Native Americans and Alaska Natives. One of the study’s researchers says the discrepancies indicate “statistical erasure” in routine public health data has obscured the severity of a mortality crisis among Native people. We’ll get a handle on the new study and what is behind the numbers.

If you’re one of the 1.9 million people who still get a paper tax refund check from the federal government, you will need to make a change in the coming months. It’s the same for those who still count on Social Security checks in the mail rather than electronic direct deposit. A presidential executive order requires those and other transactions by the federal government to go completely electronic by September 30. The White House claims paperless transactions will save taxpayers as much as $657 million. At the same time, it poses a significant challenge for the high percentage of Native Americans who choose not to utilize conventional banks.