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Description
Native America Calling is a daily, interactive program connecting listeners with soul-stirring and thought-provoking conversations about Native and Indigenous communities. Each program features leaders, influencers, and folx on the front lines working to improve the quality of life for Native, Indigenous, and First Peoples around the globe. Native America Calling is heard on nearly 70 public, community, and tribal radio stations in the United States and Canada - and live streamed on our Native Voice One network. Our program is a production of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, a Native-run non-profit based in Anchorage, Alaska.
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Guitarist Jesse Ed Davis (Kiowa) was an in-demand session player starting in the mid 60s, appearing on dozens of recordings with artists such as Taj Mahal, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, and Jackson Browne. He appears on solo albums by three of the four Beatles. Davis toured with The Faces, alongside Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., is mounting an exhibition celebrating Davis’ life and work along with a tribute concert featuring Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, and Joy Harjo. We’ll hear from some of the people who knew and worked with the man Bonnie Raitt called “one of the most original, and soulful, and cool guitar players.”
GUESTS
Joy Harjo (Mvskoke), 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, musician, playwright, and co-curator of the Jesse Ed Davis: Natural Anthem exhibition
Chebon Tiger (Seminole and Mvskoke), musician
Douglas Miller, author of Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis and co-curator of the Jesse Ed Davis: Natural Anthem exhibition
Steven Jenkins, director of the Bob Dylan Center
Local southern California tribes will share management of a new 4,500-square-mile marine sanctuary. The designation from the Biden Administration cites the need to protect at-risk plants and animals, including whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. Establishing the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is the first such designation initiated by Native Americans. The idea started more than a decade ago by a member of the Northern Chumash Tribe. We’ll find out about how the sanctuary designation came about and what its managers hope it accomplishes.
Tensions are high in New Caledonia as the remote Pacific island nation's Indigenous people are pushing for independence more than 170 years after the island was colonized by France. At least 13 people have died in protests triggered in May when the French government attempted to institute voting changes that would bolster the political power of New Caledonia's white settler communities at the expense of the Indigenous Kanak people. There's been little progress in the four decades after the Kanak tried to force better recognition from New Caledonia's political leaders aligned with Paris. It's a fight that has parallels to current and past struggles by Indigenous people in North America and elsewhere.
The stories she heard as a young girl from her own elder relatives inspired Holly Miowak Guise to research and document the experience of Alaska Native veterans of World War II. Her work is compiled in the book, Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II. Her work encompasses the U.S. Government’s occupation of the Aleutian Islands, the trauma of religious boarding schools, and the historic Alaska Native fight to overcome institutionalized discrimination. We’ll talk with Guise about her work and the people she encountered.
Native Americans have a long and rich tradition of producing artwork from behind bars. In the past, it was both a means of artistic expression and a way to document and communicate important events. Modern inmate artwork is also a vehicle for creative expression. It is also a valuable tool for personal growth and rehabilitation. We’ll hear about artwork’s healing and redemptive significance for incarcerated Native Americans.
Good pay and a strong job demand are among the factors that make the information technology industry an promising career choice. But a study by the Kapor Center shows Native Americans are significantly underrepresented in the IT workforce. The divide is even wider for Native women. Starting early — offering computer science instruction in high schools — is one way IT advocates say will move the statistics in the right direction. We’ll talk about that and why Native IT experts are needed.
President Donald Trump and Republicans pulled off a decisive victory. Are Native Americans poised to benefit from the change in power? We’ll get the early analysis about what the election results mean from a Native perspective and hear more about how Native candidates fared up and down the ballot. We'll also find out how tribes might shift strategies to accommodate the change in political winds.
It’s the final day to cast your vote, setting the political course for the foreseeable future. All the messages to encourage Native voting, the legal and technical work to assure access, and the onslaught of campaign ads come down to Election Day. We’ll get reports from around the country to talk about progress and remaining hurdles as Native voters choose their elected leaders.
The Lumbee Nation counts 55,000 members, and although they are not federally recognized and have no tribal trust land, they have a strong cultural identity. The possibility of federal recognition is a factor in who members support in the presidential race. Across the state, the smaller, but federally recognized, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has political and economic muscle and opposes Lumbee recognition. We’ll explore the dynamics of navigating the Native vote in a critical swing state.
Before their relocation along the Trail of Tears, southeast tribes found a need to curb cattle rustling and other violations of tribal laws. The Five Tribes organized tribal law enforcement units that came to be known as Lighthorse. They would respond to crimes such as stagecoach robberies, bootlegging, murder, and land disputes. For several years, the Lighthorse acted as judge, jury, even executioner. The Cherokee Lighthorsemen have their origins in Georgia, but were official formed in November 1844. The tribes continue to use the term “Lighthorse” to refer to their community policing units. We’ll hear about the history of “Lighthorse” and how they paved the way for tribal law enforcement.
Halloween is the right time to dive into new spooky books by Native authors. Ramona Emerson’s new sequel, Exposure, checks back in with her character Rita Todacheene, a Navajo forensic photographer introduced in Emerson’s debut novel, Shutter, who continues to be haunted by crime victims. Dark and menacing supernatural entities follow Choctaws along the infamous Trail of Tears to Oklahoma in Devon Mihesuah’s The Bone Picker, a collection of fictional stories set in real-life histories. Nathan Adler co-edited a collection of scary stories along with Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugeen First Nation) called Zegaajimo: Indigenous Horror Fiction. Hunkpapa Lakota humorist and author Tiffany Midge’s newest collection of poetry, Horns, weaves horror through her creative use of language and satire. These authors join us for a conversation about horror in Native literature.
Four Native Americans just received the nation’s highest honor recognizing work and dedication to enriching the community. President Joe Biden awarded the 2022-2023 National Humanities Medals to Muscogee poet Joy Harjo, long-time Cherokee educator Dr. Robert Martin, Potawatomi author and scientist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Tlingit cultural advocate Dr. Rosita Worl. The awards, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities, honors individuals and organizations that deepen “the nation's understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.” Native America Calling was the first Native organization to receive a National Humanities Medal in 2021.
Global business connections are a way to build economic development. But it’s also a way to promote cross-cultural relationships and understanding across borders. The World Indigenous Business Forum aims to strengthen those bonds. The annual forum returns to the U.S. for the first time in nine years with at least 1,000 Indigenous business leaders meeting in Albuquerque to talk about success stories and barriers when it comes to trade across global boundaries. We’ll hear about what they hope to accomplish.
Indian boarding schools notoriously worked to stamp out Native languages, religions, and cultures. And part of that was an effort to cut ties between Native children and their traditional means of sustenance. In light of President Joe Biden’s apology, we’ll review another legacy of the shameful federal policy. And Alana Yazzie, who goes by The Fancy Navajo, just launched a new cookbook, which blends old and new Native food traditions. It's all today in our latest edition of our regular feature The Menu with host Andi Murphy.
President Joe Biden is taking the historic step to formally apologize for the federal government’s role in the failed Indian Board School era. The first-of-its-kind acknowledgement comes after Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the final report from a three-year investigation that included formal listening sessions from boarding school survivors and their relatives. The report documented at least 18,000 Native children who were sent to distant live-in schools where they were forced to abandon their languages and cultures. They were subjected to extensive physical and sexual abuse. Nearly 1,000 children died while attending the institutions far from their families. We’ll hear from Sec. Haaland and others who have been working on building the infrastructure of healing from the Boarding School Era.
Every year, thousands of Native Americans are going without the health care they’re entitled to or are risking costly medical bills for treatment that should be covered. A new report by KFF Health News focuses on the Purchased/Referred Care program in which patients seek outside treatment that IHS doesn’t offer. The report says the PRC program denied more than $550 million in payment requests from outside medical facilities in 2022, putting patients on the hook financially. Some tribes with resources are able to establish tribally-run care. Others are working on tribal health insurance programs. We’ll get a look at the problem facing those relying on IHS, and what can be done to solve it.
Nevada is the first state to extend electronic ballots to tribal members. It allows them to register and vote from their own homes, giving rural Native voters an alternative to traveling miles to their nearest polling or ballot drop-off site. It’s an idea that other states remain wary of. In Alaska, efforts to improve voting among Native voters remain elusive. Opposition from Republican state lawmakers killed a bill eliminating witness signatures on absentee ballots. On a conservative talk show, the Alaska House Speaker admitted she opposed it because it would have favored U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the only Alaska Native in Congress. Rep. Peltola calls it "a concerted effort to silence" Native votes. We'll discuss progress and continuing hurdles for Native voters.
Some colleges and universities say Native American admissions for the class of 2028 have suffered after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious recruitment. Harvard University reports a drop in enrollment for Native students and other students of color. Other colleges say it’s still too early to say. We’ll get an update on the trends for Native enrollment in post-secondary education and how Native students can adjust to the new admissions reality.
Claudia Sheinbaum has already made history as Mexico’s first female president. She also comes into office with a promise to bolster the rights and recognition for the country’s many Indigenous peoples. Her inauguration included a traditional Indigenous blessing ceremony, something that at least one church leader criticized as "witchcraft". We’ll explore what the Sheinbaum presidency means for Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and what obstacles stand in the way.
Connecting with Native voters works best when the message comes from a Native source. In the final days before the election, the campaigns are working at a feverish pace in places like Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and North Carolina, deploying specialists to connect with Native voters. We’ll hear from some of those specialists about what you might expect to hear in the final stretch of the campaigns, and what messages are resonating most.
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Can we hear from more leftist natives? I'm sure there are plenty, but it would be nice to hear from progressives, too. (though I get the DNC is going on now and that's why you're focused on Dems)