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.” GUESTS Betty Osceola (Miccosukee), environmental educator State Rep. Scott Fetgatter (Choctaw/R-OK 16) Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), law professor at Arizona State University and tribal judge Jason Salsman (Muscogee), press secretary for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation   Break 1 Music:  Dragonfly, Dragonfly (song) Joy Harjo (artist) Red Dreams, A Trail Beyond Tears (album) Break 2 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist)

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. A still image from a video shared on social media reportedly showing a Navajo spiritual leader tormented by a demon in a drama produced by a Gallup church. 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. GUESTS State Rep. Heather Keeler (Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ and Eastern Shoshone/DFL-MN 04A) Louvannina Tsosie (Navajo), witness, advocate of Navajo culture, and university student Carl Slater (Diné), Navajo Nation council delegate Samuel Strong (Red Lake), tribal secretary for the Red Lake Nation   Break 1 Music: Navajo Waltz (song) Jonah Littlesunday (artist) Gratitiude (album) Break 2 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist)

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. GUESTS Charles Ala’ilima (Samoan), attorney Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa (Samoan), executive director of the Pacific Community of Alaska Neil Weare, co-director of Right to Democracy Nicole Donaghy (Hunkpapa Lakota), executive director of North Dakota Native Vote   Break 1 Music: Matagofie (song) National University of Samoa Singers with Opeloge Ah Sam (artist) Break 2 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist)

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. GUESTS Mary Jane Oatman (Nez Perce and Delaware), executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association and founder of THC Magazine Lester Marston (Cahuilla), attorney and tribal court judge Blake Johnson (Dakota), president of Prairie Island CBH Inc. Zach Wilson, CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki LLC   Break 1 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Dakota Nation (artist) Home of the Champions (album) Break 2 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist)

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. The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. It’s one of the factors endangering salmon along the Columbia River. (Photo: Bureau of Reclamation via Flickr/CC) 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. GUESTS Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Erik Holt (Nez Perce), chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe Fish and Wildlife Commission Jeremy Takala (Yakama), member of the Yakama Nation tribal council and the chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission   Break 1 Music: On the Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album) Break 2 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist)

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? GUESTS Laura Blythe (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), program director for the Cherokee Historical Association DeAnnethea Long (Diné and San Carlos Apache), director of operations for Moenkopi Developers Corporation Wyatt Gilmore (Navajo), CEO and owner of Laguna Creek and Native American Tours Robert Hall (Blackfeet), Blackfeet Native American studies instructor at the Browning School on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation   Break 1 Music: The Wild One (song) Link Wray (artist) Break 2 Music: Maybe (song) Mogley & the Zoniez (artist) Better Late Than Never (album)

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. (Photo: Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge by Rebecca Wynn/USFWS, via Flickr/CC) 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. GUESTS Hannibal B. Johnson, author, attorney, and consultant Saché Primeaux-Shaw (Ponca, Yankton Dakota, Seminole, and Chickasaw Freedman), historian and genealogist Sam Bass (Nansemond Indian Nation), Chief Emeritus of the Nansemond Indian Nation  Alexandra Sutton (African American and Yesàh), co-founder of the Great Dismal Swamp Stakeholder Collaborative and executive director of Indigenous East Eric “Mubita” Sheppard, co-founder of Mubita LLC   Break 1 Music: Healing Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album) Break 2 Music: Maybe (song) Mogley & the Zoniez (artist) Better Late Than Never (album)

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. GUESTS Michael Bird (Kewa Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh), past president of the American Public Health Association and past national consultant for AARP Stephanie Woolhandler, distinguished professor at the City University of New York – Hunter College Dr. Alec Calac (Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians), American Indian Health Policy Scholar and medical student at University of California-San Diego   Break 1 Music: Stomp Dance (song) George Hunter (artist) Haven (album) Break 2 Music: Maybe (song) Mogley & the Zoniez (artist) Better Late Than Never (album)

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. GUESTS Cory Blankenship (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), executive director of the Native American Finance Officers Association Josh Lucio (Zuni), marketing director for World Financial Group Nathan King (member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), vice president of Bay Bank   Break 1 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album) Break 2 Music: Maybe (song) Mogley & the Zoniez (artist) Better Late Than Never (album)

President Donald Trump is expected to reverse President Joe Biden’s designation of two national monuments in California supported by area tribes. The Department of Justice issued an opinion that it is in the president’s purview to do away with Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. There is additional pressure to at least reduce the side of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante as President Trump did during his first term. The changes to national monuments also come as Republicans in Congress propose selling millions of acres of federal land, some of which is important to nearby tribes. We’ll get a rundown of the likely land moves and how it affects people. (Photo courtesy of Western Rivers Conservancy) We’ll also hear about the final piece in a land transfer to the Yurok Tribe that comprises the largest return of land to a tribe in California history. Nearly all of the Yurok’s traditional land — 90% — was taken during the time known as the California Gold Rush. GUESTS Joseph Mirelez (Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians), chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Davina Smith (Diné), co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Matthew Campbell (Native Village of Gambell), deputy director of the Native American Rights Fund Tiana Williams-Claussen (Yurok), wildlife director for the Yurok Tribe   Break 1 Music: Honoring The Homeland (song) Radmilla & Herman Cody (artist) Shi Kéyah (album) Break 2 Music: Maybe (song) Mogley & the Zoniez (artist) Better Late Than Never (album)