Native America Calling

Aaja Chemnitz, a member of the Danish Parliament, advocates for Greenlandic independence. Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland's Minister of Business, emphasizes the need for local governance amid U.S. interest in acquiring the territory. Parnuna Egede Dahl discusses climate change impacts on Indigenous communities. The trio sheds light on the Inuit's strong resistance to colonial control and their push for meaningful engagement in decision-making processes. They share their vision for sustainable development and the importance of preserving Inuit identity in the face of geopolitical pressures.

There’s more Valentine’s Day than flowers and chocolates in heart-shaped boxes. Yupik storyteller Yaari Walker is thinking about the unique account of her own wedding and how it turned into a cultural lesson. She also thinks back about her grandmother’s arranged marriage, and the message that relationship continues to convey. We’ll hear those and other selections of traditional and contemporary stories about love by experienced Native storytellers.

A traditional violin maker, a regalia maker, and basket weavers are the six artists chosen for this year’s Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award winners by the First Peoples Fund. The art they create tells only a part of their stories, as each helps revive and propel cultural knowledge that is sometimes endangered. We’ll hear from the artists and organizers about their passions for preserving culture and passing it on to future generations.

The National Congress of American Indians annual winter conference comes as the federal government is actively dismantling the diversity initiatives that help establish Native representation in the workplace and in the public sphere. The nation’s oldest and largest Native advocacy group is shaping its strategy for carrying a unified voice to a fractured government and public on issues that matter most: sovereignty, consultation, environmental sustainability, the Trust Responsibility, and economic development. We’ll hear NCAI President Mark Macarro’s 2025 State of Indian Nations address and get perspectives on the organization’s coming year.

Tatanka Means (Lakota/Diné) maintains a busy schedule as a stand-up comedian, all while portraying serious on-screen roles in Killers of the Flower Moon, Echo, and Reservation Dogs. He carries the name of his notable Lakota father, has close ties to his Navajo roots in Chinle, Ariz., and is fully embracing his role as a basketball dad. We’ll hear about his life and creative drive as our February Native in the Spotlight.

One possible change to Medicaid being floated in Congress right now includes a $2.3 trillion cut over the next 10 years. Other potential changes include adding certain work requirements and shifting costs and distribution of Medicaid funds to states, which have no trust obligations to tribes. As it is, Medicaid provides direct support to at least one million Native Americans. It’s also one of the secondary sources that help provide health care through the Indian Health Service. Advocates are bracing for changes as they continue to make the case for the program’s life-and-death importance in Indian Country.

Even before the recent wildfires in California, soaring home insurance rates were pushing homeowners to go without. Now State Farm, the country’s largest home insurer, is asking for a 22% rate hike in California. That’s on top of a 30% increase request last summer. Increasing natural disasters, rising home values, and the high cost of rebuilding are putting insurance out of reach for more homeowners nationwide. Native Americans already have the highest uninsured rate for homeowners. We’ll discuss alternatives to a future without coverage for people’s biggest financial asset.

Samí journalist and author Ann-Helén Laestadius offers readers a glimpse into the government-backed school system for the Indigenous children of Sweden that has parallels with the U.S. Indian Boarding School Era. Her novel, Punished, follows five Sami children forced to attend a nomad school in the 1950s. The story stays with them into adulthood, where each copes with the physical, mental, and cultural abuse scars just below the surface. Originally published in Swedish, the English translation of Punished is now available. Laestadius joins us for this month’s Native Bookshelf discussion.

A Wisconsin tribe agreed to stop operating an online high-interest loan operation in neighboring Minnesota in a lawsuit settlement just announced. But the Lac du Flambeau tribe and several others still insist on their sovereign ability to operate the businesses, despite laws in several states working to prevent consumers from falling victim to interest rates that reach up to 800% in some cases. We’ll talk about the struggle between tribes’ ability to operate unrestricted payday loan business – and the ongoing efforts to regulate damaging loan businesses.

In the new APTN series One Dish One Spoon with chef Tawnya Brant (Mohawk), viewers follow her and her sister Dakota to local kitchens, farms, and waterways to expose the traditional foodways of the Six Nations. Zach Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux) leaves his post this month as the administrator of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency where he helped direct some of the federal government’s key agriculture and faming programs and policies. The work of Mariah Gladstone (Cherokee and Blackfeet) teaching people about Indigenous food and cooking leads her to publish an Indigenous foods cookbook for kids, Mountains to Oceans: Kids’ Recipes from Native Land. That’s all on The Menu, our regular feature on Indigenous food sovereignty hosted by Andi Murphy.