Native America Calling

After 103 years, the Santa Fe Indian Market remains the biggest draw for Native artists, potters, and jewelry makers as well as those who appreciate and collect their work. More than 1.000 juried participants come from hundreds of Native communities, offering a hugely diverse range of inspiring work. We’ll take a small sample of that creativity and check in on the outlook for Native arts and arts education.

News consumers have a constant stream of information at their fingertips, but how reliable is it and how do people check the facts? Indigenous journalists are a means to bring balanced viewpoints to newsrooms that typically have limited interaction with Indigenous populations. As the annual gathering of the Indigenous Journalists Association gets underway in Albuquerque, N.M., we’ll discuss how journalism is changing and how Indigenous journalists are responding to new pressures for transparency, fact-checking, and bias.

The summer of 1945 saw three nuclear explosions that ushered in a new era of experimentation, development, and fear when it comes to the potential for such a powerful weapon. Native people are among those suffering the most from the consequences of that path. The first test of the atomic bomb at the Trinity site in New Mexico, and the subsequent use of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, signaled the U.S. Government’s new push to develop nuclear weapons, fueled by millions of tons of uranium ore mined near Native land in New Mexico and Arizona. And ongoing nuclear tests exposed thousands of Native people in the Southwest and in Alaska to dangerous levels of radiation. We’ll explore the ongoing effects on Native people of nuclear weapons and power development, in this encore presentation.

Another year and another record revenue report for the tribal gaming industry. The annual report by the National Indian Gaming Commission finds slot machines, table games, sports betting, and other enterprises reaped $43.9 billion in 2024. That’s up more than $2 billion from the previous year. But there are potential setbacks on the horizon that could affect gaming, including flagging consumer confidence, confusing foreign trade policies, and federal government’s diminished regard for tribal sovereignty. We’ll get a status update and a look ahead for tribal gaming.

Hopes to fix the Santee Sioux Nation’s lack of clean drinking water faded as federal funding for a pipeline project is increasingly tangled in government turmoil. Tribal citizens are forced to drink bottled water to avoid the high levels of manganese in well water. On the Navajo Nation, dozens of people's water wells are contaminated with chemicals, like benzene, associated with the oil and gas drilling industry. There are many mysterious, uncapped wells that could be contributing to the problem. They are just two of the problems tribal citizens are having when it comes to accessing the most basic resource.

Sitting Bull is remembered for strong leadership and resistance against the U.S. government, but a series of songs by and about him reveal another side to the renowned Lakota leader. Courtney Yellow Fat (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) has been sifting through oral and written history to identify the songs that are known to the tribe, but only recently attributed to Sitting Bull. Yellow Fat and others are recording those songs through the Densmore/Lakota Songs Repatriation Project. And Hopi radio station KUYI is marking 25 years on the air. The celebration comes amid new uncertainty about the future of many public and tribal radio stations. We’ll talk with the station manager about the milestone for the station and the role community radio plays for Hopi citizens.

Some Native Americans are already bracing for next year’s semiquincentennial with worries about how patriotism might cloud historical accounts from a Native perspective. Now, the Trump Administration is promoting a program to teach “the first principles of the Founding” in classrooms. The program uses money previously meant to help low-income and underserved students. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s push to end what he says is the “radical indoctrination” of public school students. We’ll talk about what’s being done to include Native voices into an accurate accounting of history.

The summer of 1945 saw three nuclear explosions that ushered in a new era of experimentation, development, and fear when it comes to the potential for such a powerful weapon. Native people are among those suffering the most from the consequences of that path. The first test of the atomic bomb at the Trinity site in New Mexico, and the subsequent use of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, signaled the U.S. Government’s new push to develop nuclear weapons, fueled by millions of tons of uranium ore mined near Native land in New Mexico and Arizona. And ongoing nuclear tests exposed thousands of Native people in the Southwest and in Alaska to dangerous levels of radiation. We’ll explore the ongoing effects on Native people of nuclear weapons and power development.

The Shinnecock Nation in New York is in an ongoing legal battle to have their fishing rights recognized. A lawsuit brought forward by a Shinnecock tribal citizen argues the tribe has never ceded their right to fish in any treaty or agreement. The tribe has no treaty with the federal government, but instead with British colonists from the 1600s. This case could possibly affirm the tribe’s unended aboriginal claim to fish in the Hamptons. We’ll talk with Shinnecock citizens about what’s at stake with the case as it moves forward in federal district court.

Heavy workloads, low pay, and increasing political pressures are among the contributing factors leading to a rise in teacher burnout. A survey by the University of Missouri of 500 public school teachers found 78% of them have considered quitting the profession since the 2020 pandemic. We’ll talk with Native educators about what it will take to recruit and retain Native teachers in the face of growing pressures.