Native America Calling

While it still happens in some places, Native tourism is moving far beyond selling rubber tomahawks, chicken feather headbands, and other trinkets. Tribes and Native-owned businesses are realizing the value for authentic, Native-made works and meaningful traveler experiences. The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is prime tourism season. We’ll find out how tribes are making the transition to culturally sustainable tourism development. Also, MSNBC is airing a roundtable discussion among accomplished Native women about culture, identity, and representation in a society that so often treats Indigenous people as invisible. It’s an intimate and frank conversation hosted by Alyssa London and airs on the Peacock Network. We'll hear from Alyssa about how the show came about and what it can do to hear powerful Native women voices.

Every weekday in Gualala, Calif., radio listeners can tune into the long-running show Peggy’s Place on KGUA to learn about their neighbors and the rest of the world. The show is just one of the many projects spanning the 50-year radio career of its host, Peggy Berryhill. She started with the show Living on Indian Time on KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. in 1973. She has since worked at National Public Radio, helped develop Native stations, mentored Native broadcasters, and founded the Native Media Resource Center. She has picked up numerous awards and accolades along the way. In this encore show, we’ll get her take on her notable accomplishments and the future of Native radio.

What happens if you're a chef and you lose your sense of smell, something that is crucial for taste? For First Nations chef Gerry Brandon, it was time to call it quits at his restaurant in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario that blended French, American, and Indigenous flavors and garnered positive reviews over the last four years. And a new season of PBS’ The Great American Recipe features two Native home cooks who get to share their Native culinary traditions with the show's judges and audience. That’s on The Menu, the Native America Calling regular feature on Indigenous food.

At 77, Simeon Gipson is preparing to embark on a bicycle journey of more than 1,000 miles from Tahlequah, Okla. to Pittsburgh, Pa. Once there, he plans to compete in the National Senior Games. The thousands of miles Gipson has covered over the years started when he was nearing 70 with a last-ditch attempt to improve his declining health. He’s one of many Native elders and others that embark on epic journeys and inspire the rest of us along the way.

The less glamorous side of writing for television shows and movies is coming to the surface during the strike by the Writers Guild of America. The union says the pay for many of its 20,000 professional writers is low and remains stagnant, even while the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continues to reap new profits from streaming and other platforms.

It was a simple, but contested, proposition: The Cherokee Nation would relinquish its land in the southeast United States in exchange for $5 million and a new homeland in what is now Oklahoma. The document that sparked the Trail of Tears was steeped in fraud and bad faith by the federal government, but remains on the books.

Confronting the bitter legacy of boarding schools in the United States is about more than just reconciliation and healing. It’s also about accountability. American Genocide, the new podcast by Illuminative, zeroes in on the Red Cloud Indian Boarding School, which is now a Catholic school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It sparks the difficult conversation about the past and present trauma perpetrated on Native children and who should have a say in how it’s spoken.

The rate of overdose deaths linked to fentanyl is skyrocketing and Native Americans are many times more likely to be affected. The cheap and potent drug is replacing its related cousins — heroin and oxycodone — as the biggest addiction threat. Among the bright spots: the Cherokee Nation is investing in a state-of-the-art in-patient treatment facility to combat the ravages of opioid addiction.

Mortgage interest rates have trended down recently, but they’re still relatively high compared to previous years. Inflation is also going in a positive direction, but remains a factor for those in the market to buy a home. Whatever the outside variables, there are several resources for Native home buyers.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is readying a new tool to help people search for information about their relatives who attended more than 500 U.S. boarding schools. The online archive will start with digitized versions of 50,000 federal documents. Those organizing the project hope to build on the number and scope of the records over time. Tens of thousands of Native children attended the schools. Some never returned home. What records there are for those children are scattered among various institutions. The NABS’s efforts are among a handful aimed to increasing and consolidating access to information about the boarding school era. GUESTS Selena Ortega-Chiolero (Tarahumara), museum specialist for the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council Fallon Carey (Cherokee Nation), digital archives assistant for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Deidre Whiteman (Meskwaki, Dakota, Ojibwe, Hidatsa), director of research and education for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Shelly Lowe (Diné), chair of the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation offers online college-level language courses. They’re among the efforts to bring new life to Bodéwadmimwen, with only four fluent speakers remaining. And a private Salish immersion school is working with elders to develop lessons. School administrators say they’ve produced dozens of new speakers of their language, both young and old. We’ll hear from Native language educators about the classroom’s role in revitalizing languages. GUESTS LaRae Wiley (Sinixt Arrow Lakes Band), Salish School of Spokane executive director Christopher Parkin, Salish School of Spokane principal Robert Collins (Citizen Potawatomi), Potawatomi Language Professor at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell (Lingít, Haida, Yup’ik, and Sami), Professor of Alaska Native Languages at University of Alaska Southeast

Every weekday in Gualala, Calif., radio listeners can tune into the long-running show "Peggy’s Place" on KGUA to learn about their neighbors and the rest of the world. The show is just one of the many projects spanning the 50-year radio career of its host, Peggy Berryhill. She started with the show "Living on Indian Time" on KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. in 1973. She has since worked at National Public Radio, helped develop Native stations, mentored Native broadcasters, and founded the Native Media Resource Center. She has picked up numerous awards and accolades along the way. We’ll get her take on her notable accomplishments and the future of Native radio. GUEST Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee [Creek] Nation), General Manager of KGUA

Taking on motherhood-by-marriage comes with its own rewards and challenges. The bond between a woman and her partner’s children is often strong and fulfilling. But it might take some informed effort to get there. We take a special focus on stepmothers as we head into Mother’s Day. GUESTS Paula Johnson-Jefferson (Samson Cree), small business owner, wife, and stepmother Nico Williams (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), chef and stepmother Dr. Roger Kuhn (Poarch Band of Creek Indians), licensed marriage and family therapist and college professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University Rebecca Spradlin (Prairie Band Potawatomi), student and storyteller working in media

It’s the time of year for graduations in small, reservation high school auditoriums, big city convention centers, tribal college quads, and manicured Ivy League grounds. It will be a year with and without regalia, depending on where you are. Native graduates are taking the next step in their educational journey. GUESTS: Dr. Lennon Audrain (Cherokee and Shawnee), assistant research professor at Arizona State University and high school teacher at Mesa Public Schools Keely Jones Aliseo (Lumbee), UNC Pembroke graduate and recent Army ROTC second lieutenant Jay Locklear (Lumbee), bachelor's in mass communication Dr. Johnny Poolaw (Delaware, Chiricahua Apache, Comanche, Kiowa), Director of Student Success for American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) AJ Begay (Diné), recent graduate of Ft. Lewis College

Indigenous activists in Central and South America are literally putting their lives on the line trying to protect their land and culture. Places like Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, and parts of Mexico are rife with murders and disappearances of Indigenous people speaking up to save their land and people from large scale mining operations, logging, and other extractive industries. In many cases, those responsible are never brought to justice. We’ll explore the factors that contribute to the threat to Indigenous people standing up against corporate development. GUESTS María Martin, award-winning multimedia journalist, founding executive director of Latino USA, and director of GraciasVida Center for Media Nati Garcia (Maya Mam), capacity building manager for Cultural Survival Edson Krenak (Krenak), Cultural Survival lead on Brazil Karla Mendes, investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay and a Rainforest Investigations Fellow with the Pulitzer Center

For more than 30 years, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act has been an important tool for protecting the authenticity and economic value of work produced by Native Americans. It also helps buyers know they’re getting what they pay for. Now the U.S Department of Interior is reviewing the law and among the outstanding questions is whether it goes far enough. Should artwork from state-recognized tribal artists be excluded as authentic? How should artwork from Native Hawaiians be identified? GUESTS Chuck Hoskin Jr. (Cherokee Nation), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Dr. Sylvia Hussey (Native Hawaiian), chief executive officer for Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Rachel Cushman (member of the Chinook Indian Nation), tribal secretary and treasurer for the Chinook Indian Nation Dr. Joe Candillo (Pascua Yaqui), owner of Authentic Native America Arts

Hawai’i has a long association with pineapples. Although the precious fruit likely came to the islands in the 18th Century, it wasn’t until industrialized agriculture arrived with the Dole corporation — backed by U.S. military support to overthrow the existing Hawaiian government — that the pineapple became so ubiquitous. Sugar cane has a similar role in colonizing places like Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, and the American Southeast with plantations that flourished at the expense of Indigenous people and culture. GUESTS José Barreiro (Taino), scholar emeritus from the Smithsonian Institution, writer and author of Taino: A Novel Dr. Sydney Iaukea (Native Hawaiian), author of The Queen and I: A Story of Dispossessions and Reconnections in Hawaiʻi and Kekaʻa: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui Dr. Gary Okihiro, visiting professor of American studies at Yale University; professor emeritus at Columbia University

After decades of drought, the Navajo and Apache reservations in Arizona are now recovering from flooding that destroyed homes and property. Tribes in California endured record-breaking rains and are bracing for overflowing rivers from mountain snowmelt. California flooding also threatened sacred tribal burial grounds. Tribes are working with state and federal sources to both prepare for such natural disasters and also recover from the devastating damage in the wake of climate change. GUESTS Lisa Christensen (Washoe tribal member), Washoe Tribe Emergency Operations Center operations planning chief Dr. Crystal Tulley-Cordova (Diné), principal hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie (Diné), assistant professor of community and regional planning at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico Sandra Warlie (Bishop Paiute Tribe), public works director for the Bishop Paiute Tribe Brian Adkins, environmental director for the Bishop Paiute Tribe

Longform stories, deep dives into exclusive content, and vivid photos all presented on glossy pages are some of the reasons people continue to read magazines. Titles like “First American Art” and “Native Max” are among the Indigenous-led magazines in the evolving industry that mixes social media, online extras, and the printed page to keep readers coming back. We’ll talk with Native publishers about the continuing appeal of magazines. GUESTS America Meredith (enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation), publishing editor of First American Art Magazine, writer, visual artist, and independent curator Kelly Holmes (Cheyenne River [Mnicoujou] Lakota), founder and editor-in-chief of Native Max Magazine Montoya Whiteman (Cheyenne and Arapaho), managing director of editorial and special projects at American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)

The Boy Scouts of America is asking its membership whether the organization should reconsider its long practice of incorporating Native words, concepts and ceremonial dances. We look at the organization’s history of problematic appropriation including headdresses, fake ceremonies, and public performances based on dances tribes consider sacred. GUESTS Graham Lee Brewer (citizen of Cherokee Nation), investigative reporter for NBC News Stewart Koyiyumptewa (Hopi), Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Hopi Tribe Robert DesJarlait (Red Lake Ojibwe), writer, artist, and dancer Chief Brad Kills Crow (Delaware Tribe of Indians), Chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians