Friday, November 28, 2025 – The Menu: celebrating heritage and crossing borders with chefs Sean Sherman and Pyet DeSpain
In his second cookbook, “Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America,” Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), James Beard Award-wining chef and restaurateur, dives deeper into the Indigenous culinary communities of 13 regions of North America and Mesoamerica. He shares dozens of recipes inspired by his travels and the people he calls friends, teachers, and leaders that he encounters along the way.
Pyet DeSpain (Prairie Band Potawatomi) was already familiar with traditional everyday foods like frybread, meat pies, and corn soup growing up on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma. And on the Mexican side of her family, tamales, pozole, and atole were a staple. Now a well-known and award-winning chef, DeSpain is sharing that fusion of Native and Mexican cuisine and heritage in her debut cookbook, “Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking.”
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Thursday, November 27, 2025 – Australia provides a promising model treaty for Indigenous recognition and self-determination
The Aboriginal people of Australia have cemented a historic agreement with the state of Victoria that could provide a blueprint for recognizing Indigenous peoples and incorporating their voices and cultures into the political process going forward. The treaty is a first for Australia and comes after years of research, negotiation, and a failed political referendum in 2023. Among other things, those crafting the treaty look to avoid the pitfalls of federal treaties with Native Americans and First Nations peoples of Canada. In this encore show, we’ll hear from those who worked to make the treaty happen and what about their hopes and concerns following this historic action.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2025 – Native in the Spotlight: Mel Tonasket
Mel Tonasket (Colville Tribes) is one of the key reasons the Colville Tribes remain thriving today. As a newly elected tribal council member in 1971, he cast the deciding vote against a deal with the federal government that traded cash payouts to individual tribal members for the tribe’s permanent termination. Tonasket credits the mentorship of tribal activist Lucy Covington for guiding his insights and energy to protect the sovereignty of the 12-tribe coalition under the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. He since went on to an ongoing vigilance for hunting, fishing, and other treaty rights. He still serves on the tribal business council after decades of service in many capacities. We'll speak with Tonasket about the history of his tribe, his own call to leadership, and what’s next for his people.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2025 – For all its promise, AI is a potential threat to culture
On the cusp of what could be a new era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), some researchers are urging caution and the need for deliberate controls to keep the developing technology from robbing Indigenous people of their cultures and sovereignty. A project with three universities provides a framework of standards to prevent AI from stripping Native Americans and all other Indigenous peoples of their right to control images, language, cultural knowledge, and other components of their identities they’ve worked so hard to retain. We’ll hear about the potential benefits and threats of AI to Native people.
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Monday, November 24, 2025 – Native candidates make strides in local elections
Social worker and political newcomer Sierra Yazzie Asamoa-Tutu will take office in January 2026 as Gallup, N.M.’s first Diné city council member. Notably a city along Route 66 and on the edge of the Navajo Nation, Gallup’s population is more than half Native American. Yazzie Asamoa-Tutu is one of a number of Native candidates filling local elected seats since the mid-term elections. We’ll talk with some of them about what their hopes are for their coming term of elected public service.
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