Native America Calling

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Cary Morin (Crow/Assiniboine) is back with a new album featuring more of his introspective lyricism, soulful singing and skillful fingerstyle guitar playing. The new album, “Pocket of Time“, captures memories and slices of everyday life on the Crow Reservation in Montana. It is a calm, mellow listen and another refreshing entry in his expansive catalogue that spans folk, blues, reggae, and “Native Americana” genres.

“Big Changes” is the forthcoming album from Status/Non-Status, a Canadian indie-rock band led by Anishinaabe musician Adam Sturgeon. It is the third studio record, following up on 2022’s “Surly Travel”, which was named one of Exclaim! Magazine’s top albums of the year. Beautiful vocals stretch overtop fat guitar chords and incidental sound effects like the unmistakable chime of jingle dress cones. Sturgeon says he never set out to represent all Indigenous musicians, but he feels a responsibility to Indigenize his own music.

Honeycreepers only live in Hawai’i and the birds are interwoven into Native Hawaiian culture. Feathers from the strikingly colorful birds are a key part of ceremonial cloaks and other regalia. The birds themselves are prominent in cultural stories, but of the more than 50 original species of honeycreepers, only 17 survive — and those are threatened with extinction. Several factors contribute to the population decline, but a pressing concern is a mosquito-borne avian malaria. We’ll hear from Native Hawaiian conservationists on the efforts to save these unique and important birds.

GUESTS

Bret Mossman (Native Hawaiian), director of Birds Hawai‘i Past Present

Ben Catcho (Native Hawaiian), Indigenous communications and outreach specialist for the American Bird Conservancy and outreach lead for Birds Not Mosquitoes

Keoki Kanakaokai (Native Hawaiian and Athabascan), natural resource manager for The Nature Conservancy Maui Terrestrial Program and co-lead of the Nature Conservancy Native Network

Hina Kneubuhl (Native Hawaiian), translator, storyteller, and kapa maker

Kasey Jernigan (Choctaw) interviewed and observed Choctaw women over a period of years about food and their relationships to it. She documents what she learned in those observations in her new book, “Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways and Indigeneity”. The book uses federal food and nutrition assistance as the jumping off point for an exploration of individual perceptions of food and colonial influences on Native health outcomes.

A quaint eatery in Arizona’s Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is attracting attention over and above the dozens of other frybread stands that dot reservation roadsides across the country. The Stand was just named one of USA Today’s 2026 Restaurants of the Year. It’s built by the same person who makes the frybread dough and serves the soup in a decidedly rustic setting.

Author, poet, educator and legal scholar Marique B. Moss (Photo: courtesy M. Moss)

Marique B. Moss explores her Black and Indigenous identity in her poetic memoir, “Sweetgrass and Soul Food”. She is among the Native people offering support to Minneapolis residents in the wake of the expanded immigration efforts from her space, Mashkiki Studios.

GUESTS

Dr. Kasey Jernigan (Choctaw), assistant professor of American studies and anthropology at the University of Virginia and the author of “Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways, and Indigeneity”

Michael Washington (Pima and Maricopa), co-owner of The Stand

Marique Moss (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara and Dakota), owner of Mishkiki Studios, author, and cultural educator

Choctaw homicide detective Perry Antelope works on a missing persons case alongside the Choctaw Lighthorsemen tribal police in Devon Mihesuah’s (Choctaw) new mystery novel, “Blood Relay“. The story of the disappearance of a young athlete is set against the backdrop of the competitive bareback horse relay racing. The fictional fast-paced thriller also takes on the real-life issue of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives and the evolving jurisdictional complexities between federal, state, and tribal law enforcement in Oklahoma. Mihesuah, a historian and the Cora Lee Beers Price Teaching Professor at the University of Kansas, continues her tradition of creating strong leading women. She’s the author of the detective Monique Blue Hawk series (“Document of Expectations”, “Dance of the Returned“ and “The Hatak Witches“) and the 2024 collection of horror stories, “The Bone Picker“. She authored several non-fiction titles including “Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness”. We add Mihesuah’s Blood Relay to our Native Bookshelf.

Congress just approved significant funding increases going forward for a handful of core domestic violence funding and policy initiatives. But at the same time, many services for survivors face a new level of unpredictability. Victim support funds in some states plummeted as much as 70%, leaving states to try and cover some of those costs. The Trump administration instituted requirements that domestic violence survivors prove their immigration status before being allowed into shelters and certain long-time domestic violence services remain a target in upcoming federal budget talks. We’ll get a picture of the current trends for domestic violence prevention.

GUESTS

Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board

Melissa L. Pope, Chief Judge of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi

Rochelle Red Bone Arebalo (Apache and Commanche), chairperson of the MMIW Indian Capital Chapter

Stacey Ettawageshik (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), executive director of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence





Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)