Native America Calling

Jody Potts-Joseph is the first Hän Gwich’in woman to compete in Alaska’s famed Iditarod sled dog race. The musher and cast member on the reality TV show “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans“, says she was raised in the basket of a dog sled. She has raced in more than a half-dozen pro dog sled competitions, but this was her first attempt at the grueling 1,000-mile Iditarod. We’ll hear about the race and her work raising sled dogs.

We’ll also hear from athletes who competed in the annual Arctic Winter Games, held this year in Whitehorse, Yukon. In addition to common winter events like curling and figure skating, the games include traditional Indigenous competitions including single foot kick, knuckle hop, and stick pull.

GUESTS

Jody Potts-Joseph (Hän Gwich’in), Iditarod musher, environmentalist, traditional tattooist, and athlete

Kyle Worl (Tlingit, Deg-Hit’an Athabascan, and Yup’ik), traditional games coach and athlete

Candice Parker (Nome Eskimo Community), Arctic sport coach for Team Alaska

Joanna Hopson (Iñupiaq), Arctic games coach and athlete for Team Alaska

Emelia Maring (Gwich’in First Nation from the Inuvik Native Band), member of Team Wainman



Break 1 Music: Humma [Feat. Kendra Tagoona & Tracy Sarazin] (song) Sultans of String (artist)

Break 2 Music: Lowlands (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Muslims around the world are marking the end of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. It’s a time of prayer, fasting, and spiritual rejuvenation. Among those participating is a handful of Native Americans who have a unique relationship with Islam. We’ll speak with some Native Muslims about their faith and how they confront renewed animosity toward their beliefs as rhetoric from elected leaders and others increases.

We’ll also get Indigenous perspectives on increasing tensions between the United States and Cuba. President Donald Trump threatens to take over the country. A U.S. blockade is exacerbating Cuba’s long-standing energy crisis, shutting citizens off from many of the basics of daily life.

GUESTS

Megan Kalk (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe), Muslim convert

Jamila Southwind (Keeseekoose First Nation), Muslim, mother, and former translator

Raymond Matt (Crow Creek Sioux and Salish and Kootenai), Muslim Revert and father

José Barreiro (Taíno), journalist, former editor of Akwesasne Notes, and scholar emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution



Break 1 Music: Round Dance (song) Black Lodge (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs (album)

Break 2 Music: Lowlands (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Washington State awarded a number of tribes almost $18 million for clean energy projects — from solar installations to electric fishing and research boat conversions. It is one of the alternative funding sources as tribes and tribal economic development ventures scramble to fill a void following the withdrawal of some $1.5 billion in federal dollars. We’ll get an update on where clean energy infrastructure and development trends are headed in the absence of any new federal money.

GUESTS

David Harper (Mojave from the Colorado River Indian Tribes), CEO of Huurav Energy

John Lewis (Gila River Indian Community), managing director for Native American Energy at Avant Energy

Miacel Spotted Elk (Navajo and Northern Cheyenne), Indigenous affairs reporter at Grist

Shaun Tsabetsaye (Zuni), head of tribal technical assistance and project development for the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy



Break 1 Music: Lightning Scarred Heart (song) Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Friends (artist) Why the Caged Bird Sings (album)

Break 2 Music: Lowlands (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

The words “Sioux”, “Chippewa”, and “Crow” are some of the well-known names in the official lexicon that identify tribes, but they are also among the monikers that arise from mispronunciations, errant assumptions, and even derogatory terms by outsiders that found their way into conventional use. Over the years, some tribes have undertaken the arduous process to change their official names to take back what they have always called themselves. Others simply change how they present their names to the public, without updating the official record. We’ll talk with representatives from tribes who seek to have their names better reflect their own culture and language.

GUESTS

Jennifer Heminokeky, tribal chairwoman of the Fort Sill Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe

Vivian Juan-Saunders (Tohono O’odham), former chairwoman of the Tohono O’odham Nation

Jonathan Hale  (Diné), former tribal leader

Jason Salsman (Muscogee), press secretary for the Muscogee Nation



Break 1 Music: Coffee (song) James Bilagody (artist) Near Midnight (album)

Break 2 Music: Lowlands (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

John Ford’s 1956 film, “The Searchers”, is often lauded as a masterpiece. It follows Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) as an unapologetically racist ex-Confederate soldier on an obsessive odyssey to find his niece who was kidnapped by Comanches. The question of what he does when he finds her is a central tension of the plot. It was one of the first films added to the National Film Registry and ranks among the greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute. But its harmful stereotypes and other obvious drawbacks make it difficult watching for modern, informed audiences. As it marks 70 years since its release, we’ll hear from Native filmmakers and others about the place “The Searchers“ holds in film history.

Still image from the 2026 film, “Ceremony” (Photo: courtesy Banchi Hanuse)

We’ll also hear from Nuxalk filmmaker Banchi Hanuse about her documentary film, “Ceremony“, that premieres this week at South by Southwest. The documentary examines the cultural role of ooligan fish in Hanuse’s community in Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada.

GUESTS

Sunrise Tippeconnie (Commanche, Navajo, and Cherokee), director of programming at deadCenter Film and co-host of the “Reel Indigenous” podcast

Julianna Brannum (Comanche), documentary filmmaker

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit), filmmaker

Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk), filmmaker, co-founder of Nuxalk Radio, and director of “Ceremony”



Break 1 Music: Country Man (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album)

Break 2 Music: Place I Call Home (song) Native Roots (artist) A Place I Call Home (album)