Native America Calling

Advocates working to accurately portray Native Americans in the K-12 education system in Texas scored a victory when the State Board of Education renewed a curriculum that was years in the making. The approval came at a time when the Trump administration and state officials pushed hard to scrub any hint of diversity from public school classrooms. Among other things, opponents of the Texas Native Studies course worried instruction about the Catholic Church’s role in Indian Boarding Schools might demoralize Christian students. We’ll look at what saved the Texas lessons and get a status update on some other states wrestling with efforts to accurately depict Native Americans throughout history.

GUESTS

Cheyenne Rendon (Apache and Navajo), senior policy officer for the Society of Native Nations, a member of American Indian Movement of Central Texas

Stephen Silva-Brave (Sicangu Lakota), parent, licensed social worker, and Ph.D student

Sashay Schettler (Hidatsa and Nueta from the MHA Nation), assistant director in the office of Indian and Multicultural Education for the North Dakota Office of Public Instruction and a member of the National Johnson-O’Malley Association board of directors representing Region 5

Dr. Sherry Johnson (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate



Break 1 Music: Groove Warrior (song) Delbert Anderson Trio (artist) Manitou (album)

Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

Two new healing centers count on location, cultural practice, and family connections to break the destructive effects of substance abuse. In Lodge Grass, Mont., organizers plan an integrated foster care facility to complement a campus designed to support families affected by addiction. The non-profit organization behind the center estimates that number reaches as high as 60% of residents in the small town on the Crow Reservation. The Pawnee Nation in Oklahoma is also expanding adult residential and outpatient services close to home, as well as support for children whose lives are disrupted. We’ll hear about a promising focus on cultural treatment options, harm reduction, and strengthening families to break addiction’s generational cycles.

GUESTS

Mary Blackowl (Cheyenne and Arapaho, Pawnee, and Comanche), tribal opioid response prevention specialist for the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma

Karaya Fritzler (Apsáalooke, Aaniiih, and Lakota), certified behavioral health peer specialist for the Mountain Shadow Association

Megkian Doyle, executive director of the Mountain Shadow Association

Mike Ortiz, program coordinator for the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma’s substance abuse program



Break 1 Music: Buc Wild Intertribal (song) Buc Wild (artist) Oneida Powwow: 40th Anniversary (album)

Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

A crew from Chevak, Alaska recover a submerged boat, part of the marine debris created by Typhoons Merbok (2022) and Helong (2025). (Photo: Richard Tuluk)

Typhoon Merbok swept buildings, boats, and tons of trash into the sea off the west coast of Alaska in 2022. The city of Chevak is one of many coastal Alaska Native communities tasked with helping to find and recover that and other marine debris clogging the coastal waters and shorelines. With federal funding help, the ongoing cleanup is aimed at making the waterways safe for people and marine animals. A similar project is underway in Hawai’i, where the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project works year-round, pulling tons of debris from around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a place sacred to Native Hawaiians. Coastal tribes are an important piece of the puzzle for solving the growing problem of derelict nets, ropes, boats, and other trash that threaten marine ecosystems. In this program, we’ll talk with some of the people involved in the cleanup about what it takes to rid marine areas of unsightly and dangerous debris.

GUESTS

Richard Tuluk (Cup’ik), project manager for the City of Chevak

Jacquie Foss, commercial fisherman and works with Alaska Sea Grant and the Alaska Center for Marine Debris

Grant Ka’ehukai Goin (Kānaka ʻŌiwi), cultural specialist and lead marine debris tech for the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project



Break 1 Music: Heavy (song) Kee’ahn (artist) For Me, For You EP (album)

Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

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.



Break 1 Music: Everything To Me (song) Cary Morin (artist) Pocket of Time (album)

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

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



Break 1 Music: Prologue (song) Kūka’ilimoku (artist) Creation Chant (album)

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