Native America Calling

A new report by the New Mexico Department of Justice says Native students are disciplined more harshly and miss more school days from suspensions than other students at Gallup-McKinley County Schools. The school district has a majority Navajo student population and was the focus of a 2023 news investigation that prompted calls for further investigations.

In South Dakota, education leaders are looking into the state’s licensing exams after research shows a disproportionately low number of Native teacher candidates pass the costly exam. Native teachers are in short supply in the state and Native education advocates say that streamlining licensing requirements could be barrier.

GUESTS

Dr. Wendy Greyeyes (Diné), chair of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission and assistant professor of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico

Kevin Mitchell (Diné), Gallup-McKinley County Schools Board of Education president

Priscilla Benally (Diné), Gallup-McKinley County Schools Board of Education vice president

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



Break 1 Music: Dat One (song) The Delbert Anderson Trio (artist) MANITOU (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

Tlingit and Haida Tribes, the Ketchikan Indian Community, and other communities in Southeast Alaska are urging tourists to stop disrespecting unique cultural symbols such as totem poles. Nearly two million tourists visit the region annually and tribal members are reporting an uptick in incidents of tourists mocking Native culture. The message from the tribes remains: all are welcome and respect is not optional. While promoting responsible tourism, the Ketchikan Indian Community is also launching a new initiative for visitors to purchase care packages for the community’s unhoused population. The initiative is also aimed at supporting the tribe’s year-round housing services for unhoused residents. In the Lower 48 states, a Navajo app developer has created Tribal Trailz. It aims to help visitors navigate Diné and Pueblo lands across Arizona and New Mexico and includes historical information and other resources designed to better educate tourists about traveling in ancestral homelands.

GUESTS

Richard Peterson (Tlingit), president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes

Emily Edenshaw (Native Village of Emmonak), tribal administrator and CEO of the Ketchikan Indian Community

George R. Joe (Navajo), cultural consultant and creator of “Tribal Trailz”

Bobbie Conner (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation), director of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute



Break 1 Music: Honoring The Homeland (song) Radmilla & Herman Cody (artist) Shi Kéyah (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

A new 162-page report just released by the White House flags a museum exhibition for what it says is “radical, activist ideology” that “seeks to teach disdain and inspire disgust of our great country.” The report faults Native land acknowledgements, mentions of stolen land, and the use of the term “genocide” connected to an ongoing exhibition by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The report by the White House Domestic Policy Council argues leaders at the Smithsonian Institution have pushed an agenda of social justice advocacy instead of objective historical research. We’ll talk with Native historians and curators about this new escalation of the Trump administration’s drive to change existing narratives about Native history.

GUESTS

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee), a founding trustee of NMAI, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the first Native woman elected to the oldest learned societies in the U.S. – the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rick Hill Sr. (Tuscarora), vice president of the Niagara Academy for Indigenous Relations

Dr. Samuel Torres (Mexica/Nahua), deputy CEO of the National Native America Boarding School Healing Coalition

Sierra Biidaaban Nadeau (Kchi Wiikwedong Anishinaabe), author of “What the Ancestors Say”, award-wining journalist, and reporting specialist for Miigwech Inc.



Break 1 Music: War Dance Song 1 (song) Burton Fisher, George Fisher, Charles Little Oldman, & Clifford Bighead (artist) 12 Northern Cheyenne Songs (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

Named a “legendary Lakota horseman” by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Fred Ecoffey (Oglala Lakota) has enjoyed a celebrated 68-year career as a jockey. After winning his debut race in 1957, Ecoffey went on to compete in more than 17,500 races, earning inductions into both the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame and the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. Ecoffey, 88, has retired from professional racing, though he still helps one of his daughters with her barrel racing from time to time. Today, a new generation of young Native jockeys is taking up the mantle and finding success on the racetrack. Among them is Talliyah Timentwa (Colville Tribes), a two-time national Indian Relay champion who made her debut at Washington state’s Emerald Downs racecourse last year. We’ll speak with Native horse riders about cultivating the art of horsemanship across disciplines, from relay races and jockeying to the sport of dressage.

Fred Ecoffey (Oglala Lakota), retired jockey, elder, and “legendary Lakota horseman”

Talliyah Timentwa (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation), amateur jockey and two-time Indian Relay champion

Kate Nelson (Tlingit), journalist and amateur dressage rider

Break 1 Music: My Horse (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)

A piece by artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee) titled “Yet With a Steady Beat” is part of an exhibit in the brand new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which opened to the public in June. The large, colorful canvas is dotted with political buttons that would’ve been seen in movements for Native rights, farmers’ rights, and civil rights. Being handpicked by the Obamas for the exhibit is just one of several prestigious honors and awards garnered by Gibson in recent years. Meanwhile, up-and-coming artist and influencer Tyler Free-LaMere (Winnebago) is being recognized for her music composition work. Her music combines the Ho-Chunk language, which caught the attention of the National Endowment for the Arts. With the organization’s partnership, Tyler is now a published musician and her work was made available for music lessons and curriculums as an example of contemporary Native music. These are two of many Native artists making waves in the arts world.



Break 1 Music: Cherokee County (song) Kalyn Fey (artist) Garden (album)

Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (artist) Rainwater (album)