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The Indian Child Welfare Act has some tough opponents in the courts and in the court of public opinion. ICWA proponents suffered a setback in the Brackeen vs Bernhardt case. Both sides just presented oral arguments in the appeal. We will go live from the annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect to hear first-hand stories from those affected by ICWA. We’ll also get expert analysis about the possible trajectory for the 40-year-old law going forward. (Poster artwork by Orlando Begay)

Guests:

Angel Smith (Cherokee Nation) – attorney practicing in the Indian Child Welfare Act

Jessica Mateu-Newsome – program director for San Francisco Child Welfare

Nikki Baker-Limore (Cherokee Nation) – executive director of Indian Child Welfare for the Cherokee Nation

Sarah Kastelic (Allutiq) – executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association

Break 1 Music:  All My Relations (song) Spirit Nation (artist) Winter Moons (album)

Break 2 Music: Prayer Loop Song (song) Supaman (artist) Illuminatives (album)

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Native women entrepreneurs often face barriers to success. But attention to cultural values and meaningful networking along with a solid business plan and disciplined attention to detail can make all the difference. As the annual Native Women’s Business Summit gears up, we’ll take time to ask Native businesswomen about their keys to success and how they tackle issues like the wage gap, unequal access to resources and other obstacles.

Guests:

Jaclyn Roessel (Navajo) – president and founder of Grownup Navajo and co-founder of Native Women Lead

Shyla Sheppard (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) – owner and CEO of Bow and Arrow Brewing Company

Kim Smith (Diné) – founder and editor of Indigenous Goddess Gang

Janene Yazzie (Navajo) – co-founder of Sixth Worlds solutions LLC.

Break 1 Music: Fight Like A Woman (song) Sihasin (artist) Fight Like A Woman (album)

Break 2 Music: Prayer Loop Song (song) Supaman (artist) Illuminatives (album)

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Tribal education departments offer opportunities most public and private schools can’t: a solid education in a culturally relevant environment. The departments sometimes run schools on reservations and even provide higher education scholarships. State and local education agencies are required to consult with tribes under the Every Student Succeeds Act. We’ll talk with educators about the role tribes play in the education of their citizens and improve education for Native students.

Guests:

Quinton Roman Nose (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes) – executive director for Tribal Education Departments National Assembly

Erika Tracy (Hoopa) – education director for Hoopa Valley Tribe

Laurie Harper (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) – director of education for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe

Break 1 Music: In Beauty (The Remix) (song) Primeaux & Mike (artist) Road to Peace (album)

Break 2 Music: Prayer Loop Song (song) Supaman (artist) Illuminatives (album)

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A new wave of summer missionaries will soon flock to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Journalist Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe) tracked where the money raised to help Oglala Sioux tribal members goes. Her latest piece in Indian Country Today is titled, “Seasonal complaint: ‘Missionaries are on our reservation.‘” Also, College Horizons has some perspective about how the college bribery scandal affects Native students trying to get into college.

Guests:

Arlo Iron Cloud Sr. (Lakota) – communications coordinator at Thunder Valley CDC and DJ at KILI radio station

Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) – independent journalist and writer

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye (Diné) – reporter and correspondent for Indian Country Today

Pauly Denetclaw (Diné) – staff reporter for the Navajo Times and tribal media fellow for Indian Country Today

Carmen Lopez (Navajo) – executive director of College Horizons

Also mentioned on the show:

The Atlantic: Death By Civilization by Mary Annette Pember

Indian Country Today: Who will be next? ‘One of the hardest jobs in the world,’ leading the National Congress of American Indians by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye

Indian Country Today: A Native Embassy Row? Navajo Nation is looking for a DC home by Pauly Denetclaw

Break 1 Music: Tataria (song) Gabriel Ayala (artist) Shades Of Blue (album)

Break 2 Music: Hummingbird (song) The Jir Project Band (artist) The Pueblo (album)

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Every year the Center for Native American Youth picks a handful of outstanding Native youth who are working to make change in their communities. Charitie Ropati (Native Village of Kongignak) wants to decolonize education and is working in her school district to include regalia at graduation. Madison White (Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne) is devoted to healing from intergenerational trauma. She is making strides toward starting a sexual assault support group, a language immersion school, and a traditional resource center. Shandiin Herrera (Diné) is a Gates Millennium Scholar, a Udall Scholar, and a Chief Manuelito Scholar studying at Duke University. We’ll talk with them about their plans for making big and small changes in Native America.

Guests:

Erik Stegman (Carry the Kettle First Nation) – executive director at the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute

Charitie Ropati (from the Native Village of Kongignak) – student representative on the Native Advisory Committee within the Anchorage School District and a 2019 Champion for Change

Adam Soulor (Mohegan Tribe) – 2019 Champion for Change and a junior at Lynn University

Madison White (Mohawk Nation from Akwesane) – 2019 Champion for Change, Onkwehonwe full spectrum doula and teaching aid at a language resource center

Break 1 Music: Over the Rainbow (single) Corey Allison (artist)

Break 2 Music: Hummingbird (song) The Jir Project Band (artist) The Pueblo (album)

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Archaeologists were surprised to find a stash of 3,000-year-old quinoa seeds while surveying a construction site in Ontario Canada. Up to that point, the South American grain from the same time period had been documented only as far north as Kentucky. Scientists think a previously unknown Indigenous trade route could have brought the quinoa to Canada. Other traditional trade routes are well-documented. Abalone and other ocean sea shells are important to tribes in the landlocked Southwest. The Three Sisters—corn, beans and squash—originally made their way to Native farm fields from Central America. We’ll learn the history of Indigenous trade routes and how they relate to today’s commerce and customs.

Guests:

Otis Halfmoon (Nez Perce tribal member) – retired from the National Park Service

Dan Cornelius (Oneida) – technical assistance specialist for the Intertribal Agriculture Council

Annawon Weeden (enrolled Mashpee Wampanoag) – eastern woodland instructor for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Cultural Resources Department

Break 1 Music: Trade Song (song) Métis Fiddler Quartet (artist) North West Voyage Nord Ouest (album)

Break 2 Music: Hummingbird (song) The Jir Project Band (artist) The Pueblo (album)

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Peter Kaiser is the first Yup’ik musher to win the Iditarod. Long before competitive sled dog races, Indigenous people in Alaska and Canada maintained an important relationship with dogs. In addition to transportation over snow and ice, dogs help in subsistence hunting and protection. We’ll take time to learn more about this symbiotic relationship between dogs and Indigenous people in the north.

Guests:

Pete Kaiser (Yup’ik) – 2019 Iditarod winner and dog musher

Jennifer Probert Erhart (Upper Tanana Athabascan) – dog musher community outreach coordinator for wellness strategies for health grant at Tanana Chiefs Conference

Mike Williams Jr. (Yup’ik) – dog musher

Margaret Nakak (Inupiaq and Yup’ik) – cultural host with the Alaska Native Heritage Center

Eric Clock (Koyukon and Eyak Athabascan) – instructor at the Alaska Vocational Technical Center

Break 1 Music: Ellu’urtautanga (Sledding Song) (song) I Sing, You Dance (artist) I Am Yup’ik (album)

Break 2 Music: Hummingbird (song) The Jir Project Band (artist) The Pueblo (album)

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Before Western calendars, Indigenous ways of tracking time depended on moon cycles, stars, agriculture and animal migrations. The Ojibwe have different names for moon cycles like “Falling Leaves Moon” or “Snowcrust Moon.” The Navajo calendar names months after significant activities like melting snow and planting early and late season crops. The Aztec calendar consists of both sacred and an agriculture-based elements. As the Gregorian calendar officially turns over the spring, we’ll take a moment to reflect on Indigenous timetables.

Guests:

Mapitzmitl aka Paz (Mexica) – Tlayankahnki of Kalpulli Ehecatl (Aztec dancers)

Jon Ghahate (Pueblo of Laguna And Zuni) – museum cultural educator for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Florian Johnson (Diné) – cultural specialist at Rock Point Community School

Dr. Donald Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Mvskoke Creek and Seminole) – regents and distinguished foundation professor of history at Arizona State University

Break 1 Music: Killing Time (song) Dawa (artist) A Joyful Defiant Tone (album)

Break 2 Music: Lolo Said (song) John-Carlos Perea (artist) Creation Story (album)

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The Montana Human Rights Network wants a group that attacks tribal sovereignty in the courts classified as a hate group. If so, it would be the first time a group focused solely on Native Americans reached that status. The Southern Poverty Law Center just released a report showing a steady rise in the number of hate groups in the U.S. over the past four years. They define a hate group as any organized group that “has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” We’ll discuss what constitutes hate and whether advocating for the elimination of the federal reservation system reaches that level.

Guests:

Travis McAdam – research director for the Montana Human Rights Network

Shane Morigeau (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) – Montana state representative for house district 95

Matthew Fletcher (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) – law professor at Michigan State University’s college of law and author of the “Turtle Talk” blog

Break 1 Music: Intertribal Happy Feet (feat. Chippewa Travellers) (song) Cris Derksen (artist) Orchestral Powwow (album)

Break 2 Music: Lolo Said (song) John-Carlos Perea (artist) Creation Story (album)