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If you ever buy or sell a parcel of land or build a home or business, you’ll likely need a land surveyor. They are the first professionals on the scene when people need to find and document property lines, reservation boundaries, utilities, and topography. On a bigger scale, much of the American west was originally mapped and named by explorers like Lewis and Clark and John Wesley Powell in the 1800s. It’s now up to Native American surveyors to include their unique understanding of the land going forward. We’ll hear from Native land surveyors about their work and the need to recruit more Native people to their ranks.

GUESTS

Halbert Goldtooth (Diné), professional land surveyor and owner of Goldtooth Surveying

Jake Stephens (Eastern Band of Cherokee), manager of the Tribal Surveying Office for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Jamie Hansen, survey manager for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

Break 1 Music: Edge of The Rez, Part 2 (song) The Blue Stone Project (artist) Blue Stone (album)

Break 2 Music: Ts’ma’antut ‘Nüün (song) Saltwater Hank (artist) Siip’Nsk (album)

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When Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (Waikato, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Te Āti Awa, and Ngāi Tahu) performed a haka on the floor of New Zealand’s Parliament, she brought global awareness of the constant colonial pressure to dismantle established rights for Indigenous people. In the viral video, she dramatically tears apart a proposed bill that would weaken Māori political standing established in a nearly 200 year-old treaty between the Crown and 500 Māori chiefs. She was suspended … for a bill that may never become law. The fight in New Zealand exemplifies a resurgence in efforts to backtrack on the gains in recognition and respect for established Indigenous rights.

Plus, we’ll get Indigenous perspectives on the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Azerbaijan that just wrapped up. There is growing concern and dissatisfaction that the concerns of Indigenous people about their vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change are going unheard.

GUESTS

Professor Margaret Mutu (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, and Ngāti Whātua), Ngāti Kahu leader and professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine, and Ngā Rauru), Member of Parliament and co-leader of Te Pāti Māori

Professor Janine Hayward, professor of politics at the University of Otago

Tom Goldtooth (Diné and Mdewakanton Dakota), executive director of the  Indigenous Environmental Network

Break 1 Music: Haka (song) Te Runga Rawa (artist) Chants Maoris (album)

Break 2 Music: Burn Your Village to The Ground (single) The Halluci-Nation (artist)

Here’s an extended interview with MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. She begins by talking about the likelihood of the Treaty Principles Bill becoming law.

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The challenge for teachers this time of year is to approach the history of Thanksgiving without stereotypes and outdated myths about interactions between Native Americans and early settlers. The National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Knowledge 360 education initiative has developed a new curriculum on the First Thanksgiving, to provide teachers with a way to tell a more accurate and respectful story that includes perspectives from the Wampanoag, the tribe that first came in contact with European settlers. We’ll talk with Native educators about the work they’re doing to bring accuracy and balance to classrooms.

GUESTS

Nichelle Garcia (Winnemem Wintu), educational specialist for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian

Dr. Alexis Bunten (Yup’ik and Unangax), co-director of the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program and co-author of Keepunumuk with Danielle Hill and Tony Perry

Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy), director of Native American Cultural Program at the University of Connecticut

Break 1 Music: A Turtle’s Honour Song [NDN Jazz] (song) Mwalim (artist)

Break 2 Music: Burn Your Village to The Ground (single) The Halluci-Nation (artist)

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More than a year after Arizona cracked down on fake substance abuse treatment facilities following a $2.5 billion Medicaid fraud scam, hundreds of people can’t find adequate treatment. The scam swept up thousands of Native Americans and sought reimbursement for care they never received. An investigative report by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica also discovered continued confusion over Medicaid reimbursements that threatens the viability of the legitimate facilities cleared by the state to continue. We’ll get an update on the aftermath of the Medicaid scam and the ongoing effort to help people needing behavioral health care.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting continues to collect information about people affected by the interruption in behavioral health services. Those with information can write to info@azcir.org, or call 505-226-0626.

GUESTS

Reva Stewart (Navajo [Diné]), store owner of Shush Diné Native Shop, and founder of Stolen People Stolen Benefits and Turtle Island Women Warriors

Raquel Moody (White Mountain Apache and Hopi), advocate for Turtle Island Women Warriors

Walter Murillo (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), CEO of Native Health

Hannah Bassett, investigative reporter for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Break 1 Music: 1000 Mile Grin (song) Jason Benoit (artist)

Break 2 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album)

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A 1928 boarding school student attendance form shows the word “deserted”. (Courtesy National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive / NNABSHC)

A Navajo family tells the story in Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon, a new film about their relative Tadidinii, who was killed while refusing to return his daughter back to the boarding school from which she ran away. The men who killed him were acquitted. The family also gives tours of the part of Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation where Tadidinii hid out. Another Yerington Paiute boy repeatedly ran away and traveled the 50 miles back home until the boarding school administrators gave up. These are among the stories that descendants are uncovering about the dangers their relatives endured to resist forced attendance in boarding schools from the 1860s to the 1970s. We’ll hear some of the stories of danger, desperation, and courage.

GUESTS

Mitch Walking Elk (Cheyenne and Arapaho/Hopi), boarding school survivor

Judi gaiashkibos (Ponca/Santee Sioux), descendent and survivor of the Genoa Indian Industrial School, executive director of the Nebraska Commission of Indian Affairs, and co-chair of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project

Gabriann Hall (Klamath), adjunct professor at Central Oregon Community College

Kutoven “Ku” Stevens (Yerington Paiute), University of Oregon student

Logan Tsinigine (Diné), co-producer of the film Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon and chief financial officer of Taadidiin Tours LLC