Native America Calling

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

The American Revolution succeeded in making the 13 colonies independent from Britain, but for Native Americans, the war resulted in displacement from their homelands and an expansion of American encroachment. As the country gears up for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. declaring its independence, Native reenactors and historians are working to bring Native peoples’ involvement in key moments of this time in history to life. Their work spans events from the Siege of Boston to the divisions the war spurred within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We’ll hear from Native historians about the effort to better portray the time of the American Revolution with accuracy and authenticity.

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.

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.

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”

New Mexico is taking on an investigation into the sterilization of Native American women through coercion, deception, or by merely carrying out procedures entirely without consent. The state is mainly looking at time in the 1970s following the establishment of the federal Office of Population Affairs and a policy change that increased reimbursements for outside doctors contracting with Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities for each procedure. Native Americans were included in groups targeted for sterilizations because of the false impression they were less intelligent and that they were not as productive members of society as other groups. In 10 years, Native American birth rates were more than halved. Other states and Canada have broached the topic of forced sterilization that tried to formalize racist policies in the name of public health. New Mexico is the first to take aim at the role IHS clinics played in carrying out the policies.