American Indian Airwaves American Indian Airwaves

Today we go to the state of Alaska which is home to 229 federally recognized Native American nations. Our guest joins us for the hour to share her experiences at the United Nations Environmental Programme 4th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (April 23rd-29th, 2024), including the United States violations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, U.S. militarism, plastic colonization from the violent legacy of the American petroleum and chemical companies maiming, MMIWG2+, and the wounding and killing life throughout the Arctic region combined forms are intensifying the process of genocide and are placing Indigenous peoples throughout the Arctic Circumpolar Region futures at risk.

There are more than 13 million people from more than 40 ethnic groups and Indigenous nations inhabiting the Arctic Circumpolar North region and all face real and formidable risks and threats from the climate crises, state-corporate violence, other compounded forms of settler colonial violence, including the intergenerational harms caused from plastic colonization.
With the annual plastic production doubling in 20 years to 460 million tons, plastic contributions to global warming could more than double by 2060 if current rates remain unchanged. Plastic colonization severely impacts the Arctic region and it is, in fact, a “hemispheric sink” where plastics and petrochemicals from the South (of the Arctic region) accumulate, leaving Indigenous communities and nations to bear the brunt of pollution that did not come from their traditional lands.

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee 4th Session was held from April 23rd to April 29th, 2024 in Ottawa, Cananda. The meeting, nonetheless, was attended by 480 observer organizations, including environmental NGOs and 196 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists and its purposes was for all parties to develop a legally binding instrument that ultimately would eliminate toxic plastic productions as one way to stop plastic colonialism, the killing life on the Mother Earth, and help reduce the impacts of the climate crises. Listen to hear what happened and how Indigenous peoples and nations were treated.

Guest:
Vi Waghiyi, Sivuqaq Yupik, Native Village of Savoonga Tribal Citizen, grandmother, mother, activist, and she is the Environmental Health and Justice Director with the Alaska Community Action on Toxics (https://www.akaction.org).

Vi Waghiyi is a nationally recognized environmental justice leader and is frequently invited to speak locally, nationally, and internationally. Vi serves as a leader of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus that advises the United Nation’s international delegates for treaties concerning persistent organic pollutants. She served as a member of the Environmental Health Sciences Council that advises the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Native Village of Savoonga is located on what is colonially known as the St. Lawrence Island which is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea.

See the co-authored Alaska Community Action on Toxics and IPEN April 2024 report titled: The Arctic’s Plastic Crisis: Toxic Threats to Health, Human Rights, and Indigenous Lands From the Petrochemical Industry.

Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

Today on American Indian Airwaves we go to the Barbareño band of the Chumash Nation in the Santa Barbara County area to a Chumash sacred site respectfully known as Shalawa. Approximately three-acres of Shalawa remains and to non-Native American peoples, the place is commonly referred to as “Hammonds Meadow” and “Sea Meadow”.

Since Spanish colonialization beginning, Shalawa has always been threatened by settler colonial violence. However, in 1985 the United Chumash Council, the Barbareño Chumash Tribal Council, the Board of Supervisors in Santa Barbara, CA, to name just a few parties, executed an agreement to protect Shalawa. In addition, several documents were produced by various parties re-stating the laws and commitments to protecting this sacred site.

Today on American Indian Airwaves listeners are joined by David Bluewolf Diaz (Chumash Nation) and Marcus Lopez (Barbareño band of the Chumash Nation), co-host and executive producer of American Indian Airwaves. Both individuals have been tirelessly working to protect Shalawa for more than 35 years and on today’s program listeners will hear how both Indigenous community activists clearly demonstrate how the current Hammond Meadow – Shalawa Preservation and Restoration Plan, is rife with government malfeasance – from the local to national levels -, gross negligence, and if the restoration plan is fully executed, it will result in the ultimate desecration of Shalawa. Tune in, to learn the history of land, the historical and contemporary struggles to protect Shalawa, and what people can do to stop this settler colonial violence.

Guest:
• David Bluewolf Diaz (Chumash Nation) and Marcus Lopez (Chumash Nation and the Barbareño Chumash Tribal Council of Santa Barbara, https://bctcsb.com/).

Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

As of 4/23/2024 at least 34,183 Palestinians have been killed; 77,143 wounded have been wounded; over 8,000 Palestinians are missing, and over 50% of all Palestinian homes have been destroyed as a result of the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. Meanwhile, common diseases such as hepatitis and meningitis, to name a few, are rapidly spreading throughout Gaza. In fact, it is estimated that 15 people are killed - six are children every hour in Gaza. In the Occupied West Bank, at least 487 Palestinians have been killed, more than 4,800 have been injured, and over 7,350 have been arrested since March 2024. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7th, 2023, attacks stand at 1,139 with dozens still held captive in Gaza.

In the United States American Citizens Constitutionally protected free speech rights and the right to assembly are constantly being attacked by universities and colleges. Recently, USC cancelled Asna Tabassum, a graduating senior at USC, valedictorian’s graduation speech. She was selected as valedictorian and offered a traditional slot to speak at the 2024 graduation. In addition, Columbia University has suspended the campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, citing “University policies” regulating “the time, place and manner of certain forms of public expression.” To date, more than 100 students have been arrested.

Join us for the hour on American Indian Airwaves as our guest draws on the parallels between the legacy of settler colonial violence here in the United States to Israel’s violence and war on Palestine and Palestinians, from past to present, and what does peace look like for all life on Mother Earth. All that and more!

Guest:
o Adam Gottlieb, Jewish musician, poet, peace movement organizer in Chicago, IL; and a cantor with Tzedek Chicago, an anti-Zionist synagogue.

Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

The “Peace and Dignity Journeys” is an indigenous and First Nation ceremonial run that invites the participation of Native and non-Native individuals committed to the survival of Native American cultures, nations, and the uniting of the indigenous peoples across Turtle Island (North, Central and South America). With its roots in traditions of running as prayer and as an expression of indigenous cultural self-determination, the Peace & Dignity Journeys was formally established in 1990 in Quito, Ecuador at a gathering of over two hundred representatives from different Indigenous nations from throughout the western hemisphere.

The 6,000-mile, seven-month spiritual relay run takes place every four years and this year runners will begin in Fairbanks, Alaska running south and in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina running north, eventually all runners will converge and meet El Cuaca, Columbia. Tune in to hear our guests discuss this year’s significantly important Peace and Journeys 2024 ceremonial run, the organizational coordination for the preparation across Turtle Island, and how people can help and who can participate. This year’s Peace and Dignity Journeys starts in May 2024.

Guests:
Eddie Gonzales and Marcus Vargas are organizers and co-chairs for the Peace and Dignity Journeys 2024 – Central Coast. For more information, you can visit: www.peacedignitycentralcoast.org

Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

With Hollywood film production costs easily exceeding millions of dollars per film, and given the constant marginalization, erasures, and stereotypes about Native Americans and Indigenous peoples for more than a century, as well as the film industry’s chronic unwillingness to unconditionally support an abundance of Native American film productions, distributions, and exhibitions, many Native Americans film writers, producers, and directors find themselves working independently outside of the Hollywood-entertainment media system.

Our guest for the hour is the writer, director and producer of a new feature film, The Heart Stays (2024), a coming-of-age story about two Osage sisters. Cast with veteran and non-veteran Native American actors/actresses, our guest for the hour emphasizes the unique artistic importance of the film, demonstrates how the film’s story is an artistically superior method of Native storytelling, and expresses how a unique community-based business model was used to produce The Heart Stays. Tune in for the hour to hear our guest explain how and where the film was made and how this ground-breaking and newly produced featured film is truly a Native American film that all must experience and see.

The Heart Stays was released on March 26th, 2024, and is available on a variety of digital streaming platforms including, but not limited to: Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, and DirecTV.

Guest:
• Diane Fraher (Osage/Cherokee Nations), founder and director of Amerinda Inc., a community-based multi-arts organization that works to empower Native Americans. She also the writer, director and producer of a new feature film, The Heart Stays (2024), a coming-of-age story about two Osage sisters filmed on Osage Nation.

Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

Once numbering at least 40-60 million, settler colonial men once hunted the buffalo through the train windows for sport – who had the most kills. By 1890, however, there were less than 1,000 buffalo with only 23 surviving in Yellowstone’s Pelican Valley. Today, in Yellowstone National Park, the buffalo are trapped for slaughter and quarantine. In fact, once migrating into Montana, the buffalo are under the control of the Department of Livestock instead of Yellowstone Park National Service. When trapped, the buffalo are often tested for Brucellosis – the disease given to them by cattle.

In Gardiner, MT, a group of 28 buffalo migrating into Gardiner Basin were recently trapped by Yellowstone National Park at Stephens Creek near Gardiner, Montana. The group was the first buffalo to migrate into the basin this season. Another group of 49 buffalo migrated beyond Yellowstone National Park’s trap and the remaining buffalo retreated from the National Forest to Yellowstone National Park.

Today on American Indian Airwaves, our guest provides in-depth updates on the U.S. National Park Services failed Bison Management program and the Yellowstone National Park continued operations causing the depopulation of the last remaining original genetically pure buffalo herds (~9,000), the failed Endangered Species Act, how the climate crises is impacting the ecosystems throughout the region and the buffalo relations, as well as how the U.S. government’s divide and conquer strategy in creating buffalo policies simultaneous benefits larger Native American nations buffalo management programs from far way compared to local and smaller Native American nations near the Yellowstone Nation Park regions. Moreover, our guest highlights the cultural importance of the buffalo relations for Native American lifeways and what is threatening the cultural sustainability for future Native America nations.

Guest:
• James Holt Sr. (Nimiipuu Nation), Executive Director of the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), and the board member for International Wildlife Coexistance Network

Archived programs can be heard on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp