Native America Calling

Koahnic
  • 4.8 (169)
  • NEWS
  • UPDATED DAILY

Interactive, daily program featuring Native and Indigenous voices, insights, and stories from across the U.S. and around the world.

  1. 15H AGO

    Wednesday, May 20, 2026 – Native Playlist: Joy Harjo and Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band

    Former U.S. Poet Laureate and musician Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) immerses listeners in a diverse array of jazz styles and deeply emotional poetry in her new album, “Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace”. Co-produced by Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding, the album features originals and covers, including a re-interpretation of Charles Mingus’s “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”. Harjo also transforms her 2015 poem, “I Pray for My Enemies”, into a feverish, free-form composition, while “Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” draws on the power of traditional oral storytelling and “Stomp All Night” delivers a fun and funk-filled jam. Acclaimed jazz vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce) and the 16-piece ensemble of talented Native musicians known as the Indigenous Big Band make their album debut with “Incarnadine”. The album honors Native jazz pioneers like Mildred Bailey (Coeur d’Alene) and Jim Pepper (Kaw/Muscogee), as well as featuring innovative originals like “Wawasint8Da” and “Ddat Suite, MVT. 3 Iron Horse Gallup”. The ensemble continues to earn critical praise especially for their live performances, highlighted by their 2024 spring residency at the Kennedy Center. We’ll speak with both Joy Harjo and Julia Keefe about their new albums in this episode of Native Playlist, our regular feature on Indigenous music.

    57 min

  2. 1D AGO

    Tuesday, May 19, 2026 — Native Bookshelf: “Shards of Silence” and “That Which Feeds Us”

    Diné author Brian Lee Young puts much of his own experience in his first young adult novel, “Shards of Silence”. Protagonist Derrick Hoskie struggles with a grueling class schedule, homesickness, and the frustration over his classmates’ ignorance at a prestigious prep school. At the same time, he is researching the life of his ailing great-grandmother. It’s a story about coming of age, identity, and healing. Native Hawaiian writer Keala Kendall offers a different view of what many vacationing outsiders consider paradise in the supernatural thriller, “That Which Feeds Us”. Lehua follows the trail of her missing twin sister to the secluded Kōpa’a Island Resort in Hawaii. She recalls the stories her grandparents told of their homeland, which is now a commodity to wealthy resort patrons. A series of terrifying visions teach Lehua an all-too-real lesson about the land’s brutal past. We add both books to our Native Bookshelf.   Break 1 Music: Wahine U`i [Beautiful One] (song) Linda Dela Cruz (artist) Linda Dela Cruz Hawaii’s Canary (album) Break 2 Music: Traditional Side Step Song (song) Little Otter (artist) Side Step Songs (album)

    57 min

  3. 2D AGO

    Monday, May 18, 2026 – Trump administration takes aim at American buffalo

    The U.S. Department of Interior just canceled grazing leases for hundreds of bison on federal land in Montana. The action halts the progress of a well-funded private group, American Prairie, that has been buying up land and acquiring leases in an ambitious conservation plan. The group often provides bison to tribes that work to revive bison herds. The canceled leases also indicate a change in federal policy away from accommodating bison in favor of domesticated cattle to make federal lands more agriculturally productive. Many tribes say such actions jeopardize efforts to restore the animal that is intrinsically associated with Native Americans from the Great Plains. GUESTS OJ Semans Sr. (Rosebud Sioux), executive director of the Coalition of Large Tribes Heather Dawn Thompson (Cheyenne River Sioux), vice president of Native Nations Conservation and Food Sovereignty at the World Wildlife Fund Dallas Gudgell (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes), vice president of the Buffalo Field Campaign Keegan King (Acoma Pueblo), founder and CEO of the Native Land Institute Scott Heidebrink, director of landscape stewardship at American Prairie Break 1 Music: Buffalo (song) Algin Scabby Robe (artist) Along The Way: Round Dance Songs (album) Break 2 Music: Traditional Side Step Song (song) Little Otter (artist) Side Step Songs (album)

    57 min

  4. 5D AGO

    Friday, May 15, 2026 – Native In The Spotlight: Washington State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis

    Raquel Montoya-Lewis (Isleta and Laguna Pueblos) built an impressive legal career that includes a foundation at tribal court systems in the Pacific Northwest. That career led her to become the first Native American to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court. She is only the second Native jurist in the country to hold a supreme court seat. That position is also a platform to educate others about her unique family lineage, offering a personal account of the history and policies that make up Native Americans’ shared experience.   Break 1 Music: Chant (song) Robert Mirabal + Ethel (artist) The River (album) Break 2 Music: Fearless I Live (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

    57 min

  5. 6D AGO

    Thursday, May 14, 2026 – Native American voting rights advocates brace for diminished Native power at the polls

    The U.S. Supreme Court has, in the words of the Native American Rights Fund, diluted Native Americans’ “ability to secure good schools, adequate infrastructure, health care access, environmental protections, and economic opportunity.” Louisiana is moving fast to redraw voting districts to further minimize the political power of Native Americans and other minorities. Other states are preparing similar changes. The High Court’s recent invalidation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act follows the 2013 decision striking down the Act’s Section 5. That eliminates the most powerful tools Native voters had in challenging the long history of demonstrated efforts to exclude Native voices from political dialogue. We’ll examine the looming implications of the Court’s decisions and examine the strategies Native voting advocates have going forward. We’ll also discuss some important indicators for Native candidates in pivotal races, including the potential for history to be made in the upcoming Midterm Elections. GUESTS Patty Ferguson-Bohnee (Pointe-au-Chien), professor of law at Arizona State University and Native Vote Election Protection coordinator for the State of Arizona Torey Dolan (Choctaw), assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School Samantha Blencke, senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock), journalist and former editor of ICT Marjorie Childress, managing editor of New Mexico In Depth   Break 1 Music: Fool’s Paradise (song) Samantha Crain (artist) Gumshoe (album) Break 2 Music: Fearless I Live (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

    57 min

  6. MAY 13

    Wednesday, May 13, 2026 – How Indigenous knowledge built the foundation for today’s response to the hantavirus outbreak

    New infections aboard a cruise ship have thrust the hantavirus into the global spotlight. Hantavirus infections remain rare, with only about 1,000 cases reported in the U.S. in more than 30 years. What the world knows about the illness started in 1993 on the Navajo Nation. After struggling to identify the dangerous respiratory illness, medical researchers gained crucial insights from Navajo elders, noting that traditional oral histories had long associated spikes in deer mouse populations — driven by specific rainfall patterns — with deadly disease. That knowledge directly informed the scientific discovery of what we know now as the Sin Nombre virus. The discovery also offers a lesson in public notification of diseases. Early media reports labelled the pathogen as the “Navajo flu”, which stigmatized the community for years afterward. We’ll look at the history of the hantavirus and the current efforts to prevent its spread. GUESTS Dean Seneca (Seneca), CEO of Seneca Scientific Solutions+, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo, and Adjunct Instructor at University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Dr. Steven Bradfute, associate professor in the Center for Global Health at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Dr. Erin Phipps, New Mexico State public health veterinarian  Dr. Victoria Sutton (Lumbee), distinguished Horn Professor at Texas Tech University School of Law Dr. Jonathan Iralu, Indian Health Service infectious diseases physician   Break 1 Music: Healing Song (song) Judy Trejo (artist) Circle Dance Songs of the Paiute and Shoshone (album) Break 2 Music: Fearless I Live (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

    57 min

  7. MAY 12

    Tuesday, May 12, 2026 – High gas prices eat into business profits and personal budgets

    The cost of fuel is a major expenditure for farmers, commercial fishermen, long-haul truckers, and dozens of other businesses. The persistently high cost of gas since February’s start of the Iran War is eroding the profit margin for those businesses. They ultimately either absorb those costs, pass them on to customers, or shut down. For individuals, the price of oil is showing up in everything from people’s vacation plans to how much they heat their homes at night. We’ll hear about where the cost of petroleum shows up beyond just the gas pump and how Native businesses and individuals are coping. GUESTS Boyd Gourneau (Lower Brule Sioux), chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Bill McCabe (Diné), principal of McCabe and Associates Jason Pitre (Houma), owner of Bayou Rosa Oysters Kiera McCabe (Diné), founder of Skoden Farm Lionel Bigthumb (Diné), co-owner and CEO of Blackstreak Holdings   Break 1 Music: Mr. Businessman’s Blues (song) DM Lafortune (artist) Beauty and Hard Times (album) Break 2 Music: Fearless I Live (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

    57 min

  8. MAY 11

    Monday, May 11, 2026 – What’s in the near future for urban elder health care?

    A dedicated effort to learn more about Native elders living in urban areas reveals they suffer a high rate of chronic illnesses and have limited social interactions. Those conclusions come from the most recent Native Urban Elder Needs Assessment Survey that aims to fill a void of information about the needs of Native American elders — the vast majority of whom live in cities. The survey is among the efforts to better understand and provide effective services for Native elders. The effort is all the more pressing as federal cuts to Medicaid and Medicare approach, costs for medical care rise, and pressure increases to cut support for the Indian Health Service. GUESTS Dr. Collette Adamson (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians), director of the National Resource Center on Native American Aging and research assistant professor at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences University of North Dakota Michael Bird (Kewa Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh), past president of the American Public Health Association and past national consultant for AARP Dr. Emily Haozous (Fort Sill Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe), research scientist for the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation   Break 1 Music: Grandmother’s Song (song) Fawn Wood (artist) Iskwewak (album) Break 2 Music: Fearless I Live (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

    57 min
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4.8
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About

Interactive, daily program featuring Native and Indigenous voices, insights, and stories from across the U.S. and around the world.

Information

  • Creator
    Koahnic
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    300
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Koahnic Broadcast Corporation - All rights reserved - Contact nola@nv1.org for permission
  • Show Website
    Native America Calling

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