Native America Calling

Koahnic
  • 4.8 (170)
  • News
  • Updated Daily

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

  1. 13h ago

    Friday, May 29, 2026 — The Menu: Dawn Butterfly Café, camas restoration, and the Indigenous food pyramid

    Taos and Skwah First Nation chef and entrepreneur Caprio “CJ” Bernal opened an expansion of their original coffee bar on Taos Pueblo. Dawn Butterfly Café is the new full-service cafe that grew from their starting concept in 2022. The name and energy that drives the project honors Bernal’s late sister. Camas, a wild purple flower with an onion-like bulb, has been an important plant for Native people, mainly in the northwest. This is the time of year for harvesting and cooking them. Some culture keepers are reconnecting with traditional teachings and recipes handed down across generations, but environmental and land use changes are setting up more access barriers. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is one tribe working to protect this significant plant through a series of projects. The Cultivating Culture reporting team created imagined an Indigenous version of the USDA’s food pyramid with plants and subsistence animals important to Native diets. It serves as a hub for an Indigenous food reporting project on how food and language fuels tribal sovereignty. The Menu is a regular feature on Indigenous food news and stories hosted by producer Andi Murphy. GUESTS Carpio “CJ” Bernal (Taos Pueblo and Skwah First Nation), owner and chef of Dawn Butterfly Café Jordan Mercier (Grand Ronde), cultural education coordinator at the Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center Shaun Griswold (Laguna, Jemez, and Zuni Pueblo), correspondent at High Country News and Native News Online

    57 min

  2. 1d ago

    Thursday, May 28, 2026 — Exploring home, culture, and personal resolve with writers Joan Kane and Sherman Funmaker

    Iñupiaq poet Joan Kane explores themes of home and colonial dispossession in her new poetry collection, “with snow pouring southward past the window“. Kane’s poems center on Iñupiaq worldviews and language, featuring masterful experimentation with form and imagery. Her critically acclaimed work has led to faculty appointments at Harvard University, Tufts University, and Reed College. She also recently edited “Circumpolar Connections: Creative Indigenous Geographies of the Arctic”, an anthology of Indigenous writings about the region. Ho-Chunk elder Sherman Funmaker just released his debut collection of poems and essays in “Bear Tracks“. He navigates the culture, family, loss, and racism he experienced growing up in Wisconsin. He writes with both emotional depth and humor about such life-changing decisions as dropping out of high school to be a rock-and-roll drummer and finding success as a writer later in life.

    57 min

  3. 2d ago

    Wednesday, May 27, 2026 — Oil drilling vs cultural preservation at Chaco Canyon

    The Trump administration is moving to undo a 20-year ban on oil and gas drilling near Chaco Canyon, a place of major cultural significance to pueblos in the Southwest. The threat of new oil leases on nearly 340,000 acres of public land surrounding Chaco Canyon has put the site on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of America’s Most Endangered Spaces. It is the second time on the same list for the land that is already a protected National Historic Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The moratorium was instituted in 2023 by then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is a Laguna Pueblo citizen. We’ll hear about the options ahead for the land and the cultural significance it holds. GUESTS Charles Riley, governor of Acoma Pueblo Brian Vallo (Acoma Pueblo), chairman of the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association and former governor of Acoma Pueblo Mario Atencio (Diné), Navajo allotment stakeholder

    57 min

  4. 3d ago

    Tuesday, May 26, 2026 – Border wall construction damaging sacred sites

    Construction crews working on the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona significantly damaged a 1,000-year-old geoglyph located in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. It’s one of a number of places tribes on both sides of the border say are damaged or are threatened by the fast-tracked construction process. Tribal leaders say such desecration is happening at a record pace after the Trump administration sidelined cultural and environmental barriers to construction. We’ll hear from cultural historians and policy experts about that is being lost and what can be done about it. GUESTS Emily Burgueno (Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel), chairwoman of the Kumeyaay Diegueño Land Conservancy David Martinez (Akimel O’odham, Hia-Ced O’odham and Mexican), professor of American Indian Studies and Transborder Studies and director and founder of the Institute for Transborder Indigenous Nations at Arizona State University Christina Leza (Yoeme and Chicana), professor of anthropology at Colorado College Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, professor of feminist studies, critical race and ethnic Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz

    57 min

  5. May 22

    Friday, May 22, 2026 — A conversation with Native wellness advocates Chelsea Luger and Thosh Collins

    Chelsey Luger (Anishinaabe/Lakota) and Thosh Collins (Onk Akimel O’Odham/Osage/Seneca) believe the best approaches to wellness are rooted in Indigenous knowledge. They draw from traditional teachings to find the most effective ways to improve one’s spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing. With their large social media presence, they educate others about healthy, traditional approaches to physical movement, sleep, masculinity, and parenthood. They are the authors of “The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well” and are slated to publish a few more books on wellness. The married couple join us for a discussion about living a full and grounded life.   Break 1 Music: This Love (song) Edzi’u (artist) Tunnel Vision (album) Break 2 Music: Traditional Side Step Song (song) Little Otter (artist) Side Step Songs (album)

    57 min

  6. May 21

    Thursday, May 21, 2026 – Nevada’s mining boom and Winnebago Tribe’s NAGPRA victory

    The U.S. government and private mining corporations are ignoring the rights of tribes to free, prior, and informed consent when it comes to lithium mining in Nevada, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The report comes amid the Trump administration’s fast tracking of metals and minerals extraction. With more than 20,000 active mining claims across the state, tribes are having to weigh how every new proposal would impact their communities. The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) applies to remains buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army. The decision gets the tribe one step closer to repatriating two children from the oldest Indian boarding school, and could establish legal precedent for federal agencies to comply with NAGPRA in the future. GUESTS Chairman Coly Brown (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) Beth Margaret Wright (Laguna Pueblo), senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund Fermina Stevens (Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone), executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project Clifford Banuelos (Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone), tribal-state environmental liaison for the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada   Break 1 Music: Chant Ancestral (song) Geneviève Gros-Louis (artist) Break 2 Music: Traditional Side Step Song (song) Little Otter (artist) Side Step Songs (album)

    57 min

  7. May 20

    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 on 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, 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

  8. May 19

    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
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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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