Native America Calling

More than 350 Indigenous artists will gather as the Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival marks its sixth year at the Pueblo of Pojoaque. It continues to grow its draw and reputation on what is a busy time for Native arts in northern New Mexico. In addition to individual booths for artists across disciplines, the event includes a substantial Native-centered film and media celebration and live musical performances from a number of notab...

Researcher and writer Thomas Michael Swensen (Tangirnaq Native Village) takes music fans to the fascinating intersection of punk music and Native America in his new book, “Where Next, Columbus?: A Native Punk Mixtape“. He explores some of the unlikely places where this intersection appears, from Alaska to the Southwest to the Black Hills of South Dakota. He thoroughly dissects Native punk music, zines, videos, and art i...

A frequent location of summer wildfires, eastern Washington State, is suffering one of the most destructive fires seasons in memory. Fires on the Confederate Tribes of Colville Reservation have prompted evacuations and destroyed more than 50 homes and other structures. They are among the some 700 buildings destroyed in the current fire season in the state. On Oregon’s Warm Springs Reservation, fires started early and were fue...

Voters will soon find out whether the bid by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Ojibwe/D-MN) to become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate clears the primary election hurdle in a hotly-contested race. It is one of the many races with Native candidates that are coming into clearer focus after a summer of primaries. Native women are particularly well represented in national and statewide races and some progre...

A dangerous secret lurks just under the surface in the play, “Bad Medicine,” making its debut at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Written by P.C. Verrone (Osage and Kiowa) and produced with a largely Native cast, it is a live production that claims elements of both horror and comedy. It comes with a warning that it “sheds light on how settler colonialism dehumanizes and exploits Indigenous peoples.”

Brooklyn, N.Y.&rs...

Two separate instances are putting Native authority related to religious freedom to the test.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe demands the Christian ministry, Foundations Nations Church, leave the Wyoming reservation. The demand comes after video circulated on social media showed one of the church’s pastors characterizing Native sacred practices — including the Sun Dance — as “idol worship” and “demoni...

Tribes that collectively make up the largest water rights holders along the Colorado River say the Trump Administration’s newest plan to deal with diminishing water levels is inadequate. Tribal leaders say they were left out of the decision making process and are now in store for serious water use cuts that violate existing water rights agreements as well as the federal government’s trust responsibility. We’ll hea...

The Osage language was declared dead in 2005 after its last fluent speaker died, but revitalization efforts since then have built the number of proficient speakers to about 40. The Caddo Nation continues its extensive language revitalization efforts more than a year after its last fluent speaker walked on. It’s an uphill battle for most tribes in the U.S. to retain their language. The new book, “How to Kill a Language: ...

Tribal public health officials are among those reassuring citizens about the safety of their food as reports of new cases of cyclospora infections continue to rise. Michigan continues to be a hotspot with state officials reporting more than 11,000 cases. The actual number is likely much higher than that. One hurdle in tracking the cyclosporiasis outbreak is it has a long incubation period and it can’t be traced through the ge...

Over the course of a few days, a gang war erupts on the fictional Thunderstone reservation in the new film, “Gangland”. Officer Teddy Sharpe (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his trainee must navigate a community affected by a dark secret. The new film features several talented Native actors including Lane Factor (Caddo), Elisha Pratt (Cheyenne and Arapaho), Irene Bedard (Iñupiaq, Yup’ik and Cree), and more.

The famed ch...

Renowned chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache, Navajo) admits he hid his alcoholism fairly well as he was making a name for himself as a Native chef throughout the 2000s. His memoir, “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef“, details his arduous recovery and how food and the kitchen helped him figure out his purpose and path to healing.

In the debut children’s novel by Christine Ha...

A bill making its way through Congress offers new hope for five Native communities in Southeast Alaska to secure their own land for the first time. For more than 50 years following the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), the five tribes left out of the pivotal agreement that fundamentally changed tribal governance and land ownership in the state have been working to secure their homelands. Tribal leaders celebrated as the ...

A coalition of rural Alaska Native villages is launching an initiative to boost veterinary care as a way to improve public health. They aim to cut down on the increasing number of feral dogs that pose a risk to residents by offering better spay and neuter services. They also hope a vaccination program can lower the spread of rabies. Alaska Native Rural Veterinary Inc. and the Alaska Federation of Natives are moving ahead after fede...

Longtime Phoenix-based professional strongman Jerry Pritchett (Chickasaw) isn’t ready to retire just yet. For now, his focus is on his son, Bubba, who at 15 years old, recently locked out a 615-pound deadlift at a competition. Pritchett is a veteran strongman and powerlifter who was named America’s Strongest Man in 2017 and was later named a World’s Strongest Man finalist. Other Native strongmen who have earned pr...

Some residents of Zuni Pueblo in northwestern New Mexico were forced to evacuate their homes due to severe flash flooding earlier this week. The community is bracing for more storms and flooding as the monsoon season continues. Tribal leadership is working to protect tribal members and historical structures. We’ll get an update from community members, and the Pueblo’s governor, on recovery efforts and the damage caused.

More than 35 First Nations in Canada have active drinking water advisories, but a new federal bill aims to address the issue. Indigenous leaders are critical of the bill and argue that it limits federal liability and fails to protect clean water as a basic human right. Some Indigenous communities have been without clean water since the 1960s, leading First Nations leaders to demand legislative fixes to industrial pollution and long...

Around 200 wildfires are currently burning across the country and nearly 900 are burning in Canada. Large swaths of the northeastern U.S. are blanketed in heavy, hazardous smoke coming from widespread wildfires burning in northern Minnesota and Ontario. In the neighboring Canadian province, three First Nations communities were forced to evacuate after fires ripped through their remote reserves. Significant drought and decades of ha...

Acclaimed Diné writer and Arizona’s current poet laureate, Dr. Laura Tohe, is working to share her poetry across the state’s rural communities. That includes public readings and uplifting young, emerging poets in the state. Growing up in a remote community on the Navajo Nation, Tohe demonstrated a firm grasp of both Diné bizaad and English at an early age. She attributes that to growing up in a family of storytellers, i...

Conservation groups and at least two Pacific Northwest tribes filed lawsuits against the federal government after it redefined “harm” in the Endangered Species Act earlier this month. Now, destruction of habitat is no longer considered “harm” to endangered wildlife. Supporters of the move say it lifts burdensome restrictions to land management and development. Environmental groups and tribes like the Swinomi...