Before Indian self-determination became federal law, a cohort of angry and disillusioned Native college students, including a young Ponca student named Clyde Warrior, helped lay the foundation for the Red Power movement and inspire the American Indian Movement. Warrior became a pivotal co-founder of the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), an activist group that protested federal termination policies and rejected assimilation and government paternalism. He and other members participated in the March on Washington and the fish-ins in the Pacific Northwest, and met with U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-New York, to discuss Native education. Through fiery speeches, Warrior inspired Dennis Banks and others to become activists and take pride in their Native identity. We’ll talk about the late Clyde Warrior and the groundwork laid by NIYC.

GUESTS

Della Warrior (Otoe-Missouria), former chairperson of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, president and CEO of the Multi-Indigenous Community Action (MICA) Group, and the late wife to Clyde Warrior

Darius Lee Smith (Diné), executive director of the National Indian Youth Council

John Redhouse (Diné and Ute), longtime Native American activist

Break 1 Music: Ponca War Dance Song 1 (song) Albert Waters, Alice Cook, Harry Buffalohead, Joe H. Rush, Lamont Brown, Louis Yellow Horse, Lucy C. F. Ribs, Russell Rush (2), Stella Yellow Horse, Sylvester Warrior (artist) War Dance Songs Of The Ponca – Vol. I (album)

Break 2 Music: KuuPua (song) The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (artist) Incarnadine (album)

The Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe failed to stop the federal government from rounding up hundreds of wild horses this summer from public land next to their reservation at the California-Nevada border. It’s part of the government’s larger plan to remove about 14,000 wild horses from public lands in several western states in 2026. Wild horse roundups are a controversial issue that has tribes weighing environmental health, animal wellbeing, and horse culture. We’ll talk with Native advocates about the challenges wild horses are up against in the face of drought and environmental changes.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Indian National Finals Rodeo. The annual event gathers the best Native rodeo athletes from across the Americas who are vying for fastest time and big scores. Randy “The Cherokee Cowboy” Taylor (Cherokee) joins us for an update from the 50th INFR in Las Vegas.

GUESTS

Ronda Kauk (Mono Lake Kutzadika’a Tribe), executive director for the Indigenous Wild Horse Society and a cultural monitor for the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe

Rana Saulque (Utu Utu Gwaitu Benton Paiute), vice chair of the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation and co-founder of the Indigenous Wild Horse Society

Jason Smith (Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs), owner of Jason Smith Ranch

Randy Taylor (Cherokee), Cowboy, professional rodeo announcer, and host of our sister program “Word with a Champ”

Break 1 Music: My Horse (song) Courtney Yellow Fat (artist) The Lost Songs of Sitting Bull (album)

Break 2 Music: KuuPua (song) The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (artist) Incarnadine (album)

“The Blue Corn Kitchen” by Alana Yazzie (Diné) gives young reader’s a glimpse of the traditional corn-based Navajo foods many Navajo grandmothers have stocked in their kitchens. It’s the latest project from the self-made, Navajo lifestyle and food blogger who also goes by The Fancy Navajo.

Howdy Cakes is a new pastry and cake business by Diné culinarian, Liz McKenzie. It’s in partnership with a start-up mini food hall in Albuquerque.

And, on the National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools, we’ll take a look at the negative effects the institutions had on Native foodways.

GUESTS

Liz McKenzie (Diné), culinarian and cake artist; owner of Howdy Cakes, owner of Prickly Foods, and partner for La Carinderia

Alana Yazzie (Diné), creator and owner of the lifestyle and food blog, The Fancy Navajo, and author of “The Blue Corn Kitchen”

A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti and Kiowa), senior vice president of research and strategy for First Nations Development Institute

Break 1 Music: Yacca Banana Song [Two-Step Dance Song] (song) Sweethearts of Navajoland (artist) From the Heart of Diné Nation Traditional Songs of the Navajo (album)

Break 2 Music: Suquamish Drum Songs 2015 (song) Sacred Water Canoe Family (artist)

At a time when Canada is reflecting on the painful history of residential schools, Indigenous leaders are having to speak out against organized efforts to minimize the harms inflicted on generations of Indigenous children. Just days before Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, white nationalists gathered near the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The incident drew condemnation from Prime Minister Mark Carney and First Nations leaders. After witnessing what they say is an increase in sophisticated misleading public messages, Canadian elected officials are considering legislation to ban residential school denialism. We’ll explore the trend to minimize and distort an era of forced assimilation of subsequent abuse of children and the challenges for addressing it.

GUESTS

Nikki Fraser (Secwépemc), Acting Kúkwpi7 of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc

Pamela Palmater (Mi’kmaq), lawyer, professor, author, speaker and podcaster

Eleanore Sunchild (Cree from Thunderchild First Nation), Indigenous human rights attorney and the owner of Sunchild Law

Break 1 Music: Healing Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)

Break 2 Music: Suquamish Drum Songs 2015 (song) Sacred Water Canoe Family (artist)

From the original Cherokee syllabary to banners waved by Native American demonstrators, graphic works by Native people carry a thread through the centuries that operate within their own design framework. A new book and accompanying gallery exhibition, “Designed to be Red”, documents and celebrates that thread of visual works by Native designers that exert agency and authority over their own stories. The project compiles examples of purposeful visual rhetoric by Native Americans meant to teach, persuade, resist, and share within an environment that so often dismisses Native input. We’ll talk with Native designers about the project and the unique role Native designs play.

GUESTS

Brian Johnson (Monacan Indian Nation), partner of Polymode design studio

Heidi Brandow (Kanaka Maoli and Diné), editor of “Designed to be Red”, artist, and curator

Dr. Jessica Moore Harjo (Otoe-Missouria, Osage, Pawnee, and Sac & Fox). interdisciplinary artist and graphic designer

Kevin Coochwytewa (Isleta Pueblo and Hopi), freelance graphic designer and creative director

Break 1 Music: A Turtle’s Honour Song [NDN Jazz] (song) Mwalim (artist)

Break 2 Music: Suquamish Drum Songs 2015 (song) Sacred Water Canoe Family (artist)

At a time when tribes across the country are working to shut down prediction market companies, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana is embracing them by launching its own mobile app with the help of industry giant, Kalshi. The Tunica-Biloxi chairman says his tribe is “creating a new source of economic opportunity and doing it on its own terms.” That is decidedly counter to the other tribes that argue the prediction market platforms pose a direct threat, siphoning off gaming revenue, and sidestepping the strictly regulated federal laws governing Indian casinos. We’ll hear about the plans for the new app — and potential hurdles.

We’ll also hear from entrepreneur, writer, and computer programmer Miguel Douglas (Puyallup Tribe of Indians) about his work to improve visibility for Native-owned businesses with his latest app, Nativepreneurs.

GUESTS

Marshall Pierite (Tunica-Biloxi), chairman and CEO of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana

Chez Oxendine (Lumbee), staff writer for Tribal Business News

Miguel Douglas (Puyallup), developer of the Nativepreneurs app, chief technology officer at Bella & Belle, and editor-in-chief of American Indian Republic

Break 1 Music: Fire On the Bayou (song) Big Chief Alfred Doucette (artist) Rollin’ Wit Da Legends & Marie Laveau (album)

Break 2 Music: War Dance Song (song) Sander Heath, Ed Spino, Byton Patt, Nathan Jim, Duane Miller, and Rudy Clements (artist) 16 Songs by Warm Springs Confederated Tribes (album)

The Trump administration’s proposal to remove questions about a person’s race for the U.S. Census is sparking alarm among tribal leaders, voting rights advocates, and social service providers. They say it will significantly impede tribes’ political representation at the state and federal levels and reduce access to federal resources, adding up to a serious erosion of tribal sovereignty. Counting the racial makeup of the country has been a function of the constitutionally mandated decennial census since it started in 1790. The Census Bureau proposes changing it to help improve response rates. We’ll hear what changes are potentially in store from the U.S. Census and what the implications are for Native residents.

GUESTS

Gwynne Evans-Lomayesva (Hopi), Ph.D candidate in sociology and demography at the University of Pennsylvania

C. Matthew Snipp (Cherokee), professor of sociology at Stanford University and the director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity

Larry Wright Jr. (Ponca), executive director for the National Congress of American Indians

Aaron Payment (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), tribal councilman, former chairperson for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and a member of the executive board for the National Congress of American Indians

Break 1 Music: Hopi Basket Dance (song) David Taliewiftema, Hopi Singers from Second Mesa (artist) Traditional Voices: Historic Recordings of Traditional Native American Music (album)

Break 2 Music: War Dance Song (song) Sander Heath, Ed Spino, Byton Patt, Nathan Jim, Duane Miller, and Rudy Clements (artist) 16 Songs by Warm Springs Confederated Tribes (album)

Composer, singer, and ethnomusicologist Jeremy Dutcher (Wolastoqiyik) is taking his music on an international tour that includes performing in Taiwan and Japan with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Dutcher’s music continues to draws fans around the world following the release of two acclaimed albums in his Native language, featuring his distinctive tenor voice. His latest album, “Motewolonuwok“, won the Polaris Music Prize. We’ll catch up with him about his latest projects, including the soundtrack to the film “Sk+te’kmujue’katik” (“The Place of Ghosts”), a Mi’kmaq supernatural thriller that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Automatic” is the upcoming second solo album from musician Mali Obomsawin (Odanak First Nation). Obomsawin pushes her avant-garde jazz and experimental sound further than she did on her debut album, “Sweet Tooth”. The new album is bold, explosive, colorful, and ambient with a haunting closing track. We’ll discuss the new album as well as her work with the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, her rock-shoegaze band Deerlady, and her attempt to “make a record institutions can’t own.”

Break 1 Music: Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok (song) Jeremy Dutcher (artist) Motewolonuwok (album)

Break 2 Music: War Dance Song (song) Sander Heath, Ed Spino, Byton Patt, Nathan Jim, Duane Miller, and Rudy Clements (artist) 16 Songs by Warm Springs Confederated Tribes (album)

Track 1 – Take My Hand (song) Jeremy Dutcher (artist) Motewolonuwok (album)

Track 2 – Automatic (song) Mali Obomsawin (artist) Automatic [release date Oct 16, 2026] (album)

Track 3 – Malian (song) Jeremy Dutcher (artist) Motewolonuwok (album)