Native Voice One (NV1)

10/31/2025

The practice of celebrating dead ancestors started long before Spanish colonizers came to what is now Mexico, but the Aztec and Mayan custom eventually engulfed the entire country, blending Catholic, Spanish, and Indigenous elements into what is now Dia de los Mu***os. The festival even spills into parts of the U.S. Some people with Mexican Indigenous ties are working to cut through the contemporary pop culture trappings of the holiday and reconnect with the deeper, more spiritual origins.

We’ll also hear about Vision Maker Media’s expanded push to train and support young filmmakers to tell stories driven by mission. The Native Youth Media Project partners with tribes, organizations, and individuals to develop storytellers at a time when federal support for such projects has disappeared.

GUESTS

Janet Martinez (Zapotec), executive director of Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo - cielo

Kurly Tlapoyawa (Chicano and Nahua), archaeologist and co-host of the Tales From Aztlantis podcast

Francene Blythe (Diné, Sisseton Wahpeton and Eastern Band of Cherokee), executive director of Vision Maker Media

Anita Huízar-Hernández, associate director of the ASU Hispanic Research Center and publisher and managing editor of the Bilingual Press at Arizona State University

The practice of celebrating dead ancestors started long before Spanish colonizers came to what is now Mexico, but the Aztec and Mayan custom eventually engulfed the entire country, blending Catholic, Spanish, and Indigenous elements into what is now Dia de los Mu***os. The festival even spills into....

10/30/2025

Julian Brave Noisecat’s re-established relationship with his estranged father is the jumping off point for recounting the lives of the author and his family. "We Survived The Night" is a story both unique and familiar that Noisecat delivers with a mix of journalism, memoir, and his Secwepemc people’s traditional storytelling. Coming off the acclaim that includes an Oscar nomination for his documentary, "Sugarcane", Noisecat provides a deeper look into the personal experience, family lore, and neglected historical accounts that make up who he is.

Julian Brave Noisecat’s re-established relationship with his estranged father is the jumping off point for recounting the lives of the author and his family. "We Survived The Night" is a story both unique and familiar that Noisecat delivers with a mix of journalism, memoir, and his Secwepemc peopl...

10/29/2025

Federal food assistance is set to stop November 1 if lawmakers are unable to solve the government shutdown. That means the supply of food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to low-income Native Americans will begin running out without help from alternative sources. Some tribes are putting funds and other efforts toward filling the sudden gap. At least one tribe is culling their own buffalo herds to provide meat for hungry citizens. We’ll get an overview of the situation for Native residents who rely on SNAP.

We’ll also hear about the lengths to which Alaska Native organizations are working to provide traditional foods to the people displaced by major storms on the state’s west coast.

GUESTS

Carly Griffith-Hotvedt (Cherokee), executive director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative

Lyle Rutherford (Blackfeet), Blackfeet Tribal Councilman

Kelsey Ciugun Wallace (Yup’ik and Irish), president and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center

Federal food assistance is set to stop November 1 if lawmakers are unable to solve the government shutdown. That means the supply of food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to low-income Native Americans will begin running out without help from alternative sources. Some tri...

10/28/2025

A struggle over who is running the Northern Cheyenne tribal government has resulted in arrests of government officials, frozen bank accounts, and an emergency action by traditional tribal leaders to ban women from voting. The divide started after newly elected President Gene Small authorized a forensic financial audit. Another long-standing divide is coming to a head on the Navajo Nation, prompting President Buu Nygren to state he will not resign his position. We’ll talk with reporters covering these two internal government disputes and take a look at some other notable issues and events.

GUESTS

Krista Allen (Diné), editor of the Navajo Times

Thomas Tortez (Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians), former chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians

Brad Lopes (Aquinnah Wampanoag), Native American Teacher Retention Initiative program manager and former classroom teacher

Nora Mabie, Indigenous affairs reporter with Montana Free Press

A struggle over who is running the Northern Cheyenne tribal government has resulted in arrests of government officials, frozen bank accounts, and an emergency action by traditional tribal leaders to ban women from voting. The divide started after newly elected President Gene Small authorized a foren...

10/27/2025

Residents of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea have traditionally subsisted on walrus, whales and fish. But availability of marine resources has been changing, and reindeer have become a staple. Now, Savoonga is almost done building a meat processing facility that can turn it into a business.

https://www.knba.org/news/2025-10-22/as-climate-change-threatens-subsistence-savoonga-is-going-from-reindeer-herding-to-a-red-meat-industry?fbclid=IwY2xjawNsu1BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHmpRwAyPp4KdX1x054QEkhE_7x-aKLuuLO5RZJtM7sBCaviyfkaQTf3t-FEb_aem_0G78xYKmyUGNs6XUFhXYPQ

Reindeer were brought to St. Lawrence Island after a devastating famine in the late 1800s. Now they could be a food security solution for the future.

10/27/2025

A historic legal decision secures tribal land rights over a little more than four square miles within the boundaries of the city of Richmond, British Columbia. The ruling by the provincial Supreme Court sent shockwaves through an enclave of non-Indigenous property owners fearful their land and its monetary value would be handed over to the Cowichan Tribes. If the decision stands, it would have far-reaching implications for tribal land rights across Canada. We’ll hear about the legal and historical significance of the decision.

We'll also get perspectives on the controversial King Cove Road in Alaska. The Trump administration recently signed off on the proposed 11-mile road which will connect the small Aleutian town through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to an airport. Supporters say it will provide reliable access to emergency medical care, but detractors say it will cause harm to millions of migratory birds who use the refuge as a stopover.

GUESTS

Terry Teegee (Takla Nation), Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations

Darwin Hanna (Nlaka’pamux Nation), attorney and founding partner of Callison & Hanna

Edgar Tall Sr. (Yup'ik), Chief of the Native Village of Hooper Bay

Angutekaraq Estelle Thomson (Yup’ik), traditional council president of the Native Village of Paimiut

Warren Wilson, mayor of King Cove

A historic legal decision secures tribal land rights over a little more than four square miles within the boundaries of the city of Richmond, British Columbia. The ruling by the provincial Supreme Court sent shockwaves through an enclave of non-Indigenous property owners fearful their land and its m...

10/24/2025

Henry is an aspiring ghost hunter on the cusp of social media fame in the novel, "The Whistler", by Nick Medina (Tunica-Biloxy). As the title suggests, he tempts fate by intentionally whistling into the night, provoking an evil entity that turns his life upside down and forces him to confront his past wrongdoing. Daniel H. Wilson (Cherokee) imagines a frightening alien invasion where first contact happens in the middle of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma in "Hole in the Sky". And Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet) slices open the real horrors of the late 1800s Indian Wars in "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" with a tortured monster that wreaks vengeance on soldiers responsible for the Marias Massacre and the extermination of the buffalo. These are a few new horror novels written by Indigenous authors that we are putting on the Native Bookshelf for this year's spooky season.

Henry is an aspiring ghost hunter on the cusp of social media fame in the novel, "The Whistler", by Nick Medina (Tunica-Biloxy). As the title suggests, he tempts fate by intentionally whistling into the night, provoking an evil entity that turns his life upside down and forces him to confront his pa...

10/23/2025

Listen to the full conversation: https://www.nativeamericacalling.com/thursday-october-23-2025-domestic-violence-prevention-limps-along-without-federal-support/

10/23/2025

Among the thousands of staff cuts and billions of dollars eliminated from federal programs is support to prevent and respond to domestic violence. Organizations that facilitate women’s shelters, preventative outreach, case managers, and legal help are mostly going it alone without the once-powerful assistance of the federal government. Many are in survival mode after the sudden and unexpected elimination of funding that had been promised. The U.S. Department of Justice has also removed its access to research and recommendations about violence against Indigenous women. We’ll find out how some shelters are working despite the setbacks.

We’ll also remember long-time women’s advocate Charon Asetoyer. Among other things, she founded the Native American Community Board that works to strengthen women’s health, safety, and justice. Asetoyer walked on September 26.

GUESTS

Desiree Tody (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), Ashland and Bayfield County outreach program coordinator for the Center Against Sexual & Domestic Abuse (CASDA)

Caroline LaPorte (Little River Band of Ottawa Indians descendant), staff attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center and association judge for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians

Michelle Sanchez-Higginbotham (Yaqui and Niitsitapi), project specialist for the Rising Together program at the California Consortium for Urban Indian Health - ccuih

Ronni Fischer (Yankton Sioux), director of the Women’s Lodge, a violence prevention program of the Native American Community Board

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Among the thousands of staff cuts and billions of dollars eliminated from federal programs is support to prevent and respond to domestic violence. Organizations that facilitate women’s shelters, preventative outreach, case managers, and legal help are mostly going it alone without the once-powerfu...

10/23/2025

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