A select few Native American artists choose to express their cultural and creative passions in miniature. An exhibition starting this month at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures celebrates those artists who make distinctive pottery, baskets, and carvings on a decidedly downsized scale. The top Indigenous beaders, potters, painters, and weavers are headed to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. for that institution’s 68th annual Indian Art Fair and Market. The Heard welcomes more than 600 artists from all over the world for what has become one of the must-go events for both artists and collectors. We’ll hear from organizers and artists from both of these events. GUESTS Marcus Monenerkit (Comanche descendant), director of community engagement at the Heard Museum Barbara Teller Ornelas (Diné), master Navajo weaver Aydrian Day (Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Dakota and Lakota and an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation), artist Sydney Pursel (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska), curator at the Spencer Museum of Art and an advisory group member for the “Native Arts in Miniature” exhibition Amy McKune, curator and senior manager of collections at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures   Break 1 Music: Crossroad Blues (song) Lakota John (artist) Lakota John and Kin (album) Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

The Seneca Nation in New York is working to correct longstanding confusion over law enforcement on their land. A nearly 80-year-old federal statute handed the state control over certain crimes on Seneca Nation’s territory. A bill in Congress could chart a path to resolving that conflict. In Oklahoma, a Muscogee Nation citizen argues that those who work and live on the tribal land do not have to pay state income taxes. That argument could now be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue comes nearly six years after the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that confirmed Muscogee authority over criminal matters on tribal land. This current battle would extend that authority to civil cases. And the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe tribe in Wisconsin is facing off with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi over outside access to a road that traverses tribal land. Bondi backs an effort to force the tribe to reimburse a nearby town for fees to access the road. We’ll find out the potential implications of these cases. GUESTS J.C. Seneca (Seneca), president of the Seneca Nation Jonodev Chaudhuri (Muscogee), principal at Chaudhuri Law Jason Salsman (Muscogee), press secretary for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Richard Monette (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), professor emeritus and former director of the Great Lakes Indian Law Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School   Break 1 Music: Keep On Keeping On (song) Tall Paul (artist) The Story of Jim Thorpe (album) Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

Advocates working to accurately portray Native Americans in the K-12 education system in Texas scored a victory when the State Board of Education renewed a curriculum that was years in the making. The approval came at a time when the Trump administration and state officials pushed hard to scrub any hint of diversity from public school classrooms. Among other things, opponents of the Texas Native Studies course worried instruction about the Catholic Church’s role in Indian Boarding Schools might demoralize Christian students. We’ll look at what saved the Texas lessons and get a status update on some other states wrestling with efforts to accurately depict Native Americans throughout history. GUESTS Cheyenne Rendon (Apache and Navajo), senior policy officer for the Society of Native Nations, a member of American Indian Movement of Central Texas Stephen Silva-Brave (Sicangu Lakota), parent, licensed social worker, and Ph.D student Sashay Schettler (Hidatsa and Nueta from the MHA Nation), assistant director in the office of Indian and Multicultural Education for the North Dakota Office of Public Instruction and a member of the National Johnson-O’Malley Association board of directors representing Region 5 Dr. Sherry Johnson (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate   Break 1 Music: Groove Warrior (song) Delbert Anderson Trio (artist) Manitou (album) Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

Two new healing centers count on location, cultural practice, and family connections to break the destructive effects of substance abuse. In Lodge Grass, Mont., organizers plan an integrated foster care facility to complement a campus designed to support families affected by addiction. The non-profit organization behind the center estimates that number reaches as high as 60% of residents in the small town on the Crow Reservation. The Pawnee Nation in Oklahoma is also expanding adult residential and outpatient services close to home, as well as support for children whose lives are disrupted. We’ll hear about a promising focus on cultural treatment options, harm reduction, and strengthening families to break addiction’s generational cycles. GUESTS Mary Blackowl (Cheyenne and Arapaho, Pawnee, and Comanche), tribal opioid response prevention specialist for the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma Karaya Fritzler (Apsáalooke, Aaniiih, and Lakota), certified behavioral health peer specialist for the Mountain Shadow Association Megkian Doyle, executive director of the Mountain Shadow Association Mike Ortiz, program coordinator for the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma’s substance abuse program   Break 1 Music: Buc Wild Intertribal (song) Buc Wild (artist) Oneida Powwow: 40th Anniversary (album) Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

A crew from Chevak, Alaska recover a submerged boat, part of the marine debris created by Typhoons Merbok (2022) and Helong (2025). (Photo: Richard Tuluk) Typhoon Merbok swept buildings, boats, and tons of trash into the sea off the west coast of Alaska in 2022. The city of Chevak is one of many coastal Alaska Native communities tasked with helping to find and recover that and other marine debris clogging the coastal waters and shorelines. With federal funding help, the ongoing cleanup is aimed at making the waterways safe for people and marine animals. A similar project is underway in Hawai’i, where the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project works year-round, pulling tons of debris from around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a place sacred to Native Hawaiians. Coastal tribes are an important piece of the puzzle for solving the growing problem of derelict nets, ropes, boats, and other trash that threaten marine ecosystems. In this program, we’ll talk with some of the people involved in the cleanup about what it takes to rid marine areas of unsightly and dangerous debris. GUESTS Richard Tuluk (Cup’ik), project manager for the City of Chevak Jacquie Foss, commercial fisherman and works with Alaska Sea Grant and the Alaska Center for Marine Debris Grant Ka’ehukai Goin (Kānaka ʻŌiwi), cultural specialist and lead marine debris tech for the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project   Break 1 Music: Heavy (song) Kee’ahn (artist) For Me, For You EP (album) Break 2 Music: Digital Winter (song) Ya Tseen (artist) Stand On My Shoulders (album)

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Cary Morin (Crow/Assiniboine) is back with a new album featuring more of his introspective lyricism, soulful singing and skillful fingerstyle guitar playing. The new album, “Pocket of Time“, captures memories and slices of everyday life on the Crow Reservation in Montana. It is a calm, mellow listen and another refreshing entry in his expansive catalogue that spans folk, blues, reggae, and “Native Americana” genres. “Big Changes” is the forthcoming album from Status/Non-Status, a Canadian indie-rock band led by Anishinaabe musician Adam Sturgeon. It is the third studio record, following up on 2022’s “Surly Travel”, which was named one of Exclaim! Magazine’s top albums of the year. Beautiful vocals stretch overtop fat guitar chords and incidental sound effects like the unmistakable chime of jingle dress cones. Sturgeon says he never set out to represent all Indigenous musicians, but he feels a responsibility to Indigenize his own music.   Break 1 Music: Everything To Me (song) Cary Morin (artist) Pocket of Time (album) Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Honeycreepers only live in Hawai’i and the birds are interwoven into Native Hawaiian culture. Feathers from the strikingly colorful birds are a key part of ceremonial cloaks and other regalia. The birds themselves are prominent in cultural stories, but of the more than 50 original species of honeycreepers, only 17 survive — and those are threatened with extinction. Several factors contribute to the population decline, but a pressing concern is a mosquito-borne avian malaria. We’ll hear from Native Hawaiian conservationists on the efforts to save these unique and important birds. GUESTS Bret Mossman (Native Hawaiian), director of Birds Hawai‘i Past Present Ben Catcho (Native Hawaiian), Indigenous communications and outreach specialist for the American Bird Conservancy and outreach lead for Birds Not Mosquitoes Keoki Kanakaokai (Native Hawaiian and Athabascan), natural resource manager for The Nature Conservancy Maui Terrestrial Program and co-lead of the Nature Conservancy Native Network Hina Kneubuhl (Native Hawaiian), translator, storyteller, and kapa maker   Break 1 Music: Prologue (song) Kūka’ilimoku (artist) Creation Chant (album) Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Kasey Jernigan (Choctaw) interviewed and observed Choctaw women over a period of years about food and their relationships to it. She documents what she learned in those observations in her new book, “Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways and Indigeneity”. The book uses federal food and nutrition assistance as the jumping off point for an exploration of individual perceptions of food and colonial influences on Native health outcomes. A quaint eatery in Arizona’s Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is attracting attention over and above the dozens of other frybread stands that dot reservation roadsides across the country. The Stand was just named one of USA Today’s 2026 Restaurants of the Year. It’s built by the same person who makes the frybread dough and serves the soup in a decidedly rustic setting. Author, poet, educator and legal scholar Marique B. Moss (Photo: courtesy M. Moss) Marique B. Moss explores her Black and Indigenous identity in her poetic memoir, “Sweetgrass and Soul Food”. She is among the Native people offering support to Minneapolis residents in the wake of the expanded immigration efforts from her space, Mashkiki Studios. GUESTS Dr. Kasey Jernigan (Choctaw), assistant professor of American studies and anthropology at the University of Virginia and the author of “Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways, and Indigeneity” Michael Washington (Pima and Maricopa), co-owner of The Stand Marique Moss (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara and Dakota), owner of Mishkiki Studios, author, and cultural educator   Break 1 Music: Fool’s Paradise (song) Samantha Crain (artist) Gumshoe (album) Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)

Choctaw homicide detective Perry Antelope works on a missing persons case alongside the Choctaw Lighthorsemen tribal police in Devon Mihesuah’s (Choctaw) new mystery novel, “Blood Relay“. The story of the disappearance of a young athlete is set against the backdrop of the competitive bareback horse relay racing. The fictional fast-paced thriller also takes on the real-life issue of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives and the evolving jurisdictional complexities between federal, state, and tribal law enforcement in Oklahoma. Mihesuah, a historian and the Cora Lee Beers Price Teaching Professor at the University of Kansas, continues her tradition of creating strong leading women. She’s the author of the detective Monique Blue Hawk series (“Document of Expectations”, “Dance of the Returned“ and “The Hatak Witches“) and the 2024 collection of horror stories, “The Bone Picker“. She authored several non-fiction titles including “Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness”. We add Mihesuah’s Blood Relay to our Native Bookshelf.

Congress just approved significant funding increases going forward for a handful of core domestic violence funding and policy initiatives. But at the same time, many services for survivors face a new level of unpredictability. Victim support funds in some states plummeted as much as 70%, leaving states to try and cover some of those costs. The Trump administration instituted requirements that domestic violence survivors prove their immigration status before being allowed into shelters and certain long-time domestic violence services remain a target in upcoming federal budget talks. We’ll get a picture of the current trends for domestic violence prevention. GUESTS Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board Melissa L. Pope, Chief Judge of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Rochelle Red Bone Arebalo (Apache and Commanche), chairperson of the MMIW Indian Capital Chapter Stacey Ettawageshik (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), executive director of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence   Break 1 Music: Big Crow [feat. Black Lodge Singers] (song) DJ Shub (artist) PowWowStep – EP (album) Break 2 Music: Intertribal Song (song) Black Lodge Singers (artist) Enter the Circle – Pow-Wow Songs Recorded Live at Coeur D’Alene (album)