Podcasts about Navajo

LeAnder Goldtooth is one of very few people his age keeping the art of Navajo basket weaving alive. At just 23 years old, he's become a master of the craft, harvesting his own sumac, reviving ancient patterns, and sharing his knowledge with the next generation. - Show Notes - • LeAnder Goldtooth on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ashkiiasaa.goldtooth/ Photo: LeAnder Goldtooth holds two baskets he's working on for an upcoming ceremony. Photo by Emily Arntsen/KZMU.

From an Iñupiaq Wordle game to a new language immersion program, a wave of efforts to revitalize Iñupiaq language has been sweeping across northern Alaska. Last month, one Utqiaġvik artist received a Rasmuson award to create an Iñupiaq language workbook for kids. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. Alaina Bankston has loved making art since she was a child. Now that she has a child of her own, she wants to use her art to help him learn the Iñupiaq language. Bankston is an Utqiaġvik artist who recently received a Rasmuson award to create a workbook that will do just that. She will spend a year designing and illustrating a primer for children that teaches the Iñupiaq alphabet and numbers. Bankston says her four-year-old son Qalayauq was her inspiration for the project. “It all kind of started with creating for him and being able to use those resources.” Bankston says she is still on her own language learning journey. She practices speaking with elders and uses dictionaries and the Rosetta Stone app. But Bankston says children learn differently than adults, and she wanted to create educational materials that catered to the youngest learners. “You start kindergarten, you have the whole workbook, you’re learning the alphabet, the numbers, the colors, and we have all that in English. But I’m like, what if we had that in Iñupiaq?” Bankston says some resources for learning Iñupiaq are available through the North Slope Borough School District, but she says regular parents might not have access to them. “It’s really born out of necessity. I’m sure there are resources out there … but they’re not something you could just go pick up at a store or buy online.” Bankston's project is just one example of the language revitalization efforts in the region. Two years ago, the school district restarted its Iñupiaq immersion program, and a few years before that, Alaska Native linguists created a digital Iñupiaq dictionary. And when the popular puzzle game Wordle took off across the country, local linguists and enthusiasts created an Iñupiaq version. “I think we’ve been making big strides recently … with the history of it, it’s definitely a dying language, but I think it’s important we keep it alive.” Bankston says everyone can do their part to preserve the language, and the workbook is one such step for her. Arizona Poet Laureate Laura Tohe (Diné) reads her poetry at the state Capitol on January 14, 2026. (Courtesy Arizona Capitol TV) A former Navajo Nation poet laureate has been named by Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) as the state's second-ever state poet. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. Laura Tohe has dedicated her life to Indigenous literature, but doesn't want that identity to dominate her tenure. “I don't want people to think that again, you know, I'm just shifting from Navajo Nation to Arizona as a Navajo poet.” And part of her pledge is to help bring poetry to rural communities. While most living on the Navajo Nation have no choice but to haul essentials like water, coal, and wood from far away – for Tohe growing up, it was books. “I did…” Born in Fort Defiance, Ariz., Tohe remembers taking long road trips with her mother to the closest library across state lines in New Mexico. “We did make it to Gallup, and I got a library card. She wanted to make sure I had access.” The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is holding a hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., focusing on Native children. The hearing will examine the draft Native Children's Commission Implementation Act, which focuses on improving justice and safety outcomes for Native children. It includes Tribal-federal coordination on public safety, juvenile justice, and victim services. The hearing will be streamed live on the committee's website. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Wednesday, January 28, 2026 – Remembering visionary Indigenous journalist Dan David

In this episode I'll be sharing some lore and as well as some personal stories told from our very own editor and much much more. Do you believe in Skinwalkers and other Navajo legends or cryptids ? TimestampsPart 1: (00:31)Part 2: (15:33) Drink Intermission : (29:21) POV Story : (30:44)Outro YAPPATHON 2026 : (45:22) BUY MERCHSUBMIT YOUR SCARY STORYFOLLOW MEhttps://www.boozeandboos.net/Join My Discord! https://discord.gg/sMUtpDwJADStories Found & Edited By : Zack Graham SUPPORT HIM & BUY HIS BOOKS :) Mogollon Monsters - https://a.co/d/d2BHQCPGhosts of Gravsmith - https://a.co/d/ahThYHA ►[ Intro & Background Ambience] - https://www.youtube.com/@UC-dIpawoAP9T9ccC0tgb-xw ►[《 Background Music

On today's newscast: Location released for Flagstaff LDS temple, Navajo speaker calls on feds to respect sovereignty after ICE arrest, House committee OKs bill to fast-track North Rim rebuilding, and more.

A bipartisan bill signed into law last year is now giving Native Americans residing in Arizona the option to update their state-issued identification to show their tribal affiliation. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, it comes at a time when Indigenous peoples are being swept up in immigration raids – including Peter Yazzie (Navajo), who was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Phoenix metro area. This new marker is akin to getting an organ donor or veteran insignia on any form of ID, including a driver license. To do so, applicants need to prove that they're enrolled in a tribe by submitting a Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB), and so far, the Arizona Department of Transportation has gotten more than 1,600 requests for the designation. That idea of streamlining legal documents came from State Rep. Myron Tsosie (Navajo/D-AZ). “Instead of having to dig out all your cards to show that you are Native American.” And had nothing to do with ICE. “That wasn't the purpose, but I'm hearing from constituents saying that I feel safer now.” And it's something Thomas Cody, executive director of the Navajo Nation's Division for Child and Family Services, is encouraging his Diné urban relatives to seek out. “It's unfortunate that we have to have an ID that we're Native Americans. We shouldn't but I'm glad the state of Arizona, Gov. [Katie] Hobbs is taking an extra step.” His deputy director Sonlatsa Jim thinks this service is much-needed – not just for Navajos living in the Grand Canyon State. “Because we are the largest Native American tribe, you'll find a Navajo tribal member anywhere in the United States.” That's why Tsosie is working with neighboring Utah and New Mexico state lawmakers to adopt his legislation aiming to help cover more of Indian Country, including the rest of his sprawling 27,000-square-mile reservation. The federal government is reviewing the business program that benefits Alaska Native corporations and tribes. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA reports. In a video posted on X January 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said his department will review the 8(a) Business Development Program. That program falls under the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) and supports businesses owned by socially disadvantaged individuals or tribes including Alaska Native Corporations. We are taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government—the 8(a) program. pic.twitter.com/c9iH8gcqG7 — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) January 16, 2026 Sec. Hegseth said in the video that the 8(a) program promotes the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) framework and race-based contracting. In the 8(a) program, the federal government sets aside contracting opportunities for disadvantaged small businesses. Tribal entities can have multiple companies in the program, while individuals can only have one. Alaska Native Corporations rely heavily on federal contracts often received through the 8(a) program. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis shows that it is their primary source of revenue. And most of those contracts come from the U.S. Department of Defense. Quinton Carroll is the executive director of the Native American Contractors Association, and originally from Utqiagvik. “Native participation in the 8(a) program is not a DEI initiative.” Carroll says the program “fulfills longstanding federal trust and treaty obligations to tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and Native Hawaiian Organizations.” Hegseth ordered a line-by-line review of sole-source 8(a) contracts that are over $20 million. He said in the social media video that the department will get rid of contracts that do not make the country's military more lethal. Hegseth also said the department will make sure that the businesses getting a contract are the ones actually doing the work. He claimed that often small businesses receive the contract, take a fee, and pass it to a giant consulting firm. However, Carroll says Native federal contractors have been partners of the Department of Defense. He added that Native contractors also support the elimination of fraud and waste within the program. The 8(a) program has faced scrutiny from other directions as well. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April, directing rewriting of federal contracting regulations. The SBA and Treasury department have been both investigating the program as well. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Friday, January 23, 2026 — Native Bookshelf: “Special Places, Sacred Circles” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

In this episode PREVIEW, we delve into the extraordinary experiences of Rex from New Mexico, who recounts a chilling series of encounters along the edges of the Navajo Nation. Living near the remote waters of Morgan Lake outside of Shiprock, Rex shares how a routine late-night fishing trip turned into something he never could have imagined. Describing a massive presence emerging from dense lakeside brush, unexplained sounds cutting through the darkness, and physical evidence left behind at the scene, Rex paints a vivid picture of a night that changed his understanding of the world forever.Note: To get this full episode (and tomorrow's episode) early and ad-free then become a supporting member over at https://www.bigfootsocietypodcast.com OR become a Youtube member by tapping the JOIN button.

On today's newscast: FBI offering reward for info in death of 8-year-old Navajo girl, state GOP pushes changes to early voting, boundary-defying Mexican gray wolf found dead, and more.

Maleeka “Mollie” Boone, a Navajo girl who'd gone missing in the community of Coalmine near Tuba City, Ariz. marks the second time an alert system has been used in search of a Native American since its implementation last year. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, that search is now over. The FBI Phoenix Field Office confirmed that Boone's body was found on Friday following a multiagency search that included law enforcement authorities from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, U.S. Marshals Service, Coconino County Sheriff's Office, and Flagstaff Police Department. “To learn that this search has ended in loss is a pain beyond words.” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren took to social media to share his condolences – not just for Maleeka, but also 3-year-old Karson Apodaca, who was killed during a Christmas parade. “In just the past few weeks, with the tragedy in Kayenta and now this heartbreaking news from Coalmine, our Nation has endured tremendous pain. These moments remind us just how sacred our children are and how deeply connected every life is within our Navajo community. May we honor Maleeka's spirit by cherishing and protecting every child across the Navajo Nation.” The investigation into Maleeka's death is being handled by the FBI and Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jonathan Juárez (@pueblobaddie) On the opening day of the New Mexico legislative session Tuesday, a protest was held at the state capitol in Santa Fe. KUNM's Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) spoke to Indigenous people at the event. Hundreds of New Mexicans rallied and marched up the steps towards the Roundhouse. Oglala Sioux Nation member John Swift Bird led the march with other Native drummers. “The energy always, always gets to the people. People have always resonated to the singing and to the energy of it.” He's been advocating back and forth between New Mexico and South Dakota ever since the 2016 protests in Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Longtime activist Elder Kathy Sanchez (San Ildefonso Pueblo) gave a blessing and told attendees to not give up. “Every thing that is brought forth in a good way will survive, because all of us are not giving up on each other.” Siihasin Hope from the Mescalero Apache and Diné Nations is an advocate for the Southwest Solidarity Network and Revolutionary 2 Spirit Collective. Hope is advocating for land and water protections and says  it's important for Indigenous people to understand and exercise their rights. “It’s the only reason that we have them, is because people before us, our ancestors before us, have fought for us to be here. Have fought for us to have the right to, you know, live.” She wants lawmakers and the governor to continue upholding tribal consultation on Native issues and says she and other advocates will continue to fight for tribal rights. Photograph and MMIP activist Amanda Freeman stands before two portraits on January 14, 2026. (Photo: Brian Bull / KLCC) The founder of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People organization is sharing the faces of those affected by the crisis. KLCC's Brian Bull (Nez Perce) reports on a new exhibition in Salem, Oreg. Amanda Freeman founded Ampkwa Advocacy and has displayed nearly three dozen photos of Native people who have lost a relative or have suffered domestic violence or addiction. It's titled, “Ampkwa: munk lush nsayka shawash tilixam”, which means “Healing our Indigenous relatives.” Red hand prints and a long red trailing dress adorn the walls and wrap around each portrait. Freeman says she wants visitors to leave with one impression. “I would like them to remember that we're not disposable. And actually leave with the mindset of, “Let me share this information because I had no idea. Because any awareness is good awareness.” A reception and artist's talk will be held January 28. The exhibit runs through February 6 at the Gretchen Schuette Art Gallery at Chemeketa Community College. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Wednesday, January 21, 2026 – Native activists prepare for ongoing resistance and documentation as federal crackdowns expand

On today's newscast: Navajo president says ICE not currently operating on reservation, authorities identify man shot and killed by Round Valley police, ADOT adds Native American designation for driver's licenses, and more.

This episode originally aired on April 5th, 2022. In this hour, stories of learning from our elders. A mechanic, a teacher, a patriarchy-busting grandmother, and Star Wars in translation. This hour is hosted by regular Moth host Angelica Lindsey-Ali. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Storytellers: Ishmael Beah is separated from his beloved grandmother during the war in Sierra Leone. Rose Saia feels understood by her new 4th grade eacher.  Charlotte Mooney helps a man wandering on the highway.  Manuelito Wheeler wants to help preserve the Navajo language by dubbing Star Wars. Podcast # 759 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Navajo Connection with SasquatchIn 1999, after moving to Denver, Colorado, a Navajo man, Nightwolf, surprised his brother, whom he hadn't seen in seven years. The brothers, both Navajo, decided to drive up Berthoud Pass to catch up. While enjoying the mountain scenery, they spotted a large, black, furry figure that they first mistook for a bear. Nightwolf pulled over, tossed an apple from their bag toward the creature (accidentally hitting it), and quickly realized it was not a bear but Bigfoot. Drawing on Navajo stories about the creature, he felt a mix of fear and awe. The being stood about nine feet tall, with a massive head, no visible neck, a barrel-like chest, thick leathery skin, and alert, intelligent eyes. Despite his brother's frantic warnings that it would kill him, Nightwolf chose to show respect by calmly approaching with the bag of apples. He knelt, bowed his head to expose his neck in submission, and placed the bag in front of the creature. It briefly grasped his neck—leaving an oily residue—then released him, took the apples, and walked away. Shaken but deeply honored by the encounter, Nightwolf rejoined his brother in the car. He describes the experience as life-changing and ends with blessings to the reader.Join my Supporters Club for $4.99 per month for exclusive stories:https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/what-if-it-s-true-podcast--5445587/support

In this episode, special co-host Diana Yáñez and Sweet Miche explore the concept of belonging, not just to each other, but to all of existence. From the linguistic wisdom of the Aymara people to the radical call of liberation theology and the hard work of healing Quaker involvement in Indian Boarding Schools, we're asking what might happen to our faith if we start living from the "We" instead of the "I"? Jiwasa: The Communal We with Rubén Hilari Quispe  Rubén, an Aymara Quaker and linguist, introduces us to jiwasa – a concept of "we-ness" that includes humans, the environment, and even the objects around us. He invites us to sit with the unsettled feeling of language that doesn't center the individual. Read Rubén's article, "Jiwasa, the Communal We" in the January 2026 issue of Friends Journal or at FriendsJournal.org. You can hear an extended interview in Spanish with English subtitles at the Friends Journal YouTube page.  Liberation Theology and the Inner Light with Renzo Carranza  Guatemalan Friend Renzo Carranza explores how the Quaker Inner Light intersects with the radical tradition of liberation theology. Together, they form a call to action: to reinterpret the gospels from the perspective of the marginalized and transform society. Watch the full QuakerSpeak video, “Transforming the SPIRIT: Liberation Theology and the Inner Light” at QuakerSpeak.com. Collective Relationship and Boarding Schools with Rachel Overstreet  Rachel Overstreet (Choctaw Nation) discusses the history of Quaker Indian boarding schools. She suggests that the way forward isn't through individual guilt, but through collective relationship. Read Rachel's article, “Speaking with Friends About Indian Boarding Schools” in the January 2026 issue of Friends Journal or at FriendsJournal.org. Rachel writes the Native American Legislative Update, a monthly newsletter on the most important developments on Capitol Hill related to Indian Country. You can also write your Congressperson to cosponsor and pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. Find out more at fcnl.org/issues/native-americans. Book Review: Chooch Helped  Katie Green reviews a charming children's book by Andrea L. Rogers and Rebecca Lee Koons (Cherokee Nation) that celebrates present-day Cherokee family life and love. Read Katie's review of Chooch Helped in the January 2026 issue or at FriendsJournal.org. Recommended Resources by Indigenous Creators Jonny Appleseed (Novel) By Joshua Whitehead (they/them) A beautifully fragmented story about a Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer person navigating life in Winnipeg. The title ironically reclaims a settler-colonial myth to tell a raw story of modern Indigenous identity. Coyote & Crow (Tabletop Role-Playing Game) Created by a team of over 30 Indigenous creators Set in an "Indigenous Futurism" world where the Americas were never colonized. This RPG focuses on community, advanced technology, and spirits in a world where history took a different path. Drama & Performance The Thanksgiving Play (Play) By Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) A biting, hilarious satire that made history as the first play by a Native American woman on Broadway. It follows four well-meaning white people trying to create a "politically correct" Thanksgiving play for a school. The Rez Sisters (Play) By Tomson Highway (Cree) A modern classic of Indigenous drama. It tells the story of seven women on a reserve who dream of winning "the biggest bingo game in the world." It's a powerful blend of humor, tragedy, and the supernatural. Mary Kathryn Nagle: Land Sovereignty and Indigenous Women's Rights (Podcast/Interview) Produced by Peterson Toscano for Citizens Climate Radio A deep-dive conversation with Cherokee playwright and attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle. She discusses how her plays, like Sovereignty and Manahatta, serve as "living law," using the stage to advocate for tribal jurisdiction and the safety of Indigenous women. Music & Audio Come and Get Your Love (Song) By Redbone The 1974 hit that made Redbone the first Native American band to reach the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. Forged (Podcast) CBC Listen / Host: Adrian Stimson A gripping series exploring a massive art fraud ring involving the works of Norval Morrisseau, the "Picasso of the North." Literature & Thought Sacred Instructions (Book) By Sherri Mitchell (Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset) A roadmap for "spirit-based change" drawing on Penobscot ancestral wisdom to address modern crises. Dr. Lyla June Johnston (Scholar & Musician) A Diné (Navajo) and Cheyenne artist whose work blends hip-hop with traditional acoustics and ecological activism. Digital Culture & Media Trixie Mattel: Root Maintenance (Video/Q&A) The world-famous drag queen discusses her biracial Ojibwe heritage and navigating identity in the public eye. Rez Ball (Film) Produced by LeBron James and Sterlin Harjo A 2024 film following a Navajo high school basketball team, capturing the unique, fast-paced style of "Rezball." Next Month's Question A central part of Quakerism is our commitment to peace. But that doesn't mean we should avoid conflict. In fact, it means we have a specific responsibility to it. What is a small practice that brings you a measure of peace or stability in the midst of conflict and turmoil? Leave a voice memo at 317-QUAKERS (317-782-5377) Email us at podcast@friendsjournal.org Sponsors Quakers Today is a project of Friends Publishing Corporation. This season is sponsored by: Friends Fiduciary: Ethical investing through a Quaker lens. Learn more at FriendsFiduciary.org. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC): Challenging injustice and building peace. Visit afsc.org. For a full transcript, visit QuakersToday.org.

On today's newscast: Indigenous lawmakers condemn ICE arrest of Navajo man, Navajo County recorder pleads guilty to weapons charges, Utah county to provide emergency services to Fredonia again, and more.

In this powerful and wide-ranging episode of Gangland Wire, host Gary Jenkins sits down with Ken Behr, author of One Step Over the Line: Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary. Behr tells his astonishing life story—from teenage marijuana dealer in South Florida, to high-level drug runner and smuggler, to DEA cooperating source working major international cases. Along the way, he offers rare, first-hand insight into how large-scale drug operations actually worked during the height of the War on Drugs—and why that war, in his view, has largely failed. From Smuggler to Source Behr describes growing up during the explosion of the drug trade in South Florida during the 1970s and 1980s, where smuggling marijuana and cocaine became almost commonplace. He explains how he moved from street-level dealing into large-scale logistics—off-loading planes, running covert runways in the Everglades, moving thousands of pounds of marijuana, and participating in international smuggling operations involving Canada, Jamaica, Colombia, and the Bahamas. After multiple arrests—including a serious RICO case that threatened him with decades in prison—Behr made the life-altering decision to cooperate with the DEA. What followed was a tense and dangerous double life as an undercover operative, helping law enforcement dismantle major trafficking networks while living under constant pressure and fear of exposure. Inside the Mechanics of the Drug Trade This episode goes deep into the nuts and bolts of organized drug trafficking, including: How clandestine runways were built and dismantled in minutes How aircraft were guided into unlit landing zones How smuggling crews were paid and organized Why most drug operations ultimately collapse from inside The role of asset seizures in federal drug enforcement Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. Transcript [00:00:00] well, hey, all your wire taps. It’s good to be back here in studio of Gangland Wire. I have a special guest today. He has a book called, uh, title is One Step Over the Line and, and he went several steps over the line, I think in his life. Ken Bearer, welcome Ken. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Now, Ken, Ken is a, was a marijuana smuggler at one time and, and ended up working with the DEA, so he went from one side over to my side and, and I always like to talk to you guys that that helped us in law enforcement and I, there’s a lot of guys that don’t like that out there, but I like you guys you were a huge help to us in law enforcement and ended up doing the right thing after you made a lot of money. So tell us about the money. We were just starting to talk about the money. Tell us about the money, all those millions and millions of dollars that you drug smuggler makes. What happens? Well, I, you know, like I said, um, Jimmy Buffett’s song a pirate looks at 40, basically, he says, I made enough money to to buy Miami and pissed it away all so fast, never meant to last. And, and that’s what happens. I do know a few people that have [00:01:00] put away money. One of my friends that we did a lot of money together, a lot of drug dealing and a lot of moving some product, and he’s put the money away. Got in bed with some other guy that was, you know, legal, bought a bunch of warehouses, and now he lives a great life, living off the money he put away. Yeah. If the rents and stuff, he, he got into real estate. Other guys have got into real estate and they got out and they ended up doing okay. ’cause now they’re drawing all those rents. That’s a good way to money. Exactly what he did. Uh, my favorite, I was telling you a favorite story of mine was the guy that was a small time dealer used to hang out at the beach. And, uh, we en he ended up saving $80,000, which was a lot of money back then. Yeah. And then put it all, went to school to be a culinary chef and then got a job at the Marriott as a culinary chef and a chef. So he, you know, he really took the money, made a little bit of money, didn’t make a lot Yeah. But made enough to go to school and do something with his life. That’s so, um, that’s a great one. That’s a good one [00:02:00] there. That’s real. Yeah. But he wasn’t a big time guy. Yeah. You know what, what happens is you might make a big lick. You know, I, I never made million dollar moves. I have lots of friends that did. I always said I didn’t want to be a smuggler. ’cause I was making a steady living, being a drug runner. If you brought in 40, 50,000 pounds of weed, you would come to me and then I would move it across the country and sell it in different, along with other guys like me. Having said that, so I say I’m a guy that never wanted to do a smuggling trip. I’ve done 12 of them. Yeah. Even though, you know, and you know, if you’ve been in the DEA side twelve’s a lot for somebody usually. Yeah. That’s a lot. They don’t make, there’s no longevity. Two or three trips. No. You know, I did it for 20 years. Yeah. And then finally I got busted one time in Massachusetts in 1988. We had 40,000 pounds stuck up in Canada. So a friend of mine comes to me, another friend had the 40,000 pounds up there. He couldn’t sell it. He goes, Hey, you wanna help me smuggle [00:03:00] this back into America? Which, you know, is going the wrong direction. The farther north it goes, the more money it’s worth. I would’ve taken it to Greenland for Christ’s sakes. Yeah. But, we smuggled it back in. What we did this time was obviously they, they brought a freighter or a big ship to bring the 40,000 pounds into Canada. Mm-hmm. He added, stuffed in a fish a fish packing plant in a freezer somewhere up there. And so we used the sea plane and we flew from a lake in Canada to a lake in Maine where the plane would pull up, I’d unload. Then stash it. And we really did like to get 1400 pounds. We had to go through like six or seven trips. ’cause the plane would only hold 200 and something pounds. Yeah. And a sea plane can’t land at night. It has to land during the day. Yeah. You can’t land a plane in the middle of a lake in the night, I guess yourself. Yeah. I see. Uh, and so we got, I got busted moving that load to another market and that cost, uh, [00:04:00] cost me about $80,000 in two years of fighting in court to get out of that. Yeah. Uh, but I did beat the case for illegal search and seizure. So one for the good guys. It wasn’t for the good guys. Well the constitution, he pulled me over looking for fireworks and, ’cause it was 4th of July and, yeah. The name of that chapter in the book is why I never work on a holiday. So you don’t wanna spend your holiday in jail ’cause there’s no, you can’t on your birthday. So another, the second time I got busted was in 92. So just a couple years later after, basically I was in the system for two years with the loss, you know, fighting it and that, that was for Rico. I was looking at 25 years. But, uh, but like a normal smuggling trip. I’ll tell you one, we did, I brought, I actually did my first smuggling trip. I was on the run in Jamaica from a, a case that I got named in and I was like 19 living down in Jamaica to cool out. And then my buddies came down. So we ended up bringing out 600 pounds. So that was my first tr I was about 19 or [00:05:00] 20 years old when I did my first trip. I brought out 600 pounds outta Jamaica. A friend of mine had a little Navajo and we flew it out with that, but. I’ll give you an example of a smuggling trip. So a friend of mine came to me and he wanted to load 300 kilos of Coke in Columbia and bring it into America. And he wanted to know if I knew anybody that could load him 300 kilos. So I did. I introduced him to a friend of mine that Ronnie Vest. He’s the only person you’ll appreciate this. Remember how he kept wanting to extradite all the, the guys from Columbia when we got busted, indict him? Yes. And of course, Escobar’s living in his own jail with his own exit. Yeah. You know, and yeah. So the Columbian government says, well, we want somebody, why don’t you extradite somebody to America, to Columbia? So Ronnie Vest had gotten caught bringing a load of weed outta Columbia. You know, they sent ’em back to America. So that colo, the Americans go, I’ll tell you what you want. Somebody. And Ronnie Vests got the first good friend of mine, first American to be [00:06:00] extradited to Columbia to serve time. So he did a couple years in the Columbian prison. And so he’s the one that had the cocaine connection now. ’cause he spent time in Columbia. Yeah. And you know, so we brought in 300 kilos of Coke. He actually, I didn’t load it. He got another load from somebody else. But, so in the middle of the night, you set up on a road to nowhere in the Everglades, there’s so many Floridas flat, you’ve got all these desolate areas. We go out there with four or five guys. We take, I have some of ’em here somewhere. Callum glow sticks. You know the, the, the glow sticks you break, uh, yeah. And some flashing lights throw ’em out there. Yeah. And we set up a, yeah, the pilot came in and we all laid in the woods waiting for the plane to come in. And as soon as the pilot clicks. The mic four times. It’s, we all click our mics four times and then we run out. He said to his copilot, he says, look, I mean, we lit up this road from the sky. He goes, it looks like MIA [00:07:00] behind the international airport. But it happens like that within a couple, like a minute, we’ll light that whole thing up. Me and one other guy run down the runway. It’s a lot, it’s a long run, believe me. We put out the lights, we gotta put out the center lights and then the marker lights, because you gotta have the center of the runway where the plane’s gonna land and the edge is where it can’t, right? Yeah. He pulls up, bring up a couple cars, I’m driving one of them, load the kilos in. And then we have to refuel the plane because you don’t, you know, you want to have enough fuel to get back to an FBO to your landing airport or real airport. Yeah. Not the one we made in the Everglades. Yeah. And then the trick is the car’s gotta get out of there. Yeah, before the plane takes off. ’cause when that plane takes off, you know you got a twin engine plane landing is quiet, taking off at full throttle’s gonna wake up the whole neighborhood. So once we got out of there, then they went ahead and got the plane off. And then the remaining guys, they gotta clean up the mess. We want to use this again. So we [00:08:00] wanna clean up all the wires, the radios. Mm-hmm. Pick up the fuel tanks, pick up the runway lights, and their job is to clean that off and all that’s gonna take place before the police even get down the main road. Right? Mm-hmm. That’s gonna all take place in less than 10 minutes. Wow. I mean, the offload takes, the offload takes, you can offload about a thousand pounds, which I’ve done in three minutes. Wow. But, and then refueling the plane, getting everything else cleaned up. Takes longer. Yeah. Interesting. So how many guys would, would be on that operation and how do you pay that? How do you decide who gets paid what? How much? Okay. So get it up front or, I always curious about the details, how that stuff, I don’t think I got paid enough. And I’ll be honest, it was a hell of a chance. I got 20 grand looking at 15 years if you get caught. Yeah. But I did it for the excitement. 20 grand wasn’t that much. I had my own gig making more money than that Uhhuh, you know, but I was also racing cars. I was, there’s a [00:09:00] picture of one of my race cars. Oh cool. So that costs about six, 7,000 a weekend. Yeah. And remember I’m talking about 1980s dollars. Yeah. That’s 20,000 a weekend. A weekend, yes. Yeah. And that 20,000 for a night’s work in today’s world would be 60. Yeah. Three. And I’m talking about 1985 versus, that was 40 years ago. Yeah. Um. But it’s a lot of fun and, uh, and, but it, you kind of say to yourself, what was that one step over the line? That’s why I wrote the book. I remember as a kid thinking in my twenties, man, I’ve taken one step over the line. So the full name of the book is One Step Over the Line Con Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary. That’s me actually working for the DEA. That picture was at the time when I was working for the DEA, so the second time I got busted in 1992 was actually for the smallest amount of weed that I ever got, ever really had. It was like 80, a hundred pounds. But unfortunately it was for Rico. I didn’t know at the [00:10:00] time, but when they arrested me, I thought, oh, they only caught me with a hundred pounds. But I got charged with Rico. So I was looking at 25 years. What, how, what? Did they have some other, it must have had some other offenses that they could tie to and maybe guns and stuff or something that get that gun. No, we never used guns ever. Just other, other smuggling operations. Yeah, yeah. Me, me and my high school friend, he had moved to Ohio in 77 or 78, so he had called me one time, he was working at the Ford plant and he goes, Hey, I think I could sell some weed up here. All right. I said, come on down, I’ll give you a couple pounds. So he drives down from Ohio on his weekend off, all the way from Ohio. I gave him two pounds. He drove home, calls me back. He goes, I sold it. So I go, all right. He goes, I’m gonna get some more. So at that time, I was working for one of the largest marijuana smugglers in US History. His name was Donny Steinberg. I was just a kid, you know, like my job, part of my [00:11:00] job was to, they would gimme a Learjet. About a million or two and I jump on a Learjet and fly to the Cayman Islands. I was like 19 years old. Same time, you know, kid. Yeah, just a kid. 19 or 20 and yeah. 18, I think. And so I ended up doing that a few times. That was a lot of fun. And that’s nice to be a kid in the Learjet and they give me a million or two and they gimme a thousand dollars for the day’s work. I thought I was rich, I was, but people gotta understand that’s in that 78 money, not that’s, yeah. That was more like $10,000 for day, I guess. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It was a lot of money for an 18, 19-year-old kid. Yeah. Donnie gives me a bail. So Terry comes back from Ohio, we shoved the bale into his car. Barely would fit ’cause he had no big trunk on this Firebird. He had, he had a Firebird trans Am with the thunder black with a thunder, thunder chicken on the hood. It was on the hood. Oh cool. That was, that was a catch meow back then. Yeah. Yeah. It got it with that [00:12:00] Ford plant money. And uh, by the way, that was after that 50 pounds got up. ’cause every bail’s about 50 pounds. That’s the last he quit forward the next day. I bet. And me and him had built a 12 year, we were moving. Probably 50 tons up there over the 12 year period. You know, probably, I don’t know, anywhere from 50 to a hundred thousand pounds we would have, he must have been setting up other dealers. So among his friends, he must have been running around. He had the distribution, I was setting up the distribution network and you had the supply. I see. Yeah. I was the Florida connection. It’s every time you get busted, the cops always wanna grab that Florida connection. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You gotta go down there. I there, lemme tell you, you know, I got into this. We were living in, I was born on a farm in New Jersey, like in know Norman Rockwell, 1950s, cow pies and hay bales. And then we moved to New Orleans in 1969 and then where my dad had business and right after, not sure after that, he died when I was 13. As I say in the book, I [00:13:00] probably wouldn’t have been writing the book if my father was alive. Yeah. ’cause I probably wouldn’t have went down that road, you know? But so my mother decides in 1973 to move us to, uh, south Florida, to get away from the drugs in the CD underside of New Orleans. Yeah. I guess she didn’t read the papers. No. So I moved from New Orleans to the star, the war on where the war on drugs would start. I always say if she’d have moved me to Palo Alto, I’d be Bill Gates, but No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was so, uh, and everybody I knew was running drugs, smuggling drugs, trying to be a drug deal. I mean, I was, I had my own operation. I was upper middle level, but there were guys like me everywhere. Mm-hmm. There were guys like me everywhere, moving a thou, I mean, moving a thousand, 2000 pounds at the time was a big thing, you know? That’s, yeah. So, so about what year was that? I started in 19. 70. Okay. Three. I was [00:14:00] 16. Started selling drugs outta my mom’s house, me and my brother. We had a very good business going. And by the time I was got busted, it was 19 92. So, so you watched, especially in South Florida, you watched like where that plane could go down and go back up that at eventually the feds will come up with radar and they have blimps and they have big Bertha stuff down there to then catch those kinds of things. Yeah. Right, right. Big Bertha was the blimp. Uhhuh, uh, they put up, yeah. In the beginning you could just fly right in. We did one trip one time. This is this, my, my buddy picked up, I don’t know, 40 or 50 kilos in The Bahamas. So you fly into Fort Lauderdale and you call in like you’re gonna do a normal landing. Mm-hmm. And the BLI there. This is all 1980s, five. You know, they already know. They’re doing this, but you just call in, like you’re coming to land in Fort Lauderdale, and what you do is right before you land, you hit the tower up and you tell ’em you wanna do a [00:15:00] go around, meaning you’re not comfortable with the landing. Mm-hmm. Well, they’ll always leave you a go around because they don’t want you to crash. Yeah. And right west of the airport was a golf course, and right next to the golf course, oh, about a mile down the road was my townhouse. So we’re in the townhouse. My buddies all put on, two of the guys, put on black, get big knives, gear, and I drive to one road on the golf course and my other friend grows Dr. We drop the guys off in the golf course as the plane’s gonna do the touchdown at the airport. He says, I gotta go around. As he’s pulling up now, he’s 200 feet below the radar, just opens up the side of the plane. Mm-hmm. The kickers, we call ’em, they’re called kickers. He kicks the baskets, the ba and the guys on, on the golf court. They’re hugging trees. Yeah. You don’t wanna be under that thing. Right. You got a 200, you got maybe a 40 pound package coming in at 120 miles an hour from 200 feet up. It’ll break the bra. It’ll yeah. The [00:16:00] branches will kill you. Yeah. So they pull up, they get out, I pull back up in the pickup truck, he runs out, jumps in the back of the truck, yells, hit it. We drive the mile through the back roads to my townhouse. Get the coke in the house. My buddy rips it open with a knife. It’s and pulls out some blow. And he looks at me, he goes, Hey, let’s get outta here. And I go, where are we going? Cops come and he goes, ah, I got two tickets. No, four tickets to the Eddie Murphy concert. So we left the blow in this trunk of his car. Oh. Oh, oh man. I know. We went to Eddie Murphy about a million dollars worth of product in the trunk. Oh. And, uh, saw a great show and came back and off they went. That’s what I’m trying to point out is that’s how fast it goes down, man. It’s to do. Yeah. Right in, in 30 minutes. We got it out. Now the thing about drug deals is we always call ’em dds delayed dope deals because the smuggling [00:17:00] trip could take six months to plan. Yeah. You know, they never go, there’s no organized crime in organized crime. Yeah. No organization did it. Yeah. And then, then of course, in 1992 when I got busted and was looking at Rico, a friend of mine came up to me. He was a yacht broker. He had gotten in trouble selling a boat, and he said, Hey, I’d you like to work for the DEA. I’d done three months in jail. I knew I was looking at time, I knew I had nothing. My lawyers told me, Kenny, you either figure something out or you’re going to jail for a mm-hmm. And I just had a newborn baby. I just got married three weeks earlier and we had a newborn baby. I said, what are you crazy? I mean, I’m waiting for my wife to hear me. You know, he’s calling me on the phone. He goes, meet me for lunch. I go meet him for lunch. And he explains to me that he’s gonna, he’s got a guy in the, uh, central district in Jacksonville, and he’s a DEA agent, and I should go talk to him. And so the DEA made a deal with the Ohio police that anything that I [00:18:00] confiscated, anything that I did, any assets I got, they would get a share in as long as they released me. Yeah. To them. And, you know, it’s all about the, I hate to say this, I’m not saying that you don’t want to take drugs off the street, but if you’re the police department and you’re an agent, it’s about asset seizures. Yeah. Yeah. That’s how you fund the dr. The war on drugs. Yeah. The war begets war. You know, I mean, oh, I know, been Florida was, I understand here’s a deal. You’re like suing shit against the tide, right? Fighting that drug thing. Okay? It just keeps coming in. It keeps getting cheaper. It keeps getting more and more. You make a little lick now and then make a little lick now and then, but then you start seeing these fancy cars and all this money out there that you can get to. If you make the right score, you, you, you hit the right people, you can get a bunch of money, maybe two or three really cool cars for your unit. So then you’ll start focusing on, go after the money. I know it’s not right, but you’re already losing your shoveling shit against the tide anyhow, so just go after the goal. [00:19:00] One time I set up this hash deal for the DEA from Amsterdam. The guy brought the hash in, and I had my agent, you know, I, I didn’t set up the deal. The guy came to me and said, we have 200 kilos of hash. Can you help us sell it? He didn’t know that I was working for the DEA, he was from Europe. And I said, sure. The, the thing was, I, so in the boat ready to close the deal, now my guy is from Central. I’m in I’m in Fort Lauderdale, which is Southern District. So he goes, Hey, can you get that man to bring that sailboat up to Jacksonville? I go, buddy, he just sailed across the Atlantic. He ain’t going to Jacksonville. So the central district has to come down, or is a northern district? I can’t remember if it’s northern or central. Has to come down to the Southern district. So, you know, they gotta make phone calls. Everybody’s gotta be in Yep. Bump heads. So I’m on the boat and he calls me, he goes, Hey, we gotta act now. Yeah. And I’m looking at the mark, I go, why? He [00:20:00] goes, customs is on the dock. We don’t want them involved. So you got the two? Yeah. So I bring him up, I go, where’s the hash? He goes, it’s in the car. So we go up to the car and he opens the trunk, and I, I pull back one of the duffle bags I see. I can tell immediately it’s product. So I go like this, and all hell breaks loose, right? Yeah. I could see the two customs agents and they’re all dressed like hillbillies. They, you know. So I said to my, my handler, the next day I called them up to debrief. You know, I have to debrief after every year, everything. I goes, so what happened when customs I go, what’d they want to do? He goes, yep. They wanted to chop the boat in threes. So they’re gonna sell the boat and the 2D EA offices are gonna trade it. Yeah. Are gonna shop the money. Yeah. I remember when I registered with the DEA in, in, in the Southern district, I had to tell ’em who I was. They go, why are you working for him? Why aren’t you working for us? I’m like, buddy, I’m not in charge here. This is, you know? Yeah. I heard that many [00:21:00] times through different cases we did, where the, the local cop would say to me, why don’t you come work for us? Oh yeah. Try to steal your informant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how about that? So, can you get a piece of the action if they had a big case seizure? Yeah. Did they have some deal where you’d get a piece of that action there? Yep. That’s a pretty good deal. Yeah. So I would get, I, I’d get, like, if we brought down, he would always tell everybody that he needed money to buy electronics and then he would come to me and go, here’s 2000. And to the other cis, he had three guys. I saw a friend of mine, the guy that got me into the deal. Them a million dollar house or a couple million dollar house. And I saw the DEA hand him a suitcase with a million dollars cash in it. Wow. I mean, I’m sorry, with a hundred thousand cash. A hundred thousand. Okay. I was gonna say, I was thinking a million. Well, a hundred thousand. Yeah, a hundred thousand. I’ve heard that. I just didn’t have any experience with it myself. But I heard that. I saw, saw Open it up, saw money. I saw the money. It was one of those aluminum halla, Halliburton reef cases and Yeah, yeah. A [00:22:00] hundred thousand cash. But, uh, but you know, um, it’s funny, somebody once asked me out of, as a kid I wanted to be a cowboy, a race car driver, and a secret agent. Me too. Yes. Yeah. I didn’t want, I wanted to be a, I grew up on a farm, so I kind of rode a horse. I had that watched Rowdy, you got saved background as me, man. Yeah. You know, we watched, we watched, we grew up on westerns. We watched Gun Smoke, rowdy. Oh yeah. You know, uh, bananas, uh, you know, so, um. So anyway, uh, I got to raise cars with my drug money, and I guess I’m not sure if I was more of a secret agent working as a drug dealer or as the DEA, but it’s a lot of I, you know, I make jokes about it now, but it’s a lot of stress working undercover. Oh, yeah. Oh, I can’t even imagine that. I never worked undercover. I, that was not my thing. I like surveillance and putting pieces together and running sources, but man, that actual working undercover that’s gotta be nerve wracking. It’s, you know, and, and my handler was good at it, but [00:23:00] he would step out and let, here’s, I’ll tell you this. One day he calls me up and he goes, Hey, I’m down here in Fort Lauderdale. You need to come down here right now. And I’m having dinner at my house about 15 minutes away. Now he lives in Jacksonville. I go, what’s he doing in Fort Lauderdale? So I drive down to the hotel and he’s got a legal pad and a pen. He goes, my, uh, my, my seniors want to, uh, want you to proffer. You need to tell me everything you ever did. And they want me to do a proffer. And I go, I looked at him. I go, John, I can’t do that. He start, we start writing. I start telling him stuff. I stop. I go, I grew up in this town. Everybody I know I did a drug deal with from high school, I go, I would be giving you every single kid, every family, man, I grew up here. My, I’m gonna be in jail, and my wife and my one and a half year old daughter are gonna be the only people left in this town, and they’re not gonna have any support. And I just can’t do this to all my friends. Yeah. So he says, all right, puts the pen down. I knew [00:24:00] he hated paperwork, so I had a good shot. He wasn’t gonna, he goes, yeah, you hungry? I go, yeah. He goes, let’s go get a steak. And right across the street was a place called Chuck Steakhouse, which great little steak restaurant. All right. So we go over there, he goes, and he is a big guy. He goes, sit right here. I go, all right. So I sit down. I, I’m getting a free steak. I’m gonna sit about through the steak dinner, it goes. Look over my shoulder. So I do this. He goes, see the guy at the bar in the black leather jacket. I go, yeah. He goes, when I get up and walk outta here, when I clear the door, I want you to go up to him and find a talk drug deal. See what you can get out of him. I go, you want me to walk up to a complete stranger and say, he goes, I’m gonna walk out the door. When I get out the door. You’re gonna go up and say, cap Captain Bobby. That was his, he was a ca a boat captain and his nickname, his handle was Captain Bobby. And he was theoretically the next Vietnam vet that now is a smuggler, you know?[00:25:00] Yeah. And so he walks out the door and I walked out and sat with the guy at the bar and we started, I said, hi, captain Bobby sent me, I’m his right hand man, you know, to talk about. And we talked and I looked around the bar trying to see if anybody was with him. And I’m figuring, now I’m looking at the guy going, why is he so open with me? And I’m thinking, you know what? He’s wearing a leather jacket. He’s in Florida. I bet you he’s got a wire on and he’s working for customs and I’m working for the DEA, so nothing ever came of it. But you know, that was, you know, you’re sitting there eating dinner and all of a sudden, you know, look over my shoulder. Yeah. And, you know, and I’m trying to balance all that with having a newborn that’s about a year old and my wife and Yeah. Looking at 25 years. So a little bit of pressure. But, you know, hey and I understand these federal agencies, everybody’s got, everybody is, uh, uh, aggressive. Everybody is ambitious. And you just are this guy in the middle and right. And they’ll throw you to the [00:26:00] wolves in a second. Second, what have you done for a second? Right? It’s what have you done for me lately? He’s calling me up and said, Hey, I don’t got any product from you in a minute. I go, well, I’m working on it. He goes, well, you know, they’ll kick you outta the program. Yeah. But one of the things he did he was one of, he was the GS 13. So he had some, you know, he had level, you know, level 15 or whatever, you know, he was, yeah. Almost at the head of near retirement too. And he said, look, he had me, he had another guy that was a superstar, another guy. And we would work as a team and he would feed us all the leads. In other words, if David had a case, I’d be on that case. So when I went to go to go to trial or go to my final, he had 14 or 15 different things that he had penciled me in to be involved with. The biggest deal we did at the end of my two years with the DEA was we brought down the Canadian mob. They got him for 10,000 kilos of cocaine, import 10,000 kilos. It was the Hell’s Angels, the Rock something, motorcycle [00:27:00] gang, the Italian Mafia and the, and the Irish mob. Mm-hmm. And the guy, I mean, this is some badass guys. I was just a player, but. The state of Ohio, they got to fly up there and you know, I mean, no words, the dog and pony show was always on to give everybody, you know. Yes. A bite at the apple. Oh yeah. But I’ll tell you this, it’s been 33 years and the two people that I’m close to is my arresting officer in Ohio and my DEA handler in Jacksonville. The arresting officer, when he retired, he called to gimme his new cell phone. And every year or so I call him up around Christmas and say, Dennis, thank you for the opportunity to turn my life around, because I’ve got four great kids. I’ve started businesses, you know, he knows what I’ve done with my life. And the DEA handler, that’s, he’s a friend of mine. I mean, you know, we talk all the time and check on each other. And, you know, I mean, he’s, [00:28:00] they’re my friends. A lot of, not too many of the guys are left from those days that will talk to me. Yeah, probably not. And most of them are dead or in jail anyhow. For, well, a lot of ’em are, maybe not even because of you, I mean, because that’s their life. No, but a lot of them, a number of ’em turned their lives around, went into legal businesses and have done well. Yeah. So, you know, there really have, so not all of ’em, but a good share of ’em have turned, because we weren’t middle class kids. We were, my one friend was, dad was the lieutenant of the police department. The other one was the post guy. We weren’t inner city kids. Yeah. We weren’t meeting we, the drug war landed on us and we just, we were recruited into it. As young as I talk about in my book. But I mean, let’s talk about what’s going on now. Now. Yeah. And listen, I’m gonna put some statistics out there. Last year, 250,000 people were charged with cannabis. 92% for simple possession. There’s [00:29:00] people still in jail for marijuana doing life sentences. I’ve had friends do 27 years only for marijuana. No nonviolent crimes, first time offender. 22 years, 10 years. And the government is, I’ve been involved with things where the government was smuggling the drugs. I mean, go with the Iran Contra scandal that happened. We were trading guns for cocaine with the Nicaraguans in the Sandon Easterns. Yeah. Those same pilots. Gene Hassen Fus flew for Air America and Vietnam moving drugs and gun and, and guns out of Cambodia. Same guy. Air America. Yeah. The American government gave their soldiers opium in Civil War to keep ’em marching. You know, I mean, we did a deal with Lucky Luciano, where we let ’em out of prison for doing heroin exchange for Intel from, from Europe on during World War II and his, and the mob watching the docks for the, uh, cargo ships. So the government’s been intertwined in the war on drugs on two [00:30:00] sides of it. Yeah. You know, and not that it makes it right. Look, I’ve lost several friends to fentanyl that thought they were doing coke and did fentanyl or didn’t even know there was any. They just accidentally did fentanyl and it’s a horrible drug. But those boats coming out of Venezuela don’t have fentanyl on ’em. No. Get cocaine maybe. If that, and they might be, they’re probably going to Europe. Europe and they’re going to Europe. Yeah, they’re going, yeah. They’re doubt they’re going to Europe. Yeah. Yeah. And so let’s put it this way. I got busted for running a 12 year ongoing criminal enterprise. We moved probably 50 tons of marijuana. You know what? Cut me down? One guy got busted with one pound and he turned in one other guy that went all the way up to us. So if you blew up those boats, you know, you’re, you need the leads. You, you can’t kill your clients. Yeah. You know, how are you gonna get, not gonna get any leads outta that. Well, that’s, uh, well, I’m just saying [00:31:00] you right. The, if they followed the boat to the mothership Yeah. They’d have the whole crew and all the cargo. Yeah. You know, it’s, those boats maybe have 200 kilos on ’em. A piece. Yeah. The mothership has six tons. Yeah. That’s it. It’s all about the, uh, the, um, uh, optics. Optics, yeah. That’s the word. It’s all about the optics and, and the politic, you know, in, in some way it may deter some people, but I don’t, I I, I’ve never seen anything, any consequence. In that drug business, there’s too much money. There is no consequence that is really ever gonna deter people from smuggling drugs. Let me put it this way, except for a few people like yourself, there’s a few like yourself that get to a certain age and the consequence of going to prison for a long time may, you know, may bring you around or the, all the risk you’re taking just, you know, you can’t take it anymore, but you gotta do something. But no, well, I got busted twice. Consequence just don’t matter. There is no consequence that’s gonna do anything. Here’s why. And you’re right. [00:32:00] One is how do you get in a race car and not think you’re gonna die? Because you always think it’s gonna happen to somebody else. Exactly. And the drug business is the same. It’s, I’m not, it’s not gonna happen to me tonight. And those guys in Venezuela, they have no electricity. They have no water. Yeah. They got nothing. They have a chance to go out and make a couple thousand dollars and change their family’s lives. Yeah. Or they’re being, they’re got family members in the gar, in the gangs that are forcing them to do it. Yeah. It’s the war on drugs has kind of been a political war and an optics war from the seventies. I mean, it’s nobody, listen, I always say, I say in my book, nobody loved it more than the cops, the lawyers and the politicians. No shit. In Fort Lauderdale, they had nothing, and all of a sudden the drug wars brought night scopes and cigarette boats and fancy cars and new offices. Yes. And new courthouses, and new jails and Yep. I don’t have an answer. Yeah. The problem is, [00:33:00] you know what I’m gonna say, America, Mexico doesn’t have a drug problem. Columbia doesn’t have a drug problem. No. America has a drug problem. Those are just way stations to get the product in. In the cover of my book, it says, you don’t sell drugs, you supply them like ammunition in a war. It’s a, people, we, how do we fix this? How do we get the American people? Oh, by the way, here’s a perfect example. Marijuana is legal in a majority of states. You don’t see anybody smuggling marijuana in, I actually heard two stories of people that are smuggling marijuana out of the country. I’ve heard that. I’ve heard that. Yeah. They’re growing so much marijuana in America that it’s worth shipping to other places, either legally or illegally. Yeah. And, and, and you know, the biggest problem is like, what they’ll do is they’ll set up dispensaries, with the green marijuana leaf on it, like it’s some health [00:34:00] dispensary. But they, they just won’t it’ll be off the books. It just won’t have the licensing and all that. And, you know, you run that for a while and then maybe you get caught, maybe you don’t. And so it’s, you know, it’s, well, the other thing is with that dispensary license. It’s highly regulated, but you can get a lot of stuff in the gray. So there’s three markets now. There’s the white market, which is the legal Yeah. Business that, you know, you can buy stocks in the companies and whatnot. Yeah. There’s the black market, which is the guy on the street that Kenny Bear used to be. And then there’s the gray market where people are taking black market product and funneling it through the white markets without intact, you know, the taxes and the licensing and the, the, uh, testing for, you know, you have to test marijuana for pesticides. Metals, yeah. And, and the oils and the derivatives. You know, there’s oil and there’s all these derivatives. They have to be tested. Well, you could slide it through the gray market into the white market. So I know it’s a addiction, you know, whether it’s gambling or sex or Right. Or [00:35:00] there’s always gonna be people who are gonna take advantage and make money off of addiction. The mafia, you know, they refined it during the prohibition. All these people that drink, you know, and a lot, admittedly, a lot of ’em are social drinkers, but awful lot of ’em work. They had to have it. And so, you know, then gambling addiction. And that’s, uh, well here’s what I say. If it wasn’t for Prohibition Vegas, the mob never would’ve had the power and the money to build Vegas. No, they wouldn’t have anything. So when you outlaw something that people want, you’re creating a, a business. If, if somebody, somebody said the other day, if you made all the drugs legal in America, would that put out, put the drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia and out of business? Yeah, maybe. How about this statistic? About 20 to 30,000 people a year die from cocaine overdose. Most have a medical condition. Unknown unbe, besides, they’re not ODing on cocaine. Yeah. Alright. 300,000 people a year die from obesity. Yeah. And [00:36:00] another, almost four, I think 700, I don’t know, I might be about to say a half a million die from alcohol and tobacco. Mm-hmm. I could be low on that figure. So you’re, you probably are low. Yeah. I could be way more than that. But on my point is we’re regulating alcohol, tobacco, and certainly don’t care how much food you eat, and why don’t we have a medical system that takes care of these people. I don’t know that the answer if I did, but I’m just saying it, making this stuff more valuable and making bigger crime syndicates doesn’t make sense. Yeah. See a addiction is such a psychological, spiritual. Physical maldy that people can’t really separate the three and they don’t, people that, that aren’t involved and then getting some kind of recovery, they can’t understand why somebody would go back and do it again after they maybe were clean for a while. You know, that’s a big common problem with putting money into the treatment center [00:37:00] business. Yep. Because people do go to treatment two and three times and, and maybe they never get, some people never, they’ll chase it to death. No, and I can’t explain it. And you know, I, I’ll tell you what, I have my own little podcast. It’s called One Step Over the Line. Mm-hmm. And I released a show last night about a friend of mine, his name is Ron Black. You can watch it or any of your listeners can watch it, and Ron was, went down to the depths of addiction, but he did it a long time ago when they really spent a lot of time and energy to get, you know, they really put him through his system. 18 months, Ron got out clean and he came from a good family. He was raised right. He didn’t, you know, he had some trauma in his life. He had some severe trauma as a child, but he built one of the largest addiction. He has a company that he’s, he ran drug counseling services. He’s been in the space 20 or 30 years, giving back. He has a company that trains counselors to be addiction specialists. He has classes for addiction counseling. He become certified [00:38:00] members. He’s run drug rehabs. He donates to the, you know, you gotta wa if you get a chance to go to my podcast, one step over the line and, and watch this episode we did last night. Probably not the most exciting, you know, like my stories. Yeah. But Ronnie really did go through the entire addiction process from losing everything. Yeah. And pulling himself out. But he was also had a lot of family. You know, he had the right steps. A lot of these kids I was in jail with. Black and brown, inter or inner city youth, whatever, you know, their national, you know, race or nationality, they don’t have a chance. Yeah. They’re in jail with their fathers, their cousins, their brothers. Mm-hmm. The law, the war on drugs, and the laws on drugs specifically affect them. And are they, I remember thinking, is this kid safer in this jail with a cement roof over his head? A, a hot three hot meals and a bed than being back on the [00:39:00] streets? Yeah. He was, I mean. Need to, I used to do a program working with, uh, relatives of addicts. And so this mother was really worried about her son gonna go to jail next time he went to court. And he, she had told me enough about him by then. I said, you know, ma’am, I just wanna tell you something he’s safer doing about a year or so in jail than he is doing a year or so on the streets. Yeah. And she said, she just looked at me and she said, you know, you’re right. You’re right. So she quit worried about and trying to get money and trying to help him out because she was just, she was killing him, getting him out and putting him back on the streets. This kid was gonna die one way or the other, either shot or overdosed or whatever. But I’ll tell you another story. My best friend growing up in New Orleans was Frankie Monteleone. They owned the Monte Hotel. They own the family was worth, the ho half a billion dollars at the time, maybe. And Frankie was a, a diabetic. And he was a, a junk. He was a a because of the diabetic needles. [00:40:00] He kind of became a cocaine junkie, you know, shooting up coke. You know, I guess the needle that kept him alive was, you know, I, you know, again the addict mentality. Right, right. You can’t explain it. So he got, so he got busted trying to sell a couple grams. They made it into a bigger case by mentioning more product conspiracy. His father said, got a, the, the father made a deal to give him a year and a half in club Fed. Yeah. He could, you know, get a tan, practice his tennis, learn chess come out and be the heir to one of the richest families in the world, all right. He got a year and a half. Frankie did 10 years in prison. ’cause every time he got out, he got violated. Oh yeah. I remember going to his federal probation officer to get my bicycle. He was riding when he got violated. Mm-hmm. And I said, I said, sir, he was in a big building in Fort Lauderdale or you know, courthouse office building above the courthouse. I go, there’s so many cops, lawyers, [00:41:00] judges, that are doing blow on a Saturday night that are smoking pot, that are drinking more than they should all around us. You’ve got a kid that comes from one of the wealthiest families in America that’s never gonna hurt another citizen. He’s just, he’s an addict, not a criminal. He needs a doctor, not a jail. And you know what the guy said to me? He goes but those people aren’t on probation. I, I know. He did. 10 years in and out of prison. Finally got out, finally got off of paper, didn’t stop doing drugs. Ended up dying in a dentist chair of an overdose. Yeah. So you, you never fixed them, you just imprisoned somebody that would’ve never heard another American. Yeah, but we spent, it cost us a lot of money. You know, I, I, I dunno what the answer is. The war on drugs is, we spent over, we spent 80, let’s say since 1973. The, the DEA got started in 73, let’s say. Since that time we’ve, what’s that? 70 something years? Yeah. We’ve done [00:42:00] no, uh, 50, 60. Yeah. 50 something. Yeah. Been 50. We spent a trillion dollars. We spent a trillion dollars. The longest and most expensive war in American history is against its own people. Yeah. Trying to save ’em. I know it’s cra it’s crazy. Yeah, I know. And it, over the years, it just took on this life of its own. Yeah. And believe me, there was a, there’s a whole lot of young guys like you only, didn’t go down the drug path, but you like that action and you like getting those cool cars and doing that cool stuff and, and there’s TV shows about it as part of the culture. And so you’re like, you got this part of this big action thing that’s going on that I, you know, it ain’t right. I, I bigger than all of us. I don’t know. I know. All I like to say I had long hair and some New Orleans old man said to me when I was a kid, he goes, you know why you got that long hair boy? And this is 1969. Yeah, 70. I go, why is that [00:43:00] sir? He goes, ’cause the girls like it. The girls didn’t like it. You wouldn’t have it. I thought about it. I’m trying to be a hippie. I was all this, you know, rebel. I thought about it. I go, boy, he’s probably right. Comes down to sex. Especially a young boy. Well, I mean, I’m 15 years old. I may not even how you look. Yeah. I’m not, listen, at 15, I probably was only getting a second base on a whim, you know? Yeah. But, but they paid attention to you. Yeah. Back in those days you, you know, second base was a lot. Yeah. Really. I remember. Sure. Not as, not as advanced as they are today. I don’t think so. But anyway, that’s my story. Um, all right, Ken b this has been fun. It’s been great. I I really had a lot of fun talking to you. And the book is 1, 1, 1 took over the line. No one, no, no. That’s a Friday slip. One step over that. But that was what I came up with the name. I, I believe you, I heard that song. Yeah. I go, I know, I’m, I’ve just taken one step over the line. So that’s where the book actually one step over the line confessions of a marijuana mercenary. [00:44:00] And I’ll tell you, if your listeners go to my website, one step over the line.com, go to the tile that says MP three or the tile that says digital on that website. Put in the code one, the number one step, and then the number 100. So one step 100, they can get a free, they can download a free copy. Yeah, I got you. Okay. Okay. I appreciate it. That’d be good. Yeah, they’ll enjoy it. Yeah. And on the website there’s pictures of the boats, the planes. Yeah. The runways the weed the, all the pictures are there, family pictures, whatever. Well, you had a, uh, a magical, quite a life, the kinda life that they, people make movies about and everybody watches them and says, oh, wow, that’s really cool. But they didn’t have to do it. They didn’t have to pay that price. No. Most of the people think, the funny thing is a lot of people think I’m, I’m, I’m lying or I’m exaggerating. Yeah. I’m 68 years old. Yeah. There’s no reason for me to lie. And you know, the DEA is, I’m telling that. I’m just telling it the way it [00:45:00] happened. I have no reason to tell Phish stories at this point in my life. No, I believe it. No, no, no. It’s all true. All I’ve been, I’ve been around to a little bit. I, I could just talk to you and know that you’re telling the truth here I am. So, it’s, it’s a great story and Ken, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you for having me. It’s been a very much a, it is been a real pleasure. It’s, it’s nice to talk to someone that knows both sides of the coin. Okay. Take care. Uh, thanks again. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Show Notes:This week I had the opportunity to speak with filmmakers Ken Arnold and Dan DeLuca about their newest film, A Town Called Purgatory. They told me where the idea for the horror western came from, how they ended up filming in Austria, and how they honored the Navajo lore that they used in the story. They also told me what horror western they'd pair their movie with and Dan revealed his nightly monster movie ritual, and more! You can watch A Town Called Purgatory on VOD now!Ken & Dan's Socials: A Town Called Purgatory trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZqc35RXHNo IG: https://www.instagram.com/atowncalledpurgatory/ Ken's IG: https://www.instagram.com/kenarnoldactor/ Dan's IG: https://www.instagram.com/contenderfilms/ Who's There? Socials:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whostherepc.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whostherepcTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/whostherepcLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/thatgirlallison/ Email: whostherepc@gmail.com Website: https://www.whostherepodcast.com Join the Email List: https://mailchi.mp/4a109b94d3bc/newsletter-signup

Dakota Louis’ (Northern Cheyenne) family bull riding roots go back five generations. His father was a two-time champion at the Indian Finals Rodeo. Now, Louis is a top competitor at the same rodeo and other events around the country. He hopes to pass down his skills and inspiration to a younger generation on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana where he grew up. On the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, Jade Blankenship (Colville Tribes/Eastern Band of Cherokee) opened a spa and boutique with her sister. Together they are sharing their business knowledge with budding Native entrepreneurs. They are among the names on this year’s 40 under 40 list by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. We’ll hear from some of the Native people on a variety of career paths recognized for their contributions to their communities. GUESTS Dakota Louis (Northern Cheyenne, Cree, and Blackfeet), professional bull rider Jade Blankenship (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Spokane and Eastern Band of Cherokee), co-owner of Indigenous Boutique and Spa and founder of UWENA Corey Hinton (Passamaquoddy), attorney at Drummond Woodsum Michael Charles (Diné), assistant professor in the department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University Break 1 Music: Rodeo Song [Skip Dance Song] (song) Sweethearts of Navajoland (artist) From the Heart of Diné Nation Traditional Songs of the Navajo (album) Break 2 Music: Vipismal – The Hummingbird Song (song) Earl Ray (artist) Traditional Songs Of The Salt River Pima (album)

Taken from the Navajo Reservation - Missing Indigenous #MMIWBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

A caller talks about their day to day life on a Navajo reservation while they herd sheep, I talk to a second caller about this paradoxical life of schemes, and a viewer email debates whether or not to disclose his history of writing successful gay erotica. It is time to pin the tail on John Travolta. I am a gecko. Send an email to therapygeckomail@gmail.com to maybe have it possibly read on the show potentially. Watch a video I made of me walking around Iraq as a gecko: https://youtu.be/6NOjY7CaPvQGet notified for when I come to your city to do a live gecko show: therapygeckotour.com GET BONUS EPISODES: therapygecko.supercast.com FOLLOW ME ON GECKOGRAM: instagram.com/lyle4ever GET WEIRD EMAILS FROM ME SOMETIMES BY CLICKING HERE.Follow me on Twitch to get a notification for when I’m live taking calls. Usually Mondays and Wednesdays but a lot of other times too. twitch.tv/lyleforeverSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What a wonderful podcast I had with Marilou Schultz. She is a master weaver and a math teacher who grew up in Leupp, Arizona on the Navajo Nation.She has been teaching her entire life and is justs now going into weaving full-time. There's good reason for that too. You see, Marilou's weavings are very in demand. She has a waitlist that includes the Basel and MoMA collections. What she has done is interpreted various computer chips through the lens of a traditional Diné weaver. It's just an amazing story. She got a commissioned by Intel to do a rendition of the Pentium chip in 1994. She's a fourth generation Navajo Weaver and she uses her background in mathematics to create these incredible textiles. I was fortunate enough to get one of these ordered a year ago, and she brought it to me today. I got to see it for the first time during this podcast and you can see my eyes light up as she unravels this masterpiece.I highly recommend that you watch this on YouTube because you will be able to see her interact with the textile, as well see her tell her story, which is quite remarkable. This is one of my favorite podcasts that I've done. I hope you enjoy it. This is master Diné weaver, Marilou Schultz on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

Anishinaabe call the cluster of seven stars in the winter sky Bugonagiizhig, or “Hole in the Sky”. Navajos say it is Dilyéhé, or “Sparkling.” And Senecas say it is the Seven Dancers. On conventional Western star maps, the cluster is known as the Pleiades, a name that refers to Greek mythology. Prominent during winter months, these stars bookmark the winter season and are important symbols for many tribes' origin stories. We'll hear about those stories and the teachings connected to the Pleiades. GUESTS Michael Waasegiizhig Price (Wikwemikong First Nation), Anishinaabe culture and language keeper Cal Nez (Navajo), fine arts artist and graphic designer, Navajo spiritualist Jamie Jacobs (Tonawanda Seneca), managing curator for the Rock Foundation collections at the Rochester Museum and Science Center Break 1 Music: Starry Night (song) Dallas Arcand (artist) Modern Day Warrior (album) Break 2 Music: Put Your Feathers On (song) Blue Moon Marquee & Northern Cree (artist) Get Your Feathers Ready (Album)

Abandoned uranium mine waste has been a big deal for decades, but almost no one had an inkling about what we should do to solve the problem. The scale of the challenge is huge, with various estimates ranging between 1 and 8 billion tons of uranium mining waste rock spread over more than 10,000 sites, nearly all of which are in western states and Native American sovereign nations. The Navajo Nation is the jurisdiction with the biggest burden – a substantial portion of the waste is on Navajo lands and spread over 500 or more sites. Some have dismissed or minimized the problem by pointing to the relatively low material concentrations and the low radiation doses emitted. But low concentrations multiplied by tens of millions of tons and thousands of sites calculates to distressingly large numbers. It’s also important to remember that the contaminating minerals of concern are heavy metals that might be lightly radioactive, but they also have a level of chemical toxicity that also causes negative health impacts on humans and animals. Though billions of dollars have been allocated for cleaning up the waste piles, there hasn’t been much progress because the available solution set has been limited to on-site burial in engineered landfills or moving the material “somewhere else.” The landfill option doesn’t remove the potential threat to groundwater and the barriers are designed to last about 100 years. The vast majority of the contaminating minerals will still be there after the designed barriers have deteriorated. There has been little or no success in finding suitable or agreeable places to take the waste and even if there were, the mass of material means that most of the available clean up funds would be consumed in transportation. Not surprisingly, there has not been a shortage of large established contracting companies willing to be paid tens of millions of dollars to study the issue and move some dirt around. Enter John Lee and Greyson Buckingham, a pair of innovative entrepreneurs. They recognized the scale of the problem and the importance of effective solutions. They developed a patented technology called High Pressure Slurry Ablation that separates the contaminating minerals – mostly uranium and radium 226 – from sand and rock and concentrates those minerals into about 20% of the mass of the input stream. The clean fraction can meet stringent NRC unrestricted release criteria while the fraction containing the minerals will have a high enough concentration to turn a pile of contaminated material into valuable ore. John Lee, with deep experience and education in mining and materials processing, developed the initial idea for HPSA. Greyson Buckingham added his legal training, business acumen and political experience. They formed a company called Disa Technologies in 2018 and patiently began the process of refining their ideas into useful and reliable machinery. Additionally, they entered into a plodding process of obtaining permission to deploy their problem-solving technology in an environmentally beneficial and cost effective manner. Starting with a state regulatory engagement in 2018, Disa Technologies was recently – September 30, 2025 – awarded a service provider’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That license comes with a significant, but reasonably achievable condition to demonstrate HPSA on a commercial scale before entering into wide deployment of multiple units. Though it took about half a decade of staff engagement and Commission decision-making to determine the proper licensing framework, the NRC was able to review Disa’s service provider license application in six months (March–September 2025). During the regulatory engagement process, Disa Technologies developed strong alliances with political representatives from affected states, with leaders among the Native American nations and with communities that have been seeking solutions to the waste issue for decades. They also produced solid scientific evidence of the efficacy of their inventions and demonstrated it to the satisfaction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The saga is fascinating. For Atomic Show #339, I spoke with Greyson Buckingham about his company, its technology, the importance of cleaning up abandoned uranium mine (AUM) waste, the utility of HPSA in processing other critical mineral ores, the sometimes frustrating interactions with the NRC during period from 2020-2024 and the refreshingly competent and mission-oriented NRC that has been evolving during the past year. Neither I nor Nucleation Capital, the sponsor of the Atomic Show and Atomic Insights, have any financial interest in Disa as of January 5, 2025, the date that this post and the associated audio recording are released.

There's a place in America where reality seems to glitch — and it's been baffling scientists, the government, and locals for decades. Skinwalker Ranch, deep in Utah, is a hotspot for UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, strange lights, and even stories of missing time. The name comes from Navajo legends of “skinwalkers” — shape-shifting witches that can take any form. It's been investigated by billionaire Robert Bigelow, private scientists, and even the U.S. government… and still, no one can explain what's really going on there. We'll explore the wildest events, the creepiest experiments, and the newest tech being used to hunt for answers. This is the most mysterious, “cursed” place in America — and it might just keep its secrets forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The scariest clown to ever appear on screen drives a storyline involving a fictional tribe in Maine. “IT: Welcome to Derry” uses horror writer Stephen King's 1986 novel as a jumping off point. The hit HBO Max miniseries provides a new Native American theme to the plot with some veteran Native talent in front of and behind the camara. It is one of the notable projects from 2025, a list that also includes Sterlin Harjo's “The Lowdown”, the TIFF Best Canadian Feature winner, “Uiksaringitara,” and SXSW Documentary Feature Special Jury Award winner, “Remaining Native.” We'll recall some of the best film and TV projects from the year and see what's in store for 2026. GUESTS Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), founder of Red Pop! News  Jason Asenap (Comanche and Muscogee), writer, critic, and filmmaker Sunrise Tippeconnie (Commanche, Navajo and Cherokee), director of programming at deadCenter Film and co-host of the Reel Indigenous Podcast Kimberly Guerrero (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Salish and Kootenai), actress, screenwriter, and professor at the University of California, Riverside Favorite films and television shows of the year Sunrise Tippeconnie: Tiger – (documentary short), director Loren Waters  Drowned Land – (documentary), director Colleen Thurston Legend of Fry-Roti: Rise of the Dough – (short film), director Sabrina Saleha Free Leonard Peltier – (documentary), directors Jesse Short Bull and David France Siren of the Wood – (short film), director Christopher Corsy Jason Asenap: Tiger – (short doc), director Lauren Waters Endless Cookie – (animated film), directors Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver Remaining Native – (documentary), director Paige Bethmann The Lowdown – (television show), creator Sterlin Harjo Johnnie Jae: Guardian of the Land – (documentary), director LaRonn Katchia Inkwo for When the Starving Return – (animated short), director Amanda Strong Pow! – (animated short), director Joey Clift Courage – (documentary short), director Eric Michael Hernandez Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) – (feature film), director Zacharias KunukHere’s an extended interview with IT: Welcome to Derry star Kimberly Guerrero speaking on her role of Rose in the television series. She starts off describing her early career in Hollywood. https://nativeamericacalling-offload-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/123125-Kimberly-Guerrero-web-audio.wav

In this episode of Salt Lake Dirt, I'm joined by director Deborah Correa to discuss her new film, The War Between. Based on a story and novella by Ron Yungul, the film explores a lesser-known chapter of the American Civil War: the conflict within the Arizona Territory and New Mexico. Deborah shares the fascinating history behind the California Column, a volunteer force that pushed the Confederacy out of Southern California and Arizona, and discusses how the production achieved such striking authenticity by shooting on location in the exact areas where the historic Battle of Picacho Peak took place.We also dive into the logistics of pulling off an ambitious indie period piece on a 15-day shoot. Deborah highlights the importance of her collaborative team and the deep research that went into the film, including her commitment to working with Apache and Navajo consultants to ensure cultural reverence and accuracy.Thanks for listening!---The War Between is available now on Amazon, Fandango, and at thewarbetweenfilm.com

Laverne Waddington discovered weaving by accident—bike accident, to be precise. Recuperating from a mountain biking crash in Utah, she discovered a book on Navajo weaving and was immediately intrigued. A local exhibit of Diné textiles enthralled her, and she set about learning to weave in the Navajo style. Returning to Patagonia, where she had been living, she built a simple loom and explored weaving on her own until it became clear that she would need to move north to satify her hunger for weaving knowledge, settling in Bolivia. Over the following decades, Laverne traveled in South and Central America, learning backstrap techniques from indigenous weavers. Her curiosity has led her to the Andean Highlands, Guatemala, and other regions to learn hand-manipulated and pick-up methods and patterns from skilled local weavers. Laverne loves to explore complex and intricate weaving styles, enjoying the way that each inch of warp and weft passes through her hands in a variety of pick-up techniques. Weaving on a backstrap loom, she sits inside each weaving project. Through videos, online classes, books, and ebooks, she teaches other weavers how to set up a backstrap loom for themselves and weave a variety of patterns. Teaching backstrap and pick-up techniques is as much a part of her practice as deepening her understanding of the weaving structures. In this episode, discover Laverne Waddington's passions and processes. Links Laverne has maintained a blog and weaving journal on her website (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/) since 2009. Laverne's books (https://www.taprootvideo.com/instructorClasses.jsf?iid=3) are available from Taproot Video. Laverne offers a number of tutorials (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/tutorials/) of techniques she practices as well as videos (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/videos/) of a variety of weaving techniques and traditions. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Photo: Mrs. Crystal Claus, Peppermint the Elf, and Solte Santa, as portrayed by Colleen Payne, Qalch'ema Friedlander, and Jerry Payne, visit the Chifin Native Youth Center in Springfield, Oreg., Sunday, December 14, 2025. (Buffalo's Fire/Brian Bull) It's the holiday season with many families across Indian Country waiting for Santa's visit to reward all good children with presents. And while the mainstream depiction is of a jolly old elf who's white and decked out in a red, fur-lined suit, some Native Santas are inspiring yuletide cheer in their own ways. Brian Bull of Buffalo's Fire shadowed one across Oregon. At the Chifin Native Youth Center in Springfield, Oreg., a packed classroom welcomes Solte Santa, accompanied by Mrs. Claus, Peppermint the Elf, and others from the North Pole. Jerry Payne, the man behind the curly beard, explains his role. “'Solte' in Salish means 'warrior', so I wanted to honor that. And I'm a veteran myself. Every community has their own style of Santa so I wanted to make sure that the Indigenous Natives got to be represented as well.” Solte Santa has made nine appearances across Portland, Eugene, and other places this month, listening to kids' wish lists and posing for family photos. With a feathered bustle, candy cane staff, and festive beadwork, he contrasts sharply with the Coca-Cola Santa that's been widely iconic since the 1930s. But Payne says that's a plus. “The mall Santa or typical Santa that everybody knows like the Coca-Cola Santa … for whatever reason, kids are scared of that Santa. But I've had kids that … their parent would say that they would never come up to take a picture with me. Next thing you know, they're hugging me and jumping in my lap and we take a good picture. Their parents are crying because they never got a good picture with their kid.” A study involving an Oregon State University scholar looked at non-traditional Santas. Bori Csillag, Stirek assistant professor of management, said for many Father Christmases, spreading love and joy for the holidays surpassed the need to conform 100% to the mainstream depiction of Santa Claus. “They see the fit, they hear the calling in their heart, they know that they are able to portray their role successfully.” Besides Solte Santa, a First Nations dancer called Powwow Santa has been firing up social media, and there are many others across tribal communities, reminding people that the Christmas spirit exists for everyone. A Navajo children's television show returned this month with a holiday special. Jill Fratis reports. The “Navajo Highways” special is titled “Ya’ah’teeh Keshmish,” which is “Merry Christmas” in Navajo. It's the show's first full holiday themed episode. The creator of the series, filmmaker, and musician Pete Sands, says the show teaches Navajo language and culture. “Parts of it is my childhood, and part of it is how I wish my childhood was. It's a balance of both, and I think shining positivity on Indigenous cultures is important to do.” The series blends puppetry, storytelling, and Navajo humor, all set along the winding highways of the Navajo Nation. Sands says that a memory he had of a teacher using puppets to help children listen, gave him the idea to use them in his show. “Seen a teacher friend of mine who was trying to tell her first grade students to clean up, but they wouldn't listen to her, so she reached into her desk and she pulled out a hand puppet and started talking to her class, and they listened to her, through the puppet actually, and a lightbulb went off in my head like wait, maybe there's something to this. Maybe I can use this.” The holiday episode highlights traditional winter teachings, including family gatherings, gratitude, and the meaning of giving. Season two of the series begins production next year. Sands says there will be new puppets and new locations, but says the heart of the show remains the same: teaching children simple Diné words and phrases through everyday scenes and conversations. The “Navajo Highways” holiday special, and season one, is now streaming on the First Nations Experience (FNX) platform. View this post on Instagram A post shared by FNXTV First Nation Experience (@fnxtv) Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Thursday, December 25, 2025 – Mental health experts point to personal connections to maintain winter mental health

New York Times best-selling author Angeline Boulley (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) made a number of best-of-2025 lists with the third book in her series centered in the Ojibwe community, Sugar Island, titled “Sisters in the Wind.” Another favorite comes from young adult author and editor, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee), who challenged more than a dozen other Native authors to imagine a Native future where a frybread eatery holds community and culture in the “Legendary Frybread Drive-In.” And renowned Potawatomi botanist and writer, Robin Wall Kimmerer tapped into the curiosity of young readers with her first children's book “Bud Finds Her Gift.” They are among the Native works highlighted by our distinguished panel of reading enthusiasts. You can find their lists of favorite books of the year below. GUESTS Allison Waukau (Menominee and Navajo), American Indian Library Association member -at-large Amber McCrary (Diné), writer and poet Stacy Wells (Choctaw Nation), author and librarian Allison Waukau’s favorite books:  “I Am on Indigenous Land” by Katrina M. Phillips “We Survived the Night” by Julian Brave Noisecat *featured on NAC in October “Sisters in the Wind” by Angeline Boulley *featured on NAC in September  “Across the Ice: How We Saved the Ojibwe Horse” by Darcy Whitecrow and Heather O'Connor “Moon Song” by Michaela Goade “Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones *featured on NAC in October “Bud Finds Her Gift” by Robin Wall Kimmerer *featured on NAC in September  “Ishkode: A Story of Fire” by Evan Larson and Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano and illustrated by Moira Villiard Minnesota Lives series Stacy Wells’ favorite books:  “The Others” by Cheryl Issacs (sequel to “The Unfinished”) “Legendary Frybread Drive-In” edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith *featured on The Menu in August  “Faye and the Dangerous Journey: An Ojibwe Removal Survival Story” by Kim Sigafus “The Summer of the Bone Horses” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve *featured on NAC in July  Amber McCrary’s favorite books:  “The Museum of Unnatural Histories” by Annie Wenstrup “Mele” by Kalehua Kim “Beyond the Glittering World: an Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms” edited by Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Kinsale Drake and Darcie Little Badger “Soft as Bones” by Chyana Marie Sage Shawn Spruce’s favorite books:  “Hole in the Sky” by Daniel H. Wilson *featured on NAC in October  “Sisters in the Wind” by Angeline Boulley *featured on NAC in September  “We Survived the Night” by Julian Brave Noisecat *featured on NAC in October “Stick Houses” by Matthew Fletcher *featured on NAC in June  Andi Murphy’s (NAC producer) favorite books: “Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones *featured on NAC in October “Punished” by Ann-Helén Laestadius *featured on NAC in February  “Broken Fields” by Marcie R. Rendon *featured on NAC in March “Big Chief” by Jon Hickey “Love is a War Song” by Danica Nava “The Whistler” by Nick Medina *featured on NAC in October  “Hole in the Sky” by Daniel H. Wilson *featured on NAC in October  “Surviva: A Future Ancestral Field Guide” by Cannupa H. Luger *featured on NAC in October  Break 1 Music: 12 Days of Christmas (song) Carol Adams (artist) Heartbeat of the Holiday Season (album) Break 2 Music: Coventry Carol (song) PIQSIQ (artist) Coventry Carol (album)

The harmful impact of environmental racism and nuclear colonialism on the health and well-being of Navajo miners and Indigenous communities cannot be overstated. Listen as Aaron and Damien discuss the piece “They Worked Underground in the Uranium Mines. They've Been Surrounded by Death Ever Since.” by Sarah Lazare in In These Times, which shares the story and health struggles of a former Navajo uranium miner as a case study for analyzing the federal government's efforts to disproportionately build the dangerous uranium mining industry on Navajo lands, which negatively impact the health and well-being of Indigenous communities, as well as the federal government's work to modernize the industry to expand its nuclear arsenal, and what we learn and take away from this incredible piece in our continued learning and unlearning work and fight for collective liberation. Follow us on social media and visit our website! Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Leave us a voice message⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch store⁠⁠⁠⁠

Indigenous in Music with Larry K and Pony Man (Country) Welcome to Indigenous in Music with Larry K, today we're joined by is the multi-talented Pony Man. From the film sets of The Avengers and Cowboys & Aliens to the heart of the Indigenous music scene, Pony brings decades of experience as a filmmaker, producer, and creative visionary. His latest release, ‘Shake the Tail Feather', celebrates joy, unity, and Navajo pride through powerful sound and stunning visuals. He'll be stopping by to us all about it. Pony Man is featured in our current issue of the SAY Magazine, read all about him at our place www.indigenousinmusicandarts.org/past-shows/pony-man. Enjoy music from Pony Man, Vince Fontaine, Annie Humphrey, Indigenous, John Trudell, Melody McArthur, Bryce Morin, William Prince, Julian Taylor, Celeigh Cardinal, Hataalii, Kind of Sea, 1915, Elastic Bond, Irv Lyons Jr., One Way Sky, Campo, Jorge Drexler, Clube da Bossa, Janel Munoa, Shawnee Kish, Lee Harvey Osmond, Tom Wilson, Digging Roots, The Melawmen Collective, The Northstars and much much more. Visit us on our home page to learn about us and our programs at www.indigenousinmusicandarts.org, check into our Two Buffalo Studios and our SAY Magazine Library to find out all about our Artists and Entrepreneurs.

On today's newscast: The U.S. is having an unseasonably warm holiday week, and the Roaring Fork Valley is no exception; this Christmas marks the 70th anniversary of the NORAD Santa Tracker, based in Colorado Springs; and “Navajo Highways,” a children's TV show using puppets to teach kids the Navajo culture and language, Diné, airs a holiday special. Tune in for these stories and more.

Disappearances from The Navajo Nation Reservation #MMIW #NoMoreStolenSistersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

Don't Whistle At Night welcomes Lecedric Willie December 21st, 2025 EP: 36 TOPIC: Part 2 - A continued discussion on Skinwalkers, Dogman, Bigfoot, Love Spells and more! About Lecedric: Lecedric Willie is a Navajo “ High Strangeness” Experiencer. He is versed in not only the Skinwalker lore, but has also researched the myths and facts which surround them. He has witnessed Kokopeli Anasazi ghosts, which are well known in Navajo cultures . He is a team member of Alílee Naalkaah (mystical investigators) .

Marie Robert, philosophe et autrice, m'a offert un moment d'une rare intensité au cours de notre échange. Moi qui cherche beaucoup à vous reconnecter à la joie et à vous reconcilier avec le futur, cet extrait m'a semblé parfait pour bientôt finir l'annéeDans cet extrait, elle explore avec une sensibilité unique ce que signifie vraiment "le beau", au-delà de l'esthétique, comme une manière de se reconnecter à soi, aux autres, et à la vie elle-même.J'ai questionné Marie sur son rapport à la beauté, qu'elle place au tout début de son livre, comme un point d'ancrage universel. Elle partage des anecdotes puissantes, comme celle des soins palliatifs ou d'une petite fille fascinée par un vieux trombone, pour montrer combien le beau peut surgir dans les moindres recoins de nos vies, pour peu qu'on sache lui faire de la place.Elle revient également sur une initiative du Louvre qui a installé des reproductions d'œuvres d'art dans les hôpitaux. Le simple fait de poser un regard sur un tableau peut, selon elle, aider à soigner, en offrant une respiration, une parenthèse d'humanité.Ce moment est aussi l'occasion d'aborder son regard sur l'audace. Marie déconstruit la vision clichée d'un courage tape-à-l'œil pour mieux défendre une audace douce, sincère, enracinée dans une profonde réflexion sur soi.J'aime cette façon qu'a Marie de concilier la philosophie avec le quotidien, de réconcilier la raison et les émotions, et surtout de rendre le beau accessible à tous. Un extrait qui, je l'espère, vous touchera autant qu'il m'a marqué.Citations marquantes« Le beau soigne. Il emmène ailleurs. Il apaise. »« Ce dont on se souvient, ce sont les moments passés avec ceux qu'on aime. »« Le beau n'est pas un luxe, c'est une nécessité. »« L'audace, ce n'est pas sauter dans le vide. C'est agir malgré la peur, avec conscience. »« Voir un vieux trombone comme une œuvre d'art, c'est déjà un acte de résistance. »10 questions structurées posées dans l'interviewPourquoi as-tu commencé ton livre par le thème de la beauté ?Qu'est-ce que la beauté apporte dans nos vies ?Peux-tu nous parler de cette initiative du Louvre dans les hôpitaux ?Est-ce que le beau est quelque chose d'inné ou d'éduqué ?Est-ce qu'on laisse assez de place pour le beau dans nos vies ?Qu'est-ce que le beau pour les Indiens Navajos ?Comment le beau peut-il soigner ?Pourquoi dis-tu ne pas aimer l'audace ?Quelle est la différence entre l'audace et le culot ?Pourquoi avoir choisi Instagram pour publier de la philosophie ?Timestamps clés pour YouTube00:00 – Introduction de Grégory : un moment fort de l'épisode.00:26 – Marie évoque les souvenirs et la fin de vie.01:16 – Le livre commence par la beauté : un choix réconfortant.02:07 – L'histoire de la petite fille et le vieux trombone.02:51 – L'exemple des œuvres du Louvre dans les hôpitaux.04:23 – La beauté : innée ou éduquée ?06:07 – Chez les Navajos, une vie belle est une vie en harmonie.07:24 – Beauté = réconciliation entre raison et émotions.07:48 – Le contrepied de l'audace selon Marie.09:14 – L'éloge d'une audace réfléchie et sincère. Suggestion d'épisode à écouter : #335 Trouver du reconfort dans un monde en chaos avec Marie Robert (https://audmns.com/ICuFMra)Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Guests include:Tyes Ben Graves - Linebacker for Cesar Chavez High School, who has been listed as one of the Top 70 Indigenous High School Football playersJohnathan Williams, aka Native Kyng, Navajo hip-hop artist, motivational speaker, and suicide prevention activistSupport the show

A larger than life figure in the creative world, Aaron Draplin has been designing everything from logos to posters since 1995. Few designers are as prolific as Aaron. He's the founder of Draplin Design Co. (DDC). Priding himself on craftsmanship and quality, the DDC has made stuff for Field Notes, Esquire, Nike, Red Wing, Burton Snowboards, Ford, and he's even designed a US stamp. Visit our Substack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/aaron-draplin We caught up with Aaron in person at The James Brand studio in Portland, Oregon, where he walked us through an origin story that begins with a meteor in Navajo country and winds through the skate parks of Michigan in the 80s, the snowboard culture of the 90s, and eventually to one of the most recognizable voices in American graphic design. But this isn't just a conversation about making cool stuff—though there's plenty of that. Aaron opens up about the work ethic he learned from his parents, and why being prolific isn't about perfection—it's about experimentation, and loving your work enough to show up every single day. We talk about collecting, organizing thousands of ideas, and what it means to run a design practice where you can still work on your own terms. And throughout it all, Aaron brings the humor, the heart, and the hard-won wisdom of someone who's never forgotten what it's like to work a crappy job—and who reminds himself every day just how cool a life in graphic design really is. Bio Aaron Draplin was born in Detroit in 1973 and raised in the small village of Central Lake in Northern Michigan—population 800. After a brief stint at Northwestern Michigan Community College, he moved west to Bend, Oregon at 19 to chase the snowboarding life, and started designing graphics for Solid Snowboards. To fund his winters, he worked summers as everything from a traveling fair pizza wagon cook, to a dishwasher in Anchorage, Alaska. He eventually returned to the Midwest to finish his design degree at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, before heading back west to become art director of Snowboarder Magazine in Southern California. In 2002, he moved to Portland to work as a senior designer at Cinco Design, where he worked on brands like Gravis, Helly Hansen, and Nixon. In 2004, Aaron founded Draplin Design Co., working with clients ranging from Nike and Patagonia to Sub Pop Records and the Obama Administration. In 2009, he co-founded Field Notes with Jim Coudal and Coudal Partners—a collaboration that would become one of the most successful and beloved stationery brands in America. That same year, he gave his first public talk, which spiraled into a speaking career that's now reached over 580 engagements worldwide. His book Pretty Much Everything was published by Abrams in 2016 and is now in its 13th printing. At 51, Aaron continues to run his fiercely independent design practice from a backyard shop in Portland, Oregon. *** This is a premium episode on Design Better. We release two premium episodes per month, along with two free episodes for everyone. Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books: You'll also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. And subscribers at the annual level now get access to the Design Better Toolkit, which gets you major discounts and free access to tools and courses that will help you unlock new skills, make your workflow more efficient, and take your creativity further. Upgrade to paid

A trucker driving routes through Navajo reservations finds himself the unwitting target of a monster so disturbing that even the indigenous people greatly fear it. Check out Night Watchers on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forget everything you think you know about healing. This isn't just about therapy; it's a journey to the very origins of consciousness, where trauma meets transcendence, and sorrow becomes the seed of boundless compassion.Welcome to the Season 2 Finale of the Boundless Body Podcast, where we explore Healing from Conception to Cosmos. 

Don't Whistle at Night welcomes Fabian Perez December 14th, 2025 EP: 035 Fabian Perez is Navajo and currently resides in Ignacio CO. He's had encounters with Skinwalkers and Bigfoot. He has also had experiences with Mexican Brujeria and Navajo witchcraft He has had an encounter with Bigfoot and has seen UFOs near the Dulce base.

In this SPECIAL MEMBER'S ONLY EPISODE PREVIEW, a witness from the Four Corners region shares chilling first-hand encounters with Sasquatch that span from his teenage years into adulthood. Growing up near Shiprock, New Mexico, along the San Juan River, he describes a terrifying moment when a massive, unseen creature let out a roar that sounded like a man and an animal combined, sending crows scattering from the cliffside below him.The encounters don't stop there. The witness recounts additional experiences connected to the Chuska Mountains, Navajo Nation lands, and remote areas of New Mexico and Colorado, including stories passed down through family members and locals who believe Sasquatch has roamed these regions for generations. From isolated river cliffs to mountain sheep-herding camps, the activity described suggests a long-standing presence in some of the most secluded landscapes in the Southwest.Later in the episode, a second witness from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, reports hearing unknown howls in the early 2000s and witnessing a tall, upright, human-like creature walking through snow near Square Top Mountainin 2017. The sighting was corroborated by another adult and an 8-year-old child living on the same ranch property.If you're interested in Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, Navajo Nation stories, or unexplained activity in the Four Corners and San Juan River region, this episode delivers a raw and unsettling account you won't forget.To listen to the whole episode become a supporting member of Bigfoot Society over at https://www.bigfootsocietypodcast.com or join our Youtube membership here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Qq45W6iaTU8FE9kelxT7Q/join

After years of discussions, Taos, N.M. decided to remove Kit Carson's name from a widely used park in the center of town. Carson's renown as a Western frontiersman grew from greatly exaggerated tales in pulp novels and newspaper articles. Only later did his violent exploits against Navajos and other tribes emerge. He was among the main figures in the Long Walk, the forced march of 10,000 captive Navajos. More than a third of them died. In Michigan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed a Washington Monument-style obelisk commemorating the construction of shipping locks on Lake Michigan. The obelisk sat atop the remainder of a burial ground. Lock construction destroyed the main part of the sacred area but the Bay Mills Indian Community and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians continue to hold ceremonies there. We'll talk with tribal advocates about their years-long work to change how their histories are viewed by the public. GUESTS Jeremy Lujan (Taos Pueblo), Taos Pueblo tribal secretary Jesse Winters (Taos Pueblo), Taos Pueblo second sheriff Dr. Gregorio Gonzales (Comanche and Genizaro), tribal historic preservation officer for the Pueblo of Cochiti Paula Carrick (Bay Mills Indian Community), tribal historic preservation officer for Bay Mills Indian Community Break 1 Music: Take Your Troubles to the River (song) Vincent Craig (artist) Self-titled Release (album) Break 2 Music: She Raised Us (song) Joanne Shenandoah (artist) LifeGivers (album)

In a previous episode, we explored several disturbing encounters involving a creature long feared within Navajo tradition; an entity said to move with unnatural speed, mimic familiar voices, and stalk the lonely highways of the American Southwest. Those stories were unsettling enough, yet they represent only a fraction of the reports that continue to emerge. In this episode, we return to the shadows once more, to examine a new collection of chilling encounters that are every bit as harrowing as the first. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Lazare returns to This Is Hell! to talk about her new In These Times piece “They Worked Underground in the Uranium Mines. They've Been Surrounded by Death Ever Since”. Sarah investigates how the uranium industry left a trail of sickness and loss through Navajo territory while President Trump is pushing for another mining boom. We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

On today's newscast: National parks' fee-free calendar drops MLK Day and adds Trump's birthday, Prescott Valley mayor says his family was doxed, three indicted in 2020 killing of Navajo man, and more.

Veterans for Peace board member Gerry Condon: Credible Accusations of Trump-Pentagon War Crimes ReportedJournalist and author Sasha Abramsky: Is the Trump-GOP Authoritarian Nightmare Unraveling?Prison Policy Initiative communications strategist Wanda Bertram: 34 Urgent Criminal Justice Reform Bills State Legislatures Can Pass in 2026Bob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary• World's second largest rainforest, the Congo Basin, is most overlooked in climate policy• Establishment progressive state Sen. John Cavanaugh running in Nebraska primary• Nuclear weapons plans reopen uranium mining, renewing Navajo communities' health risksVisit our website at BTLonline.org for more information, in-depth interviews, related links, transcripts and subscribe to our BTL Weekly Summary and/or podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday at 12 noon ET, website updated Wednesdays after 4 p.m. ETProduced by Squeaky Wheel Productions: Scott Harris, Melinda Tuhus, Bob Nixon, Anna Manzo, Susan Bramhall, Jeff Yates and Mary Hunt. Theme music by Richard Hill and Mikata.

Veterans for Peace board member Gerry Condon: Credible Accusations of Trump-Pentagon War Crimes ReportedJournalist and author Sasha Abramsky: Is the Trump-GOP Authoritarian Nightmare Unraveling?Prison Policy Initiative communications strategist Wanda Bertram: 34 Urgent Criminal Justice Reform Bills State Legislatures Can Pass in 2026Bob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary• World's second largest rainforest, the Congo Basin, is most overlooked in climate policy• Establishment progressive state Sen. John Cavanaugh running in Nebraska primary• Nuclear weapons plans reopen uranium mining, renewing Navajo communities' health risksVisit our website at BTLonline.org for more information, in-depth interviews, related links and transcripts and to sign up for our BTL Weekly Summary. New episodes every Wednesday at 12 noon ET, website updated Wednesdays after 4 p.m. ETProduced by Squeaky Wheel Productions: Scott Harris, Melinda Tuhus, Bob Nixon, Anna Manzo, Susan Bramhall, Jeff Yates and Mary Hunt. Theme music by Richard Hill and Mikata.

“Braids” by director, writer, and editor Elise Aachix̂ Qağaduug Beers (Unangan) tells the story of a Native student who contends with bullying and uninformed school policy. It's a modern-day tale with a long historical reach. “Guts,” a comedy by Elias Gold (Diné), is a story of a drifter who wreaks havoc on the Navajo reservation in search of a particular traditional food. We'll talk with both filmmakers and also get an update on a new initiative to elevate Indigenous voices across film and TV.

What is home? Is it a place, a memory, a landscape—or a journey? In this episode, Judy Oskam explores the transformative meaning of home with Amy Denet Deal.  She's the founder of 4 Kinship, Indigenous Futures Forever, and the Diné Skate Garden Project.Amy's story is one of remarkable courage and clarity. In her mid-50s, she left the corporate fashion world and returned to her Navajo roots. Her journey home reveals how healing and creativity intersect in powerful ways.In this episode, Judy and Amy talk about adoption and culture.  They both share an adoption connection. Returning to Her RootsAmy shares her early life story of being adopted out of her Navajo community in the 1960s—before the Indian Child Welfare Act.Amy describes the moment she chose to “come home” in 2019. Selling everything and driving to New Mexico to reconnect with her culture.Healing and IdentityAmy shares about meeting her birth mother for the first time .The emotional work of reconnecting with family, community, and heritage.From Fashion Executive to Indigenous Fashion LeaderA look inside Amy's career in corporate fashion and the ethical concerns that pushed her toward sustainable design.The founding of 4 Kinship, a brand rooted in Indigenous artistry and community impact. Creating Spaces for the Next GenerationWhy skateboarding became a tool for youth empowerment, health, and suicide prevention.Long-term dreams of a fiber farm—possibly in Scotland—to support her daughter's fashion future.The deep connection between land and clarity of purpose.Memorable Quote“Home to me is a feeling of calmness and clarity. Coming back to my homelands quieted the noise and helped me understand exactly why I'm here.” - Amy Denet DealA Reflection for YouJudy closes the episode with a question for listeners: What does home mean to you? Is it a place, a person, a memory—or a journey you're still traveling?Photo by Shaun Price. Hi Friend - Thanks for listening! Check out my TEDx talk. Why you should take action - then figure it out.

The best kind of podcasts sometimes are the ones that you weren't planning, and that's the one I had today with Ernie Lister. He is a silversmith and is an incredible master of his craft. There's no doubt about that.I've known about Ernie for a very long time. I've talked to him, but only at Santa Fe during Indian market. Things move very fast at that event and you can't really have this sort of conversation. So he came into the gallery today and I said, hey, how about a podcast? And he goes, sure, I'd be happy to. And it's a very interesting podcast. You get the sense of what it means to take your art form seriously, which he does. For him, It comes from a different place. A place of heritage. If you really want to understand what it means to be a master Diné silversmith, then look no further. I mean, this is a guy who shows his work around the world. He has a huge following in Japan.This podcast was to me a really a gift from the gods to be able to spend time with this man and hear about what he does and how he does it. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun doing it. 

Josh Townsend is having a bad week. His parents have moved him to New Mexico for his fathers' work, his new hometown is overrun with both buffalo and bicycle knaves, and to make things worse, he has to get a job as a fence repairman so the buffalo don't escape and murder one specific woman. But before long, Josh's initially fraught relationship with the local Navajo people and Buffalo steward John Blackhorse starts to thaw, and Josh realises that he must go on a vision quest, speaking to a glowing hawk, and challenge the bicycle knaves to a high stakes bike race for 11 million acres of Navajo land. Can Josh secure the future of the land and the buffalo? Can he even do that, considering the land isn't his in the first place? And is Josh's dad sexually attracted to the sky? Listen and find out!If you crave bonus episodes of Mom Can't Cook!, monthly livestream watchalongs, or a shoutout at the end of the show, remember to check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/extrahelpings.If you've watched Buffalo Dreams and have your own thoughts, email them to us at momcantcookpod@gmail.com for a chance to have them read out on the show. Next time on Mom Can't Cook! we'll be watching 2013's Teen Beach Movie. See you then!This episode is bought to you by Uncommon Goods, who make holiday shopping stress-free and joyful, with thousands of one-of-a-kind gifts you can't find anywhere else. To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com/momcantcook - Don't miss out on this limited-time offer! Uncommon Goods. We're all out of the ordinary.This episode is sponsored by NordVPN. EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ nordvpn.com/momcantcook. Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!Thanks also to sponsor Incogni! To get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan, go to incogni.com/momcantcook!Thanks to sponsor Factor, whose delicious, ready-to-eat meals make eating better every day easy. If you're in the US, go to factormeals.com/momcantcook50off and use code momcantcook50off to get 50 percent off plus FREE shipping on your first box.Contact Multitude for Advertising Inquiries: multitude.productions/adsCheck out the official Mom Can't Cook! store for sweet merch: momcantcookmerch.com and check out Mom Can't Cook! Extra Helpings for bonus episodes!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we journey into the heart of Navajo culture and the mysteries woven through the Uintah Basin — a land whispered to hold doorways between worlds. From ancient creation stories to the unsettling legends of Skinwalkers and the strange entities that haunt the desert night, we explore the sacred, the feared, and the misunderstood. Rooted in cultural respect and curiosity, this conversation opens a window into traditions that speak of power, balance, and the unseen forces that still shape our world.Watch now and decide what's legend, what's real, and what still walks under the Utah moon.If you're ready to question what you've been shown — this one's for you.Join the conversation, access exclusive member content, and become part of a community that doesn't shy away from the unexplained. Founding Memberships at Cryptid Women's Society close in 4 days! — join now at www.cryptidwomenssociety.com〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰