Podcast appearances and mentions of levi rickert

President Joe Biden's apology for the federal government's role in Indian Boarding School abuses was among the top news stories for Native Americans this year. It was an unprecedented event, but received a mixed reaction from Native policy watchers. Other notable news includes a survey showing significant Native voter support for Donald Trump in the presidential election. We'll get additional insights into the stories important to Native Americans, plus a few you may have missed. GUESTS Elizabeth Hernandez, Denver Post reporter Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi), publisher and editor of Native News Online and Tribal Business News Shaun Griswold (Laguna, Zuni, and Jemez Pueblo), journalist Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Ojibwe), national correspondent for ICT

Tribal leaders are heading to Washington, D.C. for President Joe Biden's last White House Tribal Nations Summit. The gathering is touted as a chance for tribal representatives to interact with Administration officials and gauge progress and hurdles when it comes to the federal government's trust responsibility. The future of the regular meetings with the executive branch is uncertain. In his previous term, President Donald Trump chose not to convene regular meetings with tribes. We'll get a preview of the upcoming summit and assess the potential for future interactions with the White House. GUESTS Larry Wright Jr. (Ponca Tribe of Nebraska), executive director for National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Kevin Washburn (Chickasaw Nation), dean at the University of Iowa College of Law Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online and Tribal Business News

President Biden formally apologized on Friday to tribal communities for the federal Indian boarding schools that operated for 150 years and separated Native American children from their families. Native News Online founder Levi Rickert reacts. Then, are you having a hard time remembering things? Experts say they're seeing more people in their 20s, 30s and 40s experience memory issues. Boston College psychology professor Elizabeth Kensinger joins us. And, novelist Jeff VanderMeer's "Absolution" is a surprise sequel to his celebrated "Southern Reach" trilogy. Here & Now's Chris Bentley talks to VanderMeer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The last presidential debate marked the beginning of the end for Joe Biden's presidential campaign. What of consequence will come out of the debate between his replacement, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump? Neither of the main party campaigns have so much as mentioned tribes and Native issues in any major public appearances. We'll ask Native political watchers about how they think the debate propels—or hampers—the things Native voters are most concerned about. GUESTS Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online and Tribal Business News Mike Stopp (Cherokee and Muscogee), CEO and president of SevenStar Holdings, LLC Isaac Casados (Diné), secretary of the Democratic Party of New Mexico

For the first time, the United States is owning up to its role in the deplorable treatment of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children at Indian Boarding Schools over more than a century. The report from the U.S. Department of Interior documents the deaths of nearly 1,000 children at boarding schools—many in collaboration with Catholic and other Christian institutions. The report includes distressing testimony collected at public meetings around the country from boarding school survivors and their relatives, detailing the personal costs of the government's attempts to eradicate Native cultures and languages. It recommends the federal government not only formally apologize, but also establish a path and funding to account for the wrongs and the continuing harm resulting from it. GUESTS Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community), Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior Ben Barnes (Shawnee Tribe), chief of the Shawnee Tribe and National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition board member Gwen Carr (Cayuga), executive director of the Carlisle Indian School Project Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online

Republicans hope to build momentum through the week at their national convention to galvanize party faithful—and to convince you to vote for their candidate. Not just the name at the top of the ticket but the Republican candidates to represent you in Congress. But what would a decisive Republican majority in Congress mean for Native American constituents. Are you satisfied with how Congress operates? As the party makes its case on the national stage, we explore what promise and threat Republicans in the legislative branch pose. GUESTS Myron Lizer (Diné), former Navajo Nation Vice President and professional development consultant for Prestige with Partners LLC Shondiin Silversmith (Diné), Indigenous Communities Reporter for Arizona Mirror Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online Shaun Griswold (Laguna/Zuni/Jemez), editor of Source New Mexico

Republicans hope to build momentum through the week at their national convention to galvanize party faithful—and to convince you to vote for their candidate. Not just the name at the top of the ticket but the Republican candidates to represent you in Congress. But what would a decisive Republican majority in Congress mean for Native American constituents. Are you satisfied with how Congress operates? As the party makes its case on the national stage, we explore what promise and threat Republicans in the legislative branch pose. GUESTS Myron Lizer (Diné), former Navajo Nation Vice President and professional development consultant for Prestige with Partners LLC Shondiin Silversmith (Diné), Indigenous Communities Reporter for Arizona Mirror Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online Shaun Griswold (Laguna/Zuni/Jemez), editor of Source New Mexico

Some of the big news stories from the past year promise to spill over into the months ahead and beyond - from the fallout for #Native #Americans caught up in a massive Medicaid fraud scheme in Arizona to the causes and ramifications of the deadly fires that destroyed Lahaina, Hawaii. Those are two of the big events that Native journalists are following in 2024. GUESTS Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online Brandi Morin (Cree, Iroquois and French), freelance journalist Arlyssa Becenti (Diné), Indigenous Affairs reporter and an editor for the Daily Focus at the Arizona Republic Anita Hofschneider, senior staff writer at Grist Magazine's Indigenous Affairs desk

Today on Boston Public Radio: We began the show by opening phone lines, asking listeners about the large number of people in their 20s and 30s moving back in with their parents amid rising costs of living. Michelle Singletary shared her advice off of her latest personal finance columns, focusing on the looming deadline for public service loan forgiveness. Singletary is a personal finance columnist for the Washington Post. She writes the nationally syndicated column, "The Color of Money,"  which provides insight into the world of personal finance. Her latest book is: What To Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits: A Survival Guide. Mitra Kalita and Levi Rickert talked about covering politics and this year's midterm elections, as well as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Kalita is co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content. She was most recently Senior Vice President at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion and features teams. Rickert is founder, publisher, and editor of Native News Online. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. Retired Federal Judge Nancy Gertner discussed mounting criticism over the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, and previewed the Court's 2022-2023 session. Gertner is a retired federal judge and a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School. Mayor Kim Driscoll shared this month's Halloween happenings in Salem. Driscoll is the mayor of Salem, and is the 2022 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Mass. Corby Kummer talked about rising costs at restaurants, and the latest “hot girl food”: deviled eggs. Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. We ended the show by asking listeners whether they're still dining out amid rising food costs.

How do Black and Indigenous communities intersect? This special feature for Indigenous People's day explores the forces that have both facilitated and thwarted collaboration and movement-making among Black and Indigenous people in the United States. Exploitation of Black and Indigenous people was integral to the founding of this country, but the nature of that exploitation wasn't exactly the same. Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax Reese of URL Media return for this month's “Meet the BIPOC Press”. Their guests are Levi Rickert, a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, founder and publisher, Native News Online and Dr. Kyle T. Mays from the Saginaw Chippewa Nations, Afro-Indigenous scholar and author of An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States. Mays asks: “How can we imagine and put into praxis a world in the aftermath of settler colonialism and white supremacy?”“It's imperative to not only center blackness, but also to center Indigenous peoples because upon whose land were African Americans exploited? This is Indigenous land.” - Dr. Kyle T. Mays“We need to keep the gas pedal on getting Congress to appropriate the proper level of funding. We still have some of the highest levels of disparity when it comes to health disparity and lack of housing. A third of the people on the Navajo nation do not have running water or electricity. These are Third World living conditions, and this is what our native people are still living with.” - Levi RickertGuests:Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) Publisher & Editor, Native News Online;  Author of Visions for a Better Indian Country: One Potawatomi Editor's OpinionsKyle T. Mays, Ph.D. (Saginaw Chippewa Nation) Associate Professor UCLA,  Departments of African American Studies, American Indian Studies & History;  Author, An Afro-Indigenous History of the United StatesS. Mitra Kalita (Co-Host): Co-Founder, URL MediaSara Lomax-Reese (Co-Host): Co-Founder, URL MediaTickets are on sale now for our first in-person fundraiser! Show your support for the LF Show in Sullivan County, NY, where the show is produced. Plus, environmentalist Bill McKibben will be there for a live Q&A and book signing! Find more information and tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/419711015947 

Jim Jatras, deputy director of the American Institute in Ukraine, a former US diplomat, and former senior foreign policy advisor to the Senate Republican leadership, discussed the possibilities for a diplomatic solution in Ukraine, how the US could secure an energy supply for Europe, and what subpoena powers Congress does and should have. .Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a visiting professor in the graduate program in International Affairs of the New School University, and host of the weekly show Economic Update, talked about the actual value of reading Federal Reserve tea leaves, what impact coming interest rate hikes will have, and who in government actually has the power to stop inflation and why they won't use it. Tom Fitzpatrick, former long-time New York City judge, discusses why 82-year-old Nancy Pelosi would run for Congress again, what former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's weight says about his political ambitions, and the redistricting fights that will play out in federal court. Levi Rickert editor and publisher of Tribal Business News; and founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online, broke down the Biden administration's scorecard so far with tribal governments and what battles remain. The Misfits also talked about New York Mayor Eric Adams' new anti-crime program, the unending misery of NFTs, and royals scamming Spotify.

Michael Springmann, former American diplomat and political analyst, joins us to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the fact that some parties want to "hit three birds with one stone." The Russian ambassador to international organizations in Vienna tweeted, “In the context of #ViennaTalks some analysts and officials advocate for addressing new topics such as regional security and missiles. An attempt to hit 3 birds with 1 stone. Unrealistic and counterproductive. The agreed goal of the talks is just to restore the original #JCPOA.” Julie Varughese, solidarity network coordinator for Black Alliance for Peace, joins us to discuss Afghanistan. Over 1,000 Afghan soldiers fled into Tajikistan yesterday as Taliban insurgents marched into northern Afghanistan. Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, joins us to discuss the US Air Force awarding a $2 billion contract to develop the Pentagon's new air-launched nuclear cruise missile. The missile, named the Long Range Stand Off weapon (LRSO), is expected to be completed in February 2027.Karen Spring, a Honduras-based human rights defender, researcher and coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network, joins us to discuss the Berta Caceres murder trial. According to a report in The Guardian, the Tegucigalpa high court found David Castillo Mejia, a Honduran businessman and former military intelligence officer, guilty for the March 2016 murder of indigenous environmental activist Berta Caceres. Jim Kavanagh, writer at thepolemicist.com and Counter Punch, joins us to talk about Julian Assange. Today, Consortium News began a six-part series on Julian Assange and the Espionage Act, prefacing that "the United States has found ways to deny the rights of a free press when it is politically expedient to do so."Alexander Mercouris, editor-in-chief at theduran.com and host of "The Alexander Mercouris Show" on YouTube, joins us to discuss his article in Consortium News about the Craig Murray case. Mercouris says the UK Supreme Court should grant the whistleblower and blogger permission to appeal because of the journalism questions the case raises. Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to talk about the Lebanon crisis. Currently, Lebanon is suffering through a crisis that the World Bank says "could rank among the world's three worst since the mid-1800s that affects the country's standard of living."Levi Rickert, editor and publisher of NativeNewsOnline.net, joins us to discuss Canada's grim legacy as 182 more graves of Indigenous children were found at a site of a former boarding school. The discovery came after the remains of hundreds of other Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at other residential school sites across Canada that they were forced to attend throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Wyatt Reed, Sputnik Radio producer and correspondent, joins us from Mexico to talk about the results in the largest election ever held in Mexico, where Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party emerged victorious in the midterm elections despite losing a supermajority in the lower house of Mexico's Congress of the Union. We also talk about how the media in the U.S. characterized the results as a setback to Morena despite the fact that the party and its allies made huge inroads by winning many governorships, and could become stronger by forging alliances with both the Green and Workers' parties. Levi Rickert, editor and publisher of Tribal Business News, and founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online, talks to us about the ongoing fight to protect the environment and defend indigenous land at Oak Flat, Arizona, how the US Department of Agriculture is pressuring the US 9th Circuit Court expressly to reject the Apache's argument that the land sale would infringe on their right to practice their religion, how it would violate a 19th century treaty the government signed with Apache leadership that grants them rights to the land, and the response from the courts declaring that those treaties are not valid or have been extinguished. Scott Thompson, labor market research economist and rural sociologist in Des Moines, Iowa, joins us to talk about Sen. Joe Manchin's decision to not vote for the For the People Act, the Democrats' voting rights bill, nor lending any help to kill the filibuster, how the claim that the Biden administration was going to be successful at bipartisanship is falling flat, and is having issues problems convincing even members of its own party. We also talk about how the concept of bipartisanship is discussed in the media, and how bipartisanship is successful only when it involves legislation that is either middle-of-the-road or benefiting the wealthy. In our Miss The Press segment, hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber talk about the media response to recent cyberattacks on U.S. companies and how they are ratcheting up Russophobia to unprecedented levels, as well as Trump's comments on the current administration during a rally in North Carolina this weekend.

Alexander Mercouris, editor-in-chief at theduran.com & host of "The Duran'' on YouTube, joins us to discuss "Spygate 2." Reports that the US National Security Agency enlisted the aid of Denmark's intelligence services to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and potentially other European leaders is causing an uproar amongst US vassal states in Europe. Meanwhile, many observers are yawning at the reality that these nations have generally accepted their status as powerless clients of the US empire and are unlikely to do more than complain.Levi Rickert, editor and publisher of NativeNewsOnline.net, joins us to discuss the genocide against indegenous people in Canada. The bodies of over 200 children were found in Canada at a building that was used to strip them of their culture and indoctrinate them into European culture. Observers are using this as an opportunity to revisit the genocide and violence associated with Western imperialism. Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Belarus. The President of Belarus is talking about the Western attempt to overthrow his government, and is joining a chorus of international voices warning that NATO and the US empire are rapidly dragging the planet towards a third and potentially final world war. Also, Roman Protasevich, the man who was arrested in Belarus from a RyanAIr plane last week was wanted in connection with Ukrainian Nazi operatives, according to Russian foreign policy sources.Greg Palast, investigative reporter, joins us to discuss election issues in the US. A major political struggle has erupted in Texas as GOP politicians introduce a restrictive voting bill and Democrats walk out to halt the process. Also, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) argues that the Democrats must show equal resolve to push through legislation that the GOP opposes.Daniel Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "The Velvet Coup," joins us to discuss Israel. The landscape is shifting, as Washington, DC produced over 35,000 people at a rally on a rainy cold Memorial Day weekend. The leaders of the Democratic party are struggling to deal with a large group of major donors who support the Netanyahu Likud regime, while facing growing opposition in their major voting blocs.Ajamu Baraka, former VP Candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss Columbia and Brazil. Brazil is facing a major internal crisis, as the citizens are taking to the streets in large numbers to protest the neoliberal policies of Jair Bolsanaro. Bolsonaro and his US supporters are particularly concerned as the former left leaning leader Lula De Silva seems ready to make a comeback. Also, we discuss how Israel is influencing far-right wing politics in South America, and in particular, the US controlled government of Colombia. Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," joins us to discuss the militarism of the US empire. We discuss Caitlin Johnstone's article in which she pushes back against war propaganda and explains her concept of US foreign policy. Also, we talk about Jim Bovard's article about the run up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won the Syrian election with 95.1% of the vote. As is normally the case with perceived adversaries, the US condemned the election as illegitimate before the voting process began. Also, does the end of the Syrian war mean that the war torn nation can return to its status as a power player in the region?

Tensions increase at Oak Flat as the Trump administration accelerates a move to violate sacred ground, but what is so significant about these 2,500 acres of land? Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, joins us to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to transfer sacred Apache ground at Oak Flat - near Phoenix, Arizona - to global mining firm Rio Tinto. This project was suddenly accelerated in the fall, when the US Forest Service announced that it was pushing up the deadline for a crucial step in the handover process, the release of a final environmental impact statement regarding Rio Tinto’s proposed project. The date for that report to be issued is now January 15.Arnold August, journalist, speaker and author of, among other books, “Cuba-US Relations: Obama and Beyond,” joins us to discuss the Trump administration designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terror. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement, says the US is once against holding Cuba’s government accountable and telling the Castro regime that it must "end its support for international terrorism and subversion of US justice." What is the justification the US cites for its decision?Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, joins us to discuss US President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of William Burns to head the CIA. If confirmed by the Senate, Burns would be the first career diplomat to lead the spy agency. What can we make of his nomination?Journalist Mohammed Elmaazi, editor of The Interregnum, joins us to discuss international perspectives on last week's attack on the Capitol and what it means for large tech companies and the government to be working to collectively silence free speech.Hip hop artist and educator Bomani Armah joins us to discuss the Grammys, specifically the news from earlier this month that three of the five acts nominated for the 2021 best children's album award are declining their nominations, upset that all of the nominees for the award are white.

Dr. Chaand Ohri, community doctor, joins us to discuss the latest developments regarding COVID-19 vaccines, including where in line you may find yourself to receive a shot, as a second vaccine is released on the US market. We'll also discuss the protests at Stanford Medical Center, where medical students took direct action on Friday morning, holding signs and demanding answers from Stanford's leadership about why just seven of its more than 1,300 residents were selected to receive the vaccine in the first round of 5,000 doses.Levi Rickert, editor or Native News Online, joins us to discuss the complicated relationship between energy and the US Department of the Interior. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), who was recently named as US President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for the post of interior secretary, has said she opposes fracking on public lands, but New Mexico remains an oil and gas producer, and fracking is a very big part of that. What has been her record on energy and the environment so far, and how is she going to work within Biden's oft-repeated promise not to ban fracking?Ted Rall, syndicated columnist and political cartoonist, joins us to discuss the state of Pennsylvania, which didn’t actually spend about $108 million of the $175 million it got through the CARES Act for rent relief and mortgage help. The money was supposed to help landlords and tenants, but the way the state devised the program to distribute it made it either too burdensome or too unappealing to take part. It also made tenants jump through hoops to prove they were unemployed or had lost at least 30% of their income, which is hard to do when your employer has closed up shop temporarily or permanently. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency flagged these issues in July, but nothing was done. What's really going on here?

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Levi Rickert, editor and publisher of Tribal Business News, as well as the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online, to discuss president-elect Joe Biden's nomination of New Mexico Representative Deb Halaand to Interior Secretary, why he sees the potential appointment as a hopeful sign, and the continuing impacts of the Trump administration on issues Native sovereignty.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Zoe Pepper-Cunningham, a journalist with People's Dispatch to discuss the detention of three important social movement leaders by Colombian authorities, and the ongoing campaign of assassinations being carried out against some of the country's most vocal advocates for workers and marginalized communities.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of Red Spin Sports podcast, for another edition of our new weekly segment “The Red Spin Report." They discuss Barack Obama's interview with Bakari Sellers in which the former president voiced support for compensating college athletes, what Sellers' open embrace of Zionism says about his own perspective and aspirations, and the recent decision by Major League Baseball to formally designate the Negro Leagues as part of the MLB.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Dave Ragland, the Co-Executive Director of the Truth Telling Project, and Director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign, to discuss the news that a Republican Senator has blocked an attempt to issue a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, the news that establishment Democrats worked together to deny Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a position on the Energy & Commerce Committee, and why truth-telling is considered so radical in a society founded on racial oppression.

Sara Dady, an immigration attorney in Illinois and a former Democratic congressional candidate, and Jason Dzubow, an immigration attorney at Dzubow & Pilcher and a blogger at The Asylumist, join Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Michelle Witte to discuss the case before the Supreme Court on whether to count undocumented immigrants for Electoral College and Congressional apportioning. They dig into the ramifications of the case and make predictions about Joe Biden’s immigration policy. Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, breaks down Trump administration’s efforts to force through mining on sacred Apache land at Oak Flat, including how the Apache see the land, what copper mining would do to it, how long this fight has actually been going (it didn’t start with Trump, folks), and other efforts by Native Americans to protect their environments. Award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall dropped by to talk about Facebook’s efforts to control political messages on its platform, the lessons Democrats haven’t learned from this election, and the battle between church, state and capitalism in New York. Jacquie Luqman, cohost of Radio Sputnik’s “By Any Means Necessary,” gets into the importance of diversifying horror, the impact that could have on the genre, and the gems, like “His House,” that black horror writers and filmmakers are producing.

Niko House, political activist, independent journalist and podcaster, joins us to discuss the deep divide between red and blue America. A Washington Post piece highlights America's deep divide when examining how Joe Biden expanded the margin of Democratic victory in key urban and suburban counties, but didn't make a lot of inroads in exurban and rural areas. The article says the divide "underscores fundamental disagreements among Americans about how to control the coronavirus pandemic or whether to even try; how to revitalize the economy and restore jobs; how to combat climate change or whether it is an emergency at all; and the roles of morality, empathy and the rule of law in the body politic.” But is the red and blue framing really useful at all anymore? Do Americans disagree about the roles of morality, empathy and the rule of law, or do we disagree about what those terms mean, in a way?Alejandro Chavez, political director for Smart and Safe Arizona, joins us to discuss US President Donald Trump’s loss and the passing of the Smart and Safe Arizona Act. Voters in Arizona passed the act by approving Proposition 207, with 60% of ballots supporting it and 40% opposed. "Instead of facing felony arrest for any testable amount of marijuana, adults 21 and older in Arizona will now be able to possess up to an ounce of 'flower' and up to five grams of concentrates," the Phoenix News Times reported Thursday. "They can also grow up to six plants, or 12 if they have two people living on one property."Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, joins us to discuss how Native American candidates fared overall and what wins or losses will be most significant. Because of the American federal system, issues of sovereignty and tribal relationships with the US government are negotiated more at the state level, and so state legislative races will sometimes be more important than national ones. Were there any significant developments for Native American candidates at the state level? Also, are any US major parties or third parties taking enough notice, reaching out and attempting real and meaningful conversations with these communities?

Why has it taken a 17-year legal battle for the US federal government to agree to take some responsibility for plutonium waste near the Savannah River in South Carolina?Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog with Beyond Nuclear, discusses South Carolina's settlement with the federal government to end litigation regarding weapons-grade plutonium. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson on Monday announced a $600 million settlement related to the remaining plutonium that was relocated to the Savannah River Site in the early 2000s. The federal government will pay the sum immediately, and the Department of Energy must remove the 9.5 metric tons of plutonium by 2037. Wilson says he is committed to preventing South Carolina from becoming a "dumping ground for nuclear waste." Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, takes a look at the Trump administration's interesting record when it comes to issues of tribal sovereignty in the US. US President Donald Trump came into office determined to push the Dakota Access Pipeline through; he praised the concept of manifest destiny and continues to evoke a vision of a white America that sprang into being on an empty continent and is now fighting off outsiders. Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," discusses Trump's visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin. He says it will help heal the community because he's about law and order, and the Black community wants the police to help them stop crime. Wisconsin's governor and Kenosha's mayor, both Democrats, have asked the president to stay away. They fear his visit will lead to more protests just when things seem to be calming down.Ra Shad Frazier-Gaines, founder and chair of the Black Caucus of the Young Democrats of America and founder and chair of Black Progressives, talks about the legacy left by actor Chadwick Boseman. Boseman died Friday after battling colon cancer the past four years, but his role as Black Panther helped shape Black culture, address colonialism and bring up issues between African-Americans and continental Africans.

*PLEASE NOTE* This episode is being re-released due to a previous audio quality problem. There is also additional content that was not featured in the original release of this episode.EPISODE SUMMARY:Dr. Martin Luthor King's "I have a dream" speech is a narrative people so often take out of context. In America's history of the civil rights fight, Native people have been largely left out of that part of American History. We look at why, and how Native people did benefit from the work of, Dr. King through an article by Levi Rickert. (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) Also, we deconstruct a discussion about race in the New Hampshire democratic debates.For our full show notes, please visit: http://nativeopinion.com/shownotesTo support our show, please visit: http://nativeopinion.com/support

Is a new era for Native American media in the United States opening up? Three Native American journalists talk about challenging stereotypes and bringing a nuanced voice to indigenous issues. They belong to a generation that believes in making things happen, despite all the odds, and not waiting for mainstream media to catch on. Native Americans once owned the land in the United States, it was theirs before the white settlers arrived. They are the First People, whom archaeologists believe have been on the North American continent for some 50,000 years. Today they represent less than one percent of the United States’ total population. An estimated 2.7 million tribal citizens associated with 567 federally recognised tribes. Tribal issues hardly make it into the US mainstream media. When people outside the US read, listen or watch news about the country, it is as if America’s First Nation have become a ghost nation. Levi Rickert, the Michigan-based founder, editor and publisher of multimedia news platform Native News Online, says that is primarily due to the size of the Native American population. Kevin Abourezk, who is based in Nebraska where he is the managing editor of Indianz.com, a Native American online news site run by the Winnebago Tribe, believes it is because there are so few Native Americans in mainstream media. Jenni Monet (www.jennimonet.com) is an award winning Native American independent journalist from the Laguna Pueblo tribe. She has been working as a journalist for 19 years, most of it spent covering indigenous issues across the world. Under-reported narrative “There is a serious need for the indigenous narrative. [It] is the most chronically under-reported narrative in mainstream today, not only in the US but around the world,” she says. She points out that out of the hundreds of tribes living in the United States, only a tiny fraction of them attracts the attention of the media: the Lakotas, the Navaho Nation or the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. “It is not a mistake that these tribes are among the most popular in the mainstream because the mainstream goes towards the familiar. They like the poverty out of the Lakotas because it is so blatant. The cyclical nature of it is so raw. They like the Navaho Nation because it is so mystical with medicine-man and the south-west desert… They like the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma because who doesn’t firmly believe they have some ounce of Cherokee ancestry in their family lineage? These sorts of narratives as told by outsiders themselves have just been perpetuated for decades.” For Kevin Abourezk, who is from the Rosebud Lakota tribe, it is often difficult for Native journalists to get editors of non-native media to accept their story ideas. “Editors are acutely aware of who their readers are and [what] they want to read,” he explains. According to Abourezk, in areas where there are a significant number of Native Americans like Gallup, New Mexico or Rapid City, South Dakota, tribal issues will get more coverage. He says it is reflected in publications like the New York Times or smaller ones like the Sioux City Journal. Standing Rock, a reckoning One story that made it to mainstream media around the world was the long protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Thousands of Native Americans, joined by non-Natives, gathered in North Dakota to support the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes in their fight against the pipeline, a 3.8-billion-dollar investment. They say it desecrates sacred grounds and threatens the water quality of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The pipeline carries crude oil beneath their only source of drinking water. Across the globe, videos circulated, showing the violent repression of the protesters by private security guards, riot police and national guards. In their arsenal to deal with demonstrations, they used, among other things, sound cannons, rubber bullets and dog attacks. Jenni Monet covered the story for six consecutive months and was embedded at the Standing Rock reservation for four months, until the end of March 2017. She was arrested and, along with seven other journalists, is still facing charges for criminal trespass and rioting brought by the local Morton County. Why did it take such a violent crackdown for news about Standing Rock to make the headlines? “People were maimed,” remembers Jenni Monet. “People were sent into hypothermic shock after being doused with water on a sub-freezing night in November to the point where legacy media could not simply ignore it anymore. They reported on that story 48 hours later. It takes for brown people to die before it becomes unfortunately headline news.” Monnet says that when the Dakota Access Pipeline protests were happening the story was competing with “one thing and one thing only, Donald Trump”. Based on her own experience, Monet describes the newsrooms obsession with “clickbait”, stories need to pull “the most shares, the most tweets, drive comments from viewers”. “If Standing Rock proved anything, it’s that [tribal] issues aren’t complicated at all. You just need a lot of people to talk about them. Standing Rock is going to continue to be a case study for us when we look at the power of indigenous media. And, for me and my fellow native journalists, we cannot forget those strides and those gains that were made from Standing Rock.” Native American journalism Journalism for Native Americans by Native Americans goes back to the 19th century with the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper founded in 1828. It was written in both English and the Cherokee alphabet created by Sequoyah. “That newspaper was democracy at work … sovereignty at work. It was the tribe itself having a voice and shaping a narrative that otherwise was completely removed from any sort of publication back then,” declares Jenni Monet. The newspaper emerged at a time when the Cherokee Nation was debating what action to take while facing forced relocation from their ancestral land in south-eastern United States. Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Cherokee people were rounded up and forced to relocate to an area west of the Mississippi River designated as Indian Territory. The journey became known as the “trail of tears”. Tribal newspapers are still very popular, according to Kevin Abourezk, and probably the most popular among the various native news platforms. Most tribes of a certain size have a newspaper that they publish and distribute to their members on the reservations. But such media do not cover national issues pertaining to the Indian Country. “Just a handful of websites” will cover, for example, a hearing in Washington related to some law dealing with Indian Trust Land. And that’s a problem for Kevin Abourezk. For Jenni Monet, indigenous media shouldn’t only be for the tribal communities, nor should it only look at “outsiders” as an audience. It should be “somewhere in between”. “What we saw at Standing Rock was this widespread embrace of concepts that editors themselves have often couched as topics too weighty for their listenership to endure. It was amazing to see on CNN, Sara Sidner quote Lakota prophecy. And a segment about treaty rights. These topics are not too complicated. What they are is sorely underreported.” Making their voice heard “It’s our time to tell our stories,” declares Levi Rickert, who is from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. He deplores the way in which Native Americans are portrayed in the US media. And that’s one of the reasons he decided to set up Native News Online in 2011. “We are perceived as being conquested people, losers… [associated with] alcoholism, poverty... I try to identify stories that really show the progress and achievements of American Indians and Alaska Natives.” For Rickert, this is a more a calling than a job. “It is almost like a trusteeship given to me by the Creator to really do my part,” he say, “We serve many tribal nations from around the United States. I try to purposefully find writers from around the country that can write about their region, their tribal nation. The non-native media will not always write about our stories, we can certainly do it.” As for Jenni Monet, she opted for the precarious position of being an independent journalist rather than being attached to a particular news organisation in order to have a greater chance of getting her stories about indigenous peoples and their rights movements published. “I’ve worked for some of the biggest brands in the industry and I understand how newsrooms operate. [Being] independent, I can choose many of these decision makers and pitch and pitch and pitch,” declares Jenni Monet, host of the podcast, Still here: Modern stories of resilience, indigenously told. “People are starting to wake up a little and realise that there is a whole vast Indian country out there,” adds Monet. A generation of journalists, whom she describes as front-runners, took the lead in creating a nuanced narrative and paved the way for her generation. “I’m so grateful for writers like Tim Giago, Mark Trahant, Suzan Shown Harjo, Bunty Anquoe and the list can go on.” Kevin Abourezk recently decided to start working full time for the Native news website, Indianz.com. Most of his 18 years as a journalist were spent working for the Lincoln Journal Star, a non-Native daily. “I’ve always wanted to work for native media but I’ve also for a long time felt it was important to reach out to non-Native Americans and trying to educate them about issues facing Native Americans.” Abourezk says that his former editors were great and welcomed his stories. However, they had a preference for a certain type of stories. One of them is White Clay, a small town of 14 people in Nebraska with four liquor stores selling four million cans of beer a year to the Pine Ridge reservation, which has a population of 40,000 people. In September this year Indian Country Today, a prominent newspaper and website, put a stop to its activities after 25 years in business, citing financial constraints. This brought some big changes in the world of Native journalism in America, explained Abourezk, and it was one of the reasons why he decided to move to Indianz.com. “When Indian Country Today decided to shut down … that left a huge vacuum in the world of Native journalism. I felt it was important for Native journalists to step up and fill the vacuum the best we can.” It took two years of incubation before Levi Rickert’s launched Native News Online. A sustainable business model providing independent reporting appears to be a difficult goal to achieve. Rickert says that he is constantly trying to figure out how to make it work on the small Native media scene “It is a struggle. We have to fight for advertising, sponsorships, many times we are marginalized. You just have to get pass the ‘Nos’ and get people to say ‘Yes’. You have to have the tenacity to keep going even when it looks dismal out there.” The words that really encapsulate what the Native American journalists we spoke to are trying to achieve probably come from one Native News Online viewer: “You write how we Indians want to be written about.” Follow Jenni Monet on Twitter @jennimonet Follow Kevin Abourezk on Twitter @Kevin_Abourezk Follow Levi Rickert on Twitter @Native_NewsNet Follow Zeenat Hansrod on Twitter @zxnt Sound editor: Alain Bleu Music by Raye Zaragoza (In the river) and Camp Pueblo Singers (Water is life)

 Native News Online publisher and editor Levi Rickert reports on developments in the Indigenous community, in particular a meeting in Washington of reps from the 500 Indian Tribes and Nations with government officials to hammer out how to comply with President Obama's executive order requiring "substantive" talks with Native Peoples' before any actions by government bodies that impact indian lives and lands. He also updates listeners on developments at Standing Rock, ND, where, ignored by most of the corporate media, the Lakota and their supporters are standing firm against plans for the Dakota Access oil pipeline to cross indian land and sacred sites, threatening the tribe and also environmental disaster. Host Dave LIndorff also discusses the ongoing slaughter of innocents by America's increasingly violent and militarized police.

Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, a national publication about indigenous peoples of North America, talks about what he calls the most significant political action by Native Americans since the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation on the Pine Ridge reservation. He tells how activists from over 200 Indian tribes as well as representatives of indigenous peoples from around the world have converged at Standing Rock in North Dakota to help the local embattled Standing Rock Sioux People defend their land and water against despoilation by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is trying to construct a pipeline across Sioux lands to carry Bakkan Field crude oil to St. Louis.