Podcasts about muscogee creek nation

Hello Interactors,A couple weeks ago, I found myself in Tulsa for the first time. I left pleasantly surprised. There's a lot of private money flowing into this town, but the city is filled with sorted stories about land, who holds it, who loses it, and how that loss and potential return is engineered. On Juneteenth, the city's history feels especially close so I thought I'd unpack the layers of displacement, violence, and reinvention that lurk beneath a city still struggling to face them.CONCRETE, COALS, AND A CITY THAT CONCEALSRaise your hand if you like Brutalist architecture (I'm raising mine.) I just didn't expect to find it in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was visiting for my niece's wedding.The Brut Hotel is a converted Brutalist tower a few blocks from the Arkansas River and it's all raw concrete. Even the floors and counters. Most people see Brutalism as cold — which is nice on a hot Tulsa day — but I read it as honest and direct. A bit like a Midwestern prairie settler stereotype. After all, the style did emerge in postwar Europe from an egalitarian impulse. It was meant to be democratic architecture stripped of ornamental excesses of fancy city folks. It arrived in America just in time to become the aesthetic of urban renewal. We mostly got housing projects and highway interchanges built on top of what had been Black and working-class neighborhoods, often by eminent domain and without meaningful consent. Concrete can be made to beautiful, but it's definitely also the material of displacement. Tulsa is no exception.On my first muggy Tulsa morning, I ran from The Brut toward the river. A block or two along, tucked between midtown houses on Cheyenne Avenue, I passed a small park I had read about but didn't know was so close. The bronze sculpture of a flame was the give away. This is Creek Nation Council Oak Park, and it is, in the most literal sense, where Tulsa began.In 1836, the Lochapoka clan of the Creek Nation arrived at this hill above the river after two years on the Trail of Tears. They had carried live coals from their last ceremonial fires in Alabama the entire way — embers kept alive through hundreds of miles of forced march. Under this oak, they set those coals down and kindled a new flame. They named the settlement Talasi, meaning “old town.” White settlers mispronounced it into Tulsa. The term “Trail of Tears” perhaps softens this forced displacement too much. Of the 630 Lochapoka who began the journey, 161 did not survive it. The oak did and it still holds its annual ceremonies. In November 2024, the site was formally returned to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.As I kept running south along the river, a second gathering place was harder to miss. It has a giant sign that reads, The Gathering Place.The Gathering Place is a privately built public-ish park that stretches along the Arkansas River's eastern bank and inland a bit. It's one hundred acres of fountains, climbing structures, event lawns, and restored prairie plantings. It is, by nearly any measure, a stunningly beautiful park. It is also unmistakably the product of a single man's fortune. George Kaiser, the Tulsa-born oil billionaire and philanthropist, has poured more than $350 million into transforming this stretch of riverfront. It's honestly something you'd expect to see in a Northern European city. The park opened in 2018 to national acclaim. The New York Times called it “the most ambitious new park in a generation.” I can see why.But head north from the riverfront, past the gleaming BOK Center arena (“B. OK.” is a financial services company dating back to 1910 oil money and is half owned by Kaiser) and the reclaimed warehouse districts, (including the Bob Dylan Center — Kaiser bought Bob Dylan's archive collection in 2016) and within minutes you are in a different city. North Tulsa — and specifically the Greenwood District — reveals modest homes and stretches of underdevelopment. This is an area that feels like it's being watched and commemorated but it's not entirely clear it is being heard. The Greenwood Rising history center, also primarily bankrolled by Kaiser, opened in 2021 exactly one hundred years after the neighborhood was destroyed in the Tulsa Massacre. This building is also very nice and tells the area's story well. Whether it changes the story is another matter.Cities can act as maps of their own history, so that's how I try to read them. I take note of the distances between prosperity and poverty, commemoration and investment…even a museum and a neighborhood. These are not determinant accidents of the market, but accumulated residue of specific decisions made by specific people over a very long time. To understand Tulsa's geography today, you have to go back not just to 1921, but further — to the rivers and grasslands of Indian Territory the Lochapoka people encountered. It's here you'll find federal ledgers leveraged as weapons, their lines and lists legalizing the largest land liquidation in American history.PROMISES, PARCELS, AND THE POLITICS OF POSSESSIONThe Lochapoka were not the only ones force-marched into Indian Territory. All five of the so-called Civilized Tribes — the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations — were relocated from their homelands in the American Southeast across the 1830s. Each tribe were given the same federal promise that the territory would remain theirs permanently. The maps and the Federal treaties said so, but neither turned out to mean much.What the maps did not show, and what the official history long preferred to omit, is that the Five Tribes brought enslaved Black people with them into Indian Territory. As the historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Rose Stremlau have noted in the context of the 1619 Project, the story of this dispossession cannot be told without acknowledging that intersection: the Trail of Tears was also, for some, a forced march into continued bondage (Gordon-Reed et al., 2022). That fact would shape the politics of Oklahoma for generations — and it is the thread that connects the founding fire under the Council Oak to the rise of Greenwood eighty years later.After the Civil War, the federal government's promises to the Five Tribes began to erode almost immediately. The Freedmen — formerly enslaved people who had been held by tribal members — were formally granted citizenship in the tribes by treaty, though the tribes' willingness to honor that citizenship varied considerably. Many Freedmen, seeking mutual protection and economic self-sufficiency, began establishing their own communities. This impulse gave rise to what became known as the Black Towns Movement. Between the 1870s and the 1920s, more than fifty all-Black towns were founded in Oklahoma and Kansas, created by people who had learned, with good reason, not to rely on the goodwill of white-majority governments (Martin, 2025; Gordon-Reed et al., 2022).The legal and cartographic instrument that made the Black Towns possible — and that would ultimately help destroy them — was the allotment system. The Dawes Act of 1887 broke up communally held tribal land into individual parcels, assigning plots to enrolled tribal members and opening the remainder to white settlement. It was framed as a civilizing measure. It was in practice a mechanism for transferring Indigenous land to white hands on an enormous scale. Each parcel was drawn on a map, recorded in a ledger, and assigned a legal description. This act appeared to secure property rights while in fact it made land far easier to steal through legal machinery than it had ever been to simply seize.The discovery of oil made the theft more systematic and more lethal. When crude was found beneath allotments assigned to Native people — particularly in the Osage Nation, the Creek Nation, and elsewhere — a federal guardianship system allowed courts to appoint white guardians for Native landowners deemed “incompetent” to manage their own affairs. The definition of incompetence was flexible and self-serving. Native heirs to oil-bearing land died under suspicious circumstances with startling frequency. Deeds were forged. Guardians enriched themselves and left their wards landless. The historian David Grann has documented this in devastating detail for the Osage Nation specifically, but the pattern was region-wide. Modern GIS analysis of original allotment records against subsequent deed transfers reveals what contemporaries knew but rarely said aloud: the disappearance of Native landowners from oil country was not a coincidence, but a covert policy.For Black Oklahomans, the allotment system created a narrow window of possibility. Freedmen who appeared on the Dawes Rolls received allotments of their own. Some of this land was in proximity to other Black allottees, and the Black Towns Movement capitalized on that geography, incorporating towns, establishing churches and schools, and building the civic infrastructure that Black communities had been denied elsewhere. As scholar JT Martin has argued, the philanthropic traditions within these communities — the mutual aid societies, the church networks, the communal investment in education — were not secondary features of the Black Towns Movement but its essential architecture (Martin, 2025). People who had nothing built institutions that served everyone.Greenwood, established in the early 1900s on the northern edge of Tulsa, was the apex of that project. By 1921, it contained over thirty-five blocks of Black-owned businesses, a hospital, law offices, two newspapers, a library, schools, and churches. Booker T. Washington reportedly called it “the Negro Wall Street,” a phrase that has since become shorthand for what the neighborhood achieved. Although that shorthand flattens what was, more precisely, a masterwork of community-building under conditions designed to make community impossible.As the literary scholar Gary M. Jenkins has observed, Greenwood sat directly along what would become Route 66 (Jenkins, 2022). The all-Black towns of Oklahoma were embedded in the landscape that John Steinbeck traversed in The Grapes of Wrath — and conspicuously omitted from it. The invisibility of Black spatial achievement in the canonical accounts of American westward movement is not incidental. It reflects a pattern in which the places, presence, and prosperity of Black life were purposefully purged from the maps white Americans made of their own country.BURNING, BURYING, AND THE BATTLE TO BELONGOn the night of May 31, 1921, a white mob descended on Greenwood. Over the following eighteen hours, the neighborhood was looted, burned, and bombed — aircraft dropped incendiary devices on residential streets. When it was over, 35 square blocks had been reduced to ash. Somewhere between 100 and 300 people were dead, most of them Black. More than 10,000 Black residents were left homeless. Survivors were interned in camps run by the National Guard — many of whom had also participated in the destruction.What followed the physical destruction was a second, slower erasure. Greenwood residents who attempted to rebuild found themselves blocked by a newly enacted city ordinance that rezoned their land for commercial and industrial use. Insurance claims were denied. Property was effectively seized under the cover of “urban renewal” in subsequent decades. As Morris, Parker, and Negrón have documented, the Tulsa massacre is a case study in what they call “Black community-killing” — the systematic destruction not just of physical structures but of the institutional web that makes a community function: the schools, the churches, the newspapers, the businesses (Morris, Parker & Negrón, 2022). The buildings burned in a day. The community's capacity to reconstitute itself was methodically dismantled over years.For most of the twentieth century, the massacre was not taught in Oklahoma schools. It did not appear in city histories and land was not returned. The story was, in the most literal sense, removed from the map.Kaiser's investments in Tulsa have been substantial and wide-ranging: the Gathering Place, the Greenwood Rising museum, workforce development initiatives, early childhood programs. The philanthropic intent appears sincere, and some of the work — particularly in early education — addresses structural inequities rather than simply aestheticizing them. It would be uncharitable, and inaccurate, to dismiss the whole enterprise as window dressing.But scholar JT Martin poses this question which cuts to the heart of the matter: when we study philanthropy in America, whose philanthropic traditions do we center? (Martin, 2025). The mutual aid societies, the church networks, the community land trusts built by Black and Indigenous communities — these represent forms of collective investment that predate and often outperform the interventions of elite donors, yet they receive a fraction of the scholarly and public attention. George Kaiser's riverfront is visible. The endogenous philanthropic infrastructure of North Tulsa — the churches that held Greenwood together after the massacre, the community organizations that exist today — is largely invisible in the civic narrative that Tulsa tells about itself.The geography makes this concrete. The Gathering Place and the BOK Center sit south on the Arkansas River, in and adjacent to Tulsa's whiter, wealthier districts. Including the area where the Philbrook Museum of Art sits. This Italian Renaissance villa was built in 1926 by oil pioneer Waite Phillips (as in Phillips 66), donated to the city in 1938 as a public art center. It's now one of the finest regional museums in the country. This gesture rhymes with Kaiser's: oil money transmuted into civic cultural institution, the private estate opened to the public as an act of philanthropic legacy-building. The Philbrook is genuinely beautiful and genuinely valuable. It is also located nowhere near North Tulsa.The pattern is not new. Greenwood Rising stands in Greenwood, but the area remains economically depressed, and North Tulsa is still among the most segregated parts of an already divided city. Philanthropic investments that produce a park on the wealthy side of the river and a museum on the historically Black side, while leaving structural inequalities intact, are not reparative.The development around Greenwood tells a more troubling story. ONEOK Field, built in 2010 on historic Greenwood land despite community opposition, has delivered few benefits to Black residents, who are still taxed to support it. Nearby, the Tulsa Arts District has flourished with amenities catering to a whiter, more affluent clientele, while long-standing Black businesses struggle. Even hotels in Greenwood market themselves as part of that district. This is less restoration than a familiar precursor to displacement in the form of cultural investment followed by real estate pressure.Some argue that understanding land and spatial justice in places like Tulsa requires connecting the Greenwood reparations movement to broader Indigenous-led land reclamation efforts (Du, 2021). In 2020, the Supreme Court's decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma ruled that the Creek Nation reservation had never been legally dissolved and that the federal government's century-old maps of Oklahoma had been legally wrong all along. The majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative textualist, who applied the same originalist logic to treaty rights that right-wing jurists typically apply to the Second Amendment. The ruling was a genuine landmark, restoring tribal jurisdiction over a substantial portion of eastern Oklahoma. Subsequent decisions have extended the logic to other tribes.The political irony is perplexing. Oklahoma has been among the most reliably right-wing states in the country for decades; its congressional delegation is uniformly conservative; its state government has consistently resisted federal oversight and minority rights claims. Yet it was conservative judicial originalism — the doctrine that legal texts mean what they said when written — that restored, at least partially, what the federal government had promised the Five Tribes in the 1830s. The promise was old, the maps were wrong, and it took a conservative judge to point it out.What McGirt did not do was address the claims of Black Oklahomans. The Freedmen's citizenship rights within the Five Tribes remain contested. The Greenwood reparations movement has won moral recognition but not legal remedy. The 1921 massacre commission recommended reparations in 2001 and they have never been paid. These struggles do feel connected — Black and Indigenous claims to land and sovereignty in Oklahoma have been shaped by the same federal machinery of dispossession, and their futures may be intertwined in ways that neither community has yet fully reckoned with (Du, 2021).Juneteenth, the holiday now recognized federally, commemorates June 19, 1865 — the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were told the war was over (the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued two and a half years earlier) and they were free. What the holiday cannot quite contain is what freedom meant in practice for people who were free but landless. They were free but also targeted. They were also freed from the maps that governed how wealth was accumulated and held in America. The Black Towns of Oklahoma were an answer to these problems and Greenwood was that, for a while. Then it was burned down.What grows back from a fire depends on who tends the soil, and who owns it. In Tulsa today, that question is still being answered. Will the answers be as brutally honest as Brutalism — the idea that a building should be honest about what it is made of? Tulsa is made of oil money and dispossession, Black resilience and white violence, broken treaties and belated reckonings. Despite conservative political domination, the maps are being redrawn. Whether they will finally show all of that honestly — without the decorative Italian Renaissance stucco — is more political than cartographic. But McGirt proves that promises, however papered over, still possess the power to pierce the present.ReferencesDu, Y. (2021). Black geographies unveiled: A critical review. Human Geography. Gordon-Reed, A., Stremlau, R., Lowery, M., et al. (2022). The 1619 project forum. The American Historical Review. Jenkins, G. M. (2022). Steinbeck, race, and Route 66 in The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck Review.Martin, J. T. (2025). Are Black people philanthropists? Toward a more diverse research agenda on philanthropy. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. Morris, J. E., Parker, B. D., & Negrón, L. M. (2022). Black school closings aren't new: Historically contextualizing contemporary school closings and Black community resistance. Educational Researcher. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled against the City of Tulsa in a lawsuit involving an agreement with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation awaits a federal judge’s decision about whether the court will allow their case to move to discovery. For more than two decades, the Muscogee have been in a legal battle to restore Hickory Ground, one of their sacred sites, and reclaim the remains of their ancestors. But for more than a decade, a casino has stood over the site in Alabama. Plus, “Closer Look’s” annual graduation series kicks off with Sophie Kalmin, a 2026 graduating senior from Emory University, who majored in American studies and minored in Middle Eastern and South Asian studies. Kalmin reflects on her academic journey and how her decades-long friendship with Mumbles, a white southern rhinoceros at Zoo Atlanta, inspired her to pursue a career on Capitol Hill.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 – 1:00 PM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515, USA • LIVESTREAM: youtu.be/UX1i9N0arHI Witnesses Panel one Chuck Hoskin Jr. Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation Jonodev Chaudhuri Ambassador, The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reggie Wassana [Note: Did not appear in person] Governor, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Panel two James Naranjo Governor, Pueblo of Santa Clara Charles Riley Governor, Pueblo of Acoma Panel three Verlon Jose Chairman, The Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona Dr. Buu Nygren President, Navajo Nation Panel four Robyn Sunday-Allen [Note: Did not appear in person] President-Elect, National Council of Urban Indian Health Francys Crevier Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Urban Indian Health A.C. Locklear Chief Executive Officer, National Indian Health Board Abigail Echo-Hawk Director, Urban Indian Health Institute Conrad Jacket Board Member, Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Inc. Panel five Teresa Sanchez Board President, Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc., Tribal Member of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Esther Lucero President and Chief Executive Officer, Seattle Indian Health Board Aaron Hines Chair, Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board Leanndra Ross Vice President, Executive and Tribal Services, Southcentral Foundation of Alaska Panel six Angelique Albert Chief Executive Officer, Native Forward Scholar Fund Ahniwake Rose President & CEO, American Indian Higher Education Consortium Panel seven Cecilia Fire Thunder President, Oglala Lakota Nation Education Coalition (OLNEC) Aurene Martin Secretary, National Indian Child Welfare Association More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2026/03/16/video-american-indian-and-alaska-native-public-witness-hearing-day-1-afternoon-session-2/

John talks with Simon Moya-Smith who's an Oglala Lakota and Chicano journalist. He's a contributing writer at NBC News and TheNation.com. He's the author of the forthcoming book, ‘Your Spirit Animal is a Jackass,' and he is an Adjunct Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado Denver. John also talks with Julie Francella who's a mental health professional experienced in handling complex trauma with Indigenous youth and families. She's also an enrolled member of the Ojibway of Batchewana First Nation Reserve, and teaches Indigenous Studies at Durham College, focusing on the impacts of colonization on First Nations people. They discuss TIME magazine featuring Jordan Harmon and Mackenzie Roberts, two citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, on the cover of its issue titled “The People vs. AI,” highlighting a growing grassroots pushback against the unchecked expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States. They also talk about the state of New Mexico finally investigating the forced sterilization of native women and in Sant Fe there's a big fight over a monument honoring calvary soldiers which native protesters toppled in 2020. Sant Fe residents are claiming the monument represented generations of genocide against Native Americans.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 of the Arts Management and Technology Lab, host Luna Lu speaks with Bad Press co-directors Rebecca Lansberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, alongside journalist and film subject Angel Ellis, about the making of their Sundance 2023 award-winning documentary. The conversation explores how the team came together, the ethical and creative challenges of documenting press censorship within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the tension between tribal sovereignty and press freedom. Through Angel Ellis's experience as a journalist turned whistleblower, the episode highlights the vital role of independent Indigenous media, transparency, and civic participation, while also reflecting on trust, community-based storytelling, and the power of individuals to effect democratic change.   SHOW NOTES Bad Press (Official Film Website) Rebecca Lansberry-Baker Joe Peeler Angel Ellis  

In 2020, the Supreme Court surprised many observers by holding up the rights of the Muscogee (Creek) nation. In McGirt v Oklahoma, the Court held that the Creek Nation retained its sovereign rights over a very large part of Eastern Oklahoma. The decision began with a poetic line: “At the end of the Trail of … Continue reading Scholars' Circle – A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v Oklahoma – November 30, 2025 →

Joy Harjo's new book is a guide to find our way during transformation.This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donateDescription: We are in what today's guest calls a dark night of our national soul. Many of us are feeling hopeless, uncomfortable and stuck, but it is possible to make it through the darkness. Generations before us survived the unthinkable; if the past has a story to tell, what's today's? This notion of coming into ourselves and embracing our stories is what Joy Harjo, the internationally renowned poet, performer, writer and activist of the Muscogee Creek Nation takes up in her long-spanning career. Harjo is just out with “Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age”, a guide, dedicated especially to Indigenous girls, for people trying to find their way in a time of transformation. She is the author of two American Book Awards winners: “In Mad Love and War” and “Crazy Brave”, and was executive editor of the groundbreaking “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry”. She was the first Indigenous Poet Lau­re­ate and served three terms from 2019 to 2022. Join Harjo and Flanders for this illuminating conversation on finding courage this winter, plus a commentary from Laura on releasing the files on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. “We have to stand for what's right. You can't stand and watch a neighbor starving. We have to realize that ultimately we were created by a creator who loves diversity . . . The universal law is diversity. Universal law is love and connection. We're all connected.”  - Joy Harjo“The bone and the muscle of being human is stories. That's what we do. I remember years ago, thinking about what use are human beings to the ecosystem. I really couldn't find a reason that we were here, except that we make stories. It's important we express gratitude and that we're helpful to the other beings who live here.” - Joy HarjoGuest:  Joy Harjo (Mvskoke): Poet, Performer & Writer; Author, Girl Warrior: On Coming of AgeWatch the special report on YouTube; PBS World Channel, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio  (check here to see if your station is airing the show and air date & time) & available as a podcast.RESOURCES:*Recommended book:  “Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age” by Joy Harjo: *Get the Book(*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.) Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Jacqueline Woodson & Catherine Gund: Breathing Through Chaos & the “Meanwhile”: Watch / Listen-  Episode and Full Uncut Conversation• Survival Guide for Humans Learned from Marine Mammals with Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Watch / Listen-  Episode and Full Uncut Conversation• Red Road to the Future: Native Sovereignty is Key to Climate Justice: Watch / Listen-  Episode•  Dolores Huerta & Ellen Gavin:  Creative Courage in the Face of Fascism:  Watch / Listen- Episode and Full Uncut Conversation•. Resistance and Revolutionary Poetry:  Aja Monet:  Watch / Listen- Episode Related Articles and Resources:•  The Contagious Gen Z Uprisings, by Katrin Bennhold, October 19, 2025, The New York Times•  Exclusive:  Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery Unveils Four New Portraits, by Emily Burack, October 22, 2025, Town & Country• High youth death rates are an ‘emerging crisis', global health study, by Kat Lay, October 12, 2025, The Guardian•  Joy Hard Honored With Portrait of a Nation Award at Smithsonian Gala, by Levi Rickert, November 16, 2025, Native News Online•  Joy Harjo's Inaugural Reading as U.S. met Laureate, September 19, 2019, Library of Congress•  Health Disparities in Suicide, Suicide Prevention, May 16, 2024, CDC•  Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2019-2022 - Library of Congress•  “Shelter in Place Sessions”, 2020, featuring Joy Harjo, Southwest Roots Music - Watch Full Episode Notes are located HERE.Music Credit: “Fire” by Brightdarkdawn featuring Joy Harjo, "Steppin" by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie HopperAdditional Performance Soundbites:  Joy Hajo performing “We the Peoples Before” at the Kennedy Center for First Peoples Fund;  and Joy Harjo performing “witchi Tai To” for Southwest Roots Music's “Shelter in Place Sessions”Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. 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Synopsis:  Join acclaimed poet Joy Harjo for an illuminating conversation on finding courage and embracing our stories, as she discusses her new guide "Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age"This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donateDescription:  We are in what today's guest calls a dark night of our national soul. Many of us are feeling hopeless, uncomfortable and stuck, but it is possible to make it through the darkness. Generations before us survived the unthinkable; if the past has a story to tell, what's today's? This notion of coming into ourselves and embracing our stories is what Joy Harjo, the internationally renowned poet, performer, writer and activist of the Muscogee Creek Nation takes up in her long-spanning career. Harjo is just out with “Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age”, a guide, dedicated especially to Indigenous girls, for people trying to find their way in a time of transformation. She is the author of two American Book Awards winners: “In Mad Love and War” and “Crazy Brave”, and was executive editor of the groundbreaking “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry”. She was the first Indigenous Poet Lau­re­ate and served three terms from 2019 to 2022. Join Harjo and Flanders for this illuminating conversation on finding courage this winter, plus a commentary from Laura on releasing the files on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. “We have to stand for what's right. You can't stand and watch a neighbor starving. We have to realize that ultimately we were created by a creator who loves diversity . . . The universal law is diversity. Universal law is love and connection. We're all connected.”  - Joy Harjo“The bone and the muscle of being human is stories. That's what we do. I remember years ago, thinking about what use are human beings to the ecosystem. I really couldn't find a reason that we were here, except that we make stories. It's important we express gratitude and that we're helpful to the other beings who live here.” - Joy HarjoGuest: Joy Harjo (Mvskoke): Poet, Performer & Writer; Author, Girl Warrior: On Coming of AgeFull Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters.Watch the special report on YouTube; PBS World Channel November 23rd, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio starting November 26th  (check here to see if your station is airing the show and air date & time) & available as a podcast.RESOURCES:Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Jacqueline Woodson & Catherine Gund: Breathing Through Chaos & the “Meanwhile”: Watch / Listen-  Episode and Full Uncut Conversation• Survival Guide for Humans Learned from Marine Mammals with Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Watch / Listen-  Episode and Full Uncut Conversation• Red Road to the Future: Native Sovereignty is Key to Climate Justice: Watch / Listen-  Episode•  Dolores Huerta & Ellen Gavin:  Creative Courage in the Face of Fascism:  Watch / Listen- Episode and Full Uncut Conversation•. Resistance and Revolutionary Poetry:  Aja Monet:  Watch / Listen- Episode Related Articles and Resources:•  The Contagious Gen Z Uprisings, by Katrin Bennhold, October 19, 2025, The New York Times•  Exclusive:  Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery Unveils Four New Portraits, by Emily Burack, October 22, 2025, Town & Country• High youth death rates are an ‘emerging crisis', global health study, by Kat Lay, October 12, 2025, The Guardian•  Joy Hard Honored With Portrait of a Nation Award at Smithsonian Gala, by Levi Rickert, November 16, 2025, Native News Online•  Joy Harjo's Inaugural Reading as U.S. met Laureate, September 19, 2019, Library of Congress•  Health Disparities in Suicide, Suicide Prevention, May 16, 2024, CDC•  Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2019-2022 - Library of Congress•  “Shelter in Place Sessions”, 2020, featuring Joy Harjo, Southwest Roots Music - Watch Full Episode Notes are located HERE.Music Credit:  'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, and original sound design by Jeannie HopperSupport Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

This episode opens "Someday I'll Love" poems through the vivid imagery of a young poet's connection with their grandmother, remembering in love as memory begins to slip. Emerald ᏃᏈᏏ GoingSnake is an Indigenous poet from the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. Winner of the 2024 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award for poetry and the recipient of the 2023 Indigenous Nations Poets fellowship, they live in St. Louis. Portrait by Erin Lewis Photography The poem was featured on Poem-a-Day and can be found at the Academy of American Poets. See here for the poem online. (https://poets.org/poem/someday-ill-love) Someday I'll Love— Emerald ᏃᏈᏏ GoingSnake —after Frank O'Hara like I dreamt of the lamb—slaughtered, forgotten, lying on porcelain tile, on crimson-filled grout— and woke up thinking of my grandmother, of her Betty Boop hands that held marbled stone, held dough-balled flour, held the first strands of my hair floating atop the river— like winter apples, the ones that hang outside my living room window and survive first snowfall to feed the neighborhood crows, how they fall beneath my boots, staining my rubber soles with epigraphs of rot, epigraphs of fors, of dears, of holding on till frost's end. Someday I will see long-forgotten fingerprints on the inside of my eyelids as I go to sleep, as I close my eyes for silence on a Wednesday, mourning—seeking—creases and smile lines, porch lights and swing sets, summer nights of lightning bugs and Johnny Cash. I think it will be a Tuesday, or maybe someday is yesterday, is two months from now, is going to be a day when I forget what I'm supposed to be remembering. For now, I will paint my nails cradle, adorn my skin in cloth that doesn't choke, tell my bones that they are each a lamb remembered. Copyright © 2024 by Emerald ᏃᏈᏏ GoingSnake. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 7, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets. Used by permission.

Send us a textIn honor of Native American Heritage Month, REDW Principal and National Tribal Practice Leader Wes Benally sits down with Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear of the Osage Nation for a profound conversation about leadership, cultural respect, and the journey that shaped one of Indian Country's most experienced leaders.Chief Standing Bear, now in his third term as Osage Nation Principal Chief, shares his remarkable path from University of Oklahoma law student during the American Indian Movement era to becoming general counsel of the Muscogee Creek Nation in his late twenties. He recounts his involvement in filing the first federal Indian gaming case in Oklahoma in November 1984, his work with multiple Tribes, and his service as General Counsel to the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. The conversation explores the cultural teachings that guide his leadership, the importance of humility and surrounding yourself with experienced advisors, and the critical need to understand and respect each Tribe's unique sovereignty, traditions, and ways of connecting with the sacred.Chapters00:00 - Introduction and Welcome01:25 - The Path to Leadership02:53 - University Days and the American Indian Movement05:03 - Law School and Early Career07:22 - The First Indian Gaming Cases in Oklahoma09:12 - Cultural Teachings and Finding Your Way Home15:32 - Building the Osage Nation21:45 - Economic Development and Diversification28:18 - Healthcare and Community Services35:45 - Election Integrity and Tribal Governance40:45 - Respect FirstA Message for Native American Heritage Month - As we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, Chief Standing Bear's wisdom reminds us that true partnership with Indian Country begins with genuine respect and understanding. Each Tribal Nation has its own constitution, culture, and sacred traditions that deserve our time and attention to learn about properly. Whether you're a business advisor, service provider, or community partner, remember that you're entering their country and are there to help—not to impose. This kind of respect, paired with REDW's deep commitment to serving Tribal Nations with integrity and cultural understanding, creates the foundation for meaningful, lasting partnerships. REDW Advisors and CPAs is proud to bring you the Insight in Indian Country Podcast, covering important advisory, accounting, and finance topics that impact Tribal Nations and business affairs. Thanks for listening! Visit our website

 For a Native American girl growing up, finding your voice is finding your power. Joy Harjo is a former poet laureate of the United States and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her life dedicated to words and music, opening her eyes of life beyond traditional Western thought, and why artists are the culture point people for troubled times. Her book is “Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age.”  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A Collaboration of Indigenous Truthtelling of Boarding SchoolsThis episode features voices from a panel on the collaboration, “Indigenous Truthtelling of Boarding Schools,” held at the University of Oklahoma in August 2025 and funded by a NHPRC-Mellon Planning Grant for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies. The panelists share their experiences studying Native American boarding schools and discuss plans for a digital edition with scholars at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Northeastern State University, Utah State University, and Indigenous communities. The project connects universities and archives with Native Nations to develop educational resources about boarding schools and to expand public access to records, oral histories, and community knowledge.This episode includes references to:Farina King, professor of Native American Studies at OU and co-host of Native Circles. A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she researches Indigenous histories, especially boarding school experiences, and collaborates on projects linking oral histories, archives, and community engagement.Sarah Milligan, head of the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at OSU. She partners with boarding school alumni groups, including the Chilocco National Alumni Association, to digitize memorabilia, record oral histories, and create educational tools that support truthtelling and remembrance.Teagan Dreyer, Choctaw descendant and PhD candidate in history at OSU. She researches the impacts of boarding schools on Native identity and community resilience.Erin Dyke, associate professor of curriculum studies at OSU. She focuses on truthtelling, Indigenous-led education initiatives, and transforming curriculum to confront legacies of colonial schooling.Asa (Ace) Samuels, Cheyenne and Arapaho citizen of Oklahoma and first-generation OU student. He mentors Native youth in cultural practices and serves as a facilitator for Mending Broken Hearts, a healing program addressing intergenerational trauma linked to boarding schools.Kelly Berry, citizen of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma with Choctaw relations. A postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in Native American Studies at OU, Berry is a descendant of boarding school survivors and researches histories of Indian boarding schools, including Carlisle, Chilocco, and early mission schools.Blaine McClain, head archivist of Special Collections at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He manages archival collections related to Cherokee Nation seminaries and regional histories.Britton Morgan, undergraduate student research assistant at NSU from Muskogee, Oklahoma. He works with NSU archives, focusing on materials related to Indian boarding schools.Michelle Martin, independent scholar in Arizona and former NSU faculty. She studies the Tullahassee Mission School and the legacies of interracial marriage tied to boarding schools. Cheyenne Widdecke, master's student in anthropology at OU, specializing in archaeology. As a Graduate Research Assistant, she surveys archival collections, examines boarding school site records, and conducts oral history research with the Sac and Fox Nation.Mary Harjo, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and boarding school alumna. She attended federal boarding schools from first through twelfth grade and later earned bachelor's and master's degrees in social work at OU. A survivor of discrimination and abuse, she became a social worker and mentor, sharing her lived experiences to inform truthtelling and healing efforts.

Governor Kevin Stitt has initiated legal action to prevent the City of Tulsa from entering into a law enforcement agreement with the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Our teacher this time is the extraordinary Joy Harjo. She is a musician, a visual artist, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and she's also former Poet Laureate of the United States. From the beginning of her life, from childhood and even before, she has carried and retained a sense of space and time and life that is so much vaster than present circumstances. She uses this evocative phrase for the sense of time she knows and lives. She calls it “the whole of time.” It is stunning to be present to Joy Harjo and see someone who holds this sense of time. She's always known it — never lost it — and she beckons us to enter and relearn.Journaling prompts for Session 6Summon your 200-Year present. Take your mind back to the youngest age you can remember and to the oldest person you remember holding you. Roughly calculate the year of their birth and the history that shaped their lifetime.And who is the youngest person you have held in your arms most recently? Imagine a robust life for them — both the age and year to which they could live.Try to inhabit this expanse of history that you have literally touched and been touched by. Can you feel in your body, in your imagination, a more spacious grasp of time itself and of possibility and agency? What difference might it make?We've created a beautiful journal for the whole seven weeks, with full-size printable pages, that you can download for free HERE.A Possible Way to Organize This ExperienceTake each week's brief listening offering, each around 15 minutes long, as a meditation to move through the week ahead. And as none of the great virtues — and certainly not hope — is meant to be carried alone, we encourage you to undertake this experience alongside others, perhaps your life partner or family or colleagues or friends, book group or study group.For example, you could:●  Listen to one Wisdom Practice (roughly 15 minutes) — together or separately — around the same time each week. Listen again and/or read the transcript as often as is useful.●  Carry the ideas, invitations, and journal prompts for the session into your ordinary interactions of the days that follow.●  Commit to some time journaling every day, even if just for a few minutes or a few words.●  Meet with or Zoom/call your companion(s) at the end of the week to share, converse, commune.The Hope Portal and this series are adventures in opening the deep enduring teaching that lives inside the 20 years of On Being. We would be so grateful if you would let us know how it goes for you and how it might be refined, by writing to us at mail@onbeing.org. Sign yourself and others up for The Pause to be first to know about all things On Being and to receive Krista's monthly Saturday morning newsletter, including a heads-up on new episodes, special offerings, recommendations, and event invitations.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a tribal citizen seeking to avoid paying state income tax, restricting the impact of the nation's highest court's controversial 2020 McGirt decision. Gov. Kevin Stitt said,  “This is a big win for the future of Oklahoma. From day one, I've fought to make sure every Oklahoman is treated equally," Stitt said in a statement. "Tribal governments, liberal groups, and some elected officials have pushed for special tax exemptions that would create a two-tiered system — one set of rules for tribal citizens and another for everyone else. That's wrong. It would divide our state and weaken the public services every family relies on. This ruling makes it clear that attempts to expand McGirt into civil and tax matters have no basis in the law. We are one Oklahoma. And as long as I'm Governor, we aren't going backwards.” A review of McGirt... McGirt v. Oklahoma: A Summary of the Case and Its Historical Context Background and Historical Context The McGirt v. Oklahoma case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on July 9, 2020, is a landmark decision in federal Indian law, addressing tribal sovereignty and criminal jurisdiction in Oklahoma. The case centers on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's reservation and its implications for state versus federal/tribal authority over criminal prosecutions. Its roots trace back to the 19th century, when the U.S. government forcibly relocated the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole) from their southeastern homelands to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) via the Trail of Tears. The 1833 treaty with the Creek Nation promised a “permanent home” for the tribe, with assurances that no state would govern their lands, allowing self-governance. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, it assumed criminal jurisdiction over much of the former Indian Territory, including lands reserved for the tribes, despite treaties suggesting otherwise. This practice went largely unchallenged until the McGirt case, which questioned whether the Creek Nation's reservation was ever legally disestablished by Congress. The Case Jimcy McGirt, a Seminole Nation citizen, was convicted in 1997 by an Oklahoma state court in Wagoner County (within the historic Muscogee (Creek) Nation boundaries) for serious sex crimes against a minor, receiving a 500-year sentence and life without parole. McGirt later sought post-conviction relief, arguing that Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him because, as a Native American, his crimes occurred on the Creek Nation's reservation, which he claimed was “Indian country” under the Major Crimes Act (MCA). The MCA (18 U.S.C. §1153) grants exclusive federal jurisdiction over certain major crimes committed by Native Americans in Indian country, defined to include reservation lands (18 U.S.C. §1151).   Finally... Tulsa Mayor Monroe comes to an agreement with the Muskogee Nation.  How will this impact Oklahomans?  What does Tulsa Police Department think of it?  The settlement reads:  “In the best interest of public safety and inter-governmental cooperation, and to settle this matter in lieu of litigating disputes over jurisdiction, the city agrees that it will not exercise criminal jurisdiction over Indian defendants on the (Muscogee) Nation's reservation... This agreement does not preclude the city from exercising criminal jurisdiction pursuant to any lawful, valid and duly authorized delegation of authority from the nation to the city, including law enforcement activities undertaken by the Tulsa Police Department pursuant to the parties' cross-deputization agreement.”  

The Muscogee Nation will assume some law enforcement duties in the city of Tulsa, Okla., when it comes to tribal citizens. The development over jurisdiction ends a federal lawsuit filed by the Muscogee Nation in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark McGirt decision in 2020. The Cherokee and Osage Nations also potentially have jurisdiction claims in Tulsa and other cities. Local law enforcement officials and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt oppose the agreement, saying it creates a two-tiered system of justice. We'll find out what the new agreement solves and what it leaves unanswered. Also, tribes connected to Florida are speaking out against the Trump administration's fast track plans to establish a detention center for immigration actions near the Florida Everglades. Miccosukee and Seminole tribal officials and citizens say the center, dubbed the “Alligator Alcatraz,” infringes on land that is their “cultural, spiritual and historical identity.” GUESTS Betty Osceola (Miccosukee), environmental educator State Rep. Scott Fetgatter (Choctaw/R-OK 16) Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee), law professor at Arizona State University and tribal judge Jason Salsman, press secretary for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation

What does it mean to say that rape is not a crime of passion, but a tool of conquest? In this searing episode, Matika sits down with Chief Justice Sarah Deer—legal scholar, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and longtime advocate for Native women—to break down the root causes of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP) crisis. Together, they trace the systemic failures—from jurisdictional loopholes and underfunded Tribal justice systems to harmful stereotypes and state indifference—that enable violence against Native people to persist across generations.Sarah shares insights from decades of research, courtroom advocacy, and lived experience. She explains why the word “rape” still matters, how U.S. law continues to reflect colonial patriarchy, and what tribal sovereignty has to do with personal safety. With clarity and care, she connects the dots between land theft, gender-based violence, and narrative erasure—and offers a vision for Indigenous feminist legal theory that centers survivor agency and collective healing.This is a vital episode for anyone who wants to understand the roots of violence and the pathways to justice in Indian Country.Learn more about Sarah Deer's work at sarahdeer.com.Educational Reading & Reports• Sarah Deer's The Beginning and End of Rape is essential reading on how U.S. law enables violence against Native women—and how we can reclaim justice through sovereignty and Indigenous feminist legal theory. Purchase the book here.• Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans is a 2018 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights detailing chronic underfunding of Native programs. Read it here.• Justice Denied: The Reality of the Tribal Law and Order Act by Amnesty International explores how systemic legal gaps harm Native women. View the report.Advocacy & Action•The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center offers toolkits, trainings, and support for survivors and advocates working to end violence against Native women.•The Sovereign Bodies Institute collects data and honors MMIW2S cases, centering Indigenous-led research and action.•MMIW USA provides direct services and support for families of the missing and murdered, offering healing and justice-centered care.•The Urban Indian Health Institute provides data, reports, and resources on urban Native health disparities, including MMIWP-specific studies.++++Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

Among the 168 people killed in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City was Raymond Lee Johnson (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma). He was volunteering with the Older Native American Program at the time and was heavily involved in education and other issues important to Native people. Cherokee Ballard was a television news anchor and reporter who covered the aftermath and the subsequent trials. And FBI special agent Walter Lamar was on the scene that day helping rescue survivors. He was also part of the FBI's investigation into the bombing. We'll hear stories about how the bombing affected the city with one of the highest percentages of Native citizens in the nation. GUESTS Walter Lamar (Blackfeet and Wichita), founder of Lamar Associates and former FBI special agent Anne Marshall (Muscogee), council representative for the Muscogee Creek Nation Cherokee Ballard (Cherokee), communications director for the Oklahoma County Clerk and former news anchor and reporter

Come listen to a WUU service! For this final Sunday of National Poetry Month, the Sunday following Earth Day, we will engage actively with the poetry of Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. Come, let the experience of Joy Harjo's creative writing open you to spaces within and beyond yourself. Nan Hart, Worship Associate Liz Wiley, Worship Leader John Keating, music The YouTube version is here Thank you for listening. For more information about the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalists, or to join us on Sunday mornings, visit www.wuu.org. Permission to reprint, podcast, and/or stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-735438. All rights reserved.

Philip Gulley, Peterson, and Sweet Miche share their personal journeys of unlearning traditional theological concepts and reflect on what makes Quakerism a meaningful path to a more authentic faith. Gulley highlights fear as a significant motivator for religious beliefs and a tool for control and how the current political moment is a masterfully evil manipulation of human fears. Gulley also offers his perspective on the continued usefulness of organized religion, emphasizing the importance of bringing people together, respecting personal autonomy, and aligning its social efforts with the ethos of Jesus and radical love. Philip Gulley is a Quaker pastor, writer, and speaker from Danville, Indiana.  Gulley has written 22 books, including the Harmony series recounting life in the eccentric Quaker community of Harmony, Indiana, and the best-selling Porch Talk essay series. Gulley's memoir, I Love You, Miss Huddleston: And Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood, was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Hor.  In addition, Gulley, with co-author James Mulholland, shared their progressive spirituality in the books If Grace Is True and If God Is Love, followed by Gulley's books If the Church Were Christian and The Evolution of Faith. In  Living the Quaker Way: Timeless Wisdom For a Better Life Today, Gulley offers the opportunity to participate in a world where the values of the Quaker way bring equity, peace, healing, and hope. In his most recently published non-fiction work, Unlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe, Gulley describes the process of spiritual growth, especially the re-interpretation of the earliest principles we learned about God. Resources Here are some resources for friends in the process of unlearning and seeking spiritual growth: Therapy Therapy and spiritual growth can be deeply complementary. While therapy doesn't typically provide spiritual direction, it creates fertile ground for unlearning and spiritual development. You can use online therapist directories to find a therapist by location, insurance, specialty, cost, and more at Psychology Today, TherapyDen, or Open Path Psychotherapy Collective. Poets and Authors Audre Lorde is a profoundly influential Black lesbian feminist writer, poet, theorist, and civil rights activist. Her work powerfully explores the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. You can read her essays in Sister Outsider and her "biomythography" Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Federico Garcia Lorca is one of Spain's most important poets and playwrights of the 20th century. His work is celebrated for its intense lyricism, surreal imagery, and passionate exploration of themes like love, death, desire, oppression, and Andalusian culture, particularly in works like Gypsy Ballads and plays such as Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba. Walt Whitman is a central figure in American poetry, often called the "Bard of Democracy." Whitman revolutionized poetry with his use of free verse and expansive lines. His lifelong work, Leaves of Grass, celebrates the individual, democracy, nature, the body, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of all life, aiming to capture the diverse spirit of America. Mary Oliver is an American poet who focuses on the natural world, particularly the landscapes of New England.  Her work finds wonder, spirituality, and profound insight in quiet observation and moments of attention to nature, inviting readers to connect more deeply with the world around them. Christian Wiman is a contemporary American poet and essayist known for his unflinching honesty and intellectual rigor in exploring themes of faith, doubt, suffering (often drawing on his own experience with chronic illness), mortality, and love.  Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and served as the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. Her work weaves together Indigenous history, spirituality, myth, social justice, resilience, and a deep connection to the land, often infused with the rhythms of music and prayer. Akwake Emezi is a non-binary Nigerian writer and artist known for their powerful, innovative, and often genre-bending work. Their novels (like Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji) explore complex themes of identity, spirituality (often drawing on Igbo cosmology), gender, mental health, trauma, and the body, challenging conventional Western frameworks of selfhood. Elaine Pagels is a renowned historian of religion, particularly noted for her scholarship on early Christianity and Gnosticism. Her groundbreaking book, The Gnostic Gospels, brought non-canonical early Christian texts to wider attention, revealing the diversity of early Christian thought and exploring how political and social contexts shaped religious history and scripture. LGBTQ+ film festivals are events dedicated to showcasing films by, for, or about queer individuals and communities. They serve as vital platforms for representation, providing visibility for filmmakers and stories often marginalized in mainstream media. These festivals (like Frameline, Outfest, NewFest, and countless others globally) are also important spaces for community building and celebrating queer culture. Quaker Voluntary Service is a year-long program rooted in Quaker values. It brings young adults together to live in an intentional community, work full-time in social justice-focused non-profit organizations, and engage in spiritual exploration and leadership development, putting faith into action. Listener Responses We hear directly from Roxanne, who unlearned the idea that any single group holds the definitive spiritual answer, instead discovering valuable truths across diverse practices and traditions through their continuous seeking. On Facebook, friends shared their experience wrestling with the traditional ideas about God they grew up with. Many people mentioned letting go of a harsh or judgmental image of God, questioning core doctrines, and letting go of feelings of unworthiness. Thank you to Angela, Rae, Tim, Amy, Iris, Christine, Steve, David, Tyler, Joe, Deepak, and Whittier for sharing so openly with our question of the month. Question for Next Month Beyond a roof and four walls, what does the word 'home' mean to you? Share your response by emailing podcast@quakerstoday.org or call/text 317-QUAKERS (317-782-5377). Please include your name and location. Your responses may be featured in our next episode. Quakers Today: A Project of Friends Publishing Corporation Quakers Today is the companion podcast to Friends Journal and Friends Publishing Corporation content. It is written, hosted, and produced by Peterson Toscano and Miche McCall. Season Four of Quakers Today is Sponsored by: Friends Fiduciary Since 1898, Friends Fiduciary has provided values-aligned investment services for Quaker organizations, consistently achieving strong financial returns while upholding Quaker testimonies. They also assist individuals in supporting beloved organizations through donor-advised funds, charitable gift annuities, and stock gifts. Learn more at FriendsFiduciary.org. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Vulnerable communities and the planet are counting on Quakers to take action for a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. AFSC works at the forefront of social change movements to meet urgent humanitarian needs, challenge injustice, and build peace. Learn more at AFSC.org. Feel free to email us at podcast@friendsjournal.org with​​ comments, questions, and requests for our show. Music from this episode comes from Epidemic Sound.  Follow Quakers Today on TikTok, Instagram, and X. For more episodes and a full transcript of this episode, visit QuakersToday.org.

House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs Examining 50 years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country Friday, April 4, 2025 | 10:00 AM On Friday, April 4, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. (CDT), the Committee on Natural Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Examining 50 years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country.” This hearing will examine the successes and opportunities for tribal self-governance in economic development and healthcare as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act turns 50. This hearing will be held at the First Americans Museum, 659 American Indian Blvd., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Witnesses The Hon. Bill Anoatubby Governor Chickasaw Nation Ada, Oklahoma The Hon. Chuck Hoskin Principal Chief Tahlequah, Oklahoma The Hon. Gary Batton Chief Durant, Oklahoma The Hon. Wena Supernaw Chair Quapaw Nation Quapaw, Oklahoma The Hon. David Hill Principal Chief Muscogee Creek Nation Okmulgee, Oklahoma Mr. Mark Rogers Chief Executive Officer Osage Nation Health System Pawhuska, Oklahoma The Hon. Martin Harvier President Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Scottsdale, Arizona [Minority witness] Mr. Jay Spaan Executive Director Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium Tulsa, Oklahoma [Minority witness] More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/04/01/witness-list-for-house-subcommittee-field-hearing-on-indian-self-determination/

Megan Lowry, Marine Corps Veteran, Veteran Wellness Specialist, and citizen of the Muscogee Nation is our guest today on the Hoffman Podcast. Megan's story is one of hope. She held 'a kernel of hope' when she came to the Hoffman Process in 2015. As a Native American, Megan wasn't sure how she would navigate the week of the Process. She shares, "Being Native, there's things that we do to grieve and things that we never show and never talk about just, culturally, and so just bringing all of that to the Hoffman process, it was intimidating." Megan served our country in the Marine Corps and then in the Secret Service for President, George W. Bush and First Lady, Barbara Bush. The military was where Megan gained so much, yet it was a place that also caused her great harm. She grew and learned to "adapt and overcome," but she suffered both sexual and emotional abuse during those years. After leaving the service, she found herself having a difficult time. Then she was fortunate to meet Lee Lesser, founder of Veteran's PATH. Lee became a mentor to Megan, helping Megan find a path of healing path that included the Hoffman Process. Now a PhD student, Megan continues to heal her significant PTSD while bringing her many skills and wisdom to serve as the commander of the Muscogee Creek Nation women's honor guard and support Veterans in finding healing and well-being. For her dissertation, Megan intends to highlight the need for a blend of healing modalities, such as talk and recreational therapies, and ties to the community to give you purpose. Megan says, "It's not just one thing or another, it's a blend of so many things, of so many pieces to create the human experience." Content warning: This episode references sexual assault, emotional trauma, and suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, you can call the US National Suicide Prevention Program at 800-273-8255 or message the crisis text hotline at 741741. If you are a veteran, you can also reach out to the Veterans Crisis Line. More about Megan Lowry: Megan is a Marine Corps Veteran who served as a military police officer and presidential security. She resides in Oklahoma on the Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation with her family, caring for her aging mother and two special needs stepdaughters. Her partner builds hot rods! Megan is also serving as the commander for the Muscogee Creek Nation women's honor guard, where they are asked to travel the country providing tribal veteran representation for ceremonies. Megan received her sociology degree and her Master's in Social Work. She is working on her PhD in Psychology while also working full-time as a Veteran Wellness Specialist. She covers the state of Oklahoma for Aetna and is also on the national leadership team for veterans and native resource groups. Megan has 10 dogs, 7 chickens, 2 ducks, a pig named Pumba, and a bunny named Iggy Hop. In her free time, Megan likes to garden, be outside, cycle, and meditate.  As mentioned in this episode: Mvto - "Thank you." in Muscogee Creek •   More on the Muscogee Creek language Read and watch more about Megan and her life at the University of Tulsa website. Lee Lesser •   Sensory Awareness Retreat •   Veteran's Path Secret Service, Serving President George W. Bush and First Lady, Barbara Bush •   Interview with Megan about the process of applying to the Secret Service •   Megan received the Marcy Lawless Service Award Marine Corps Military Police •   Military Sexual Trauma PTSD - Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Conex Box Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation Muscogee Creek Nation women's honor guard Suicide in the Military Veteran's Mental Health Congresswoman, Jackie Speier Invisible Wounds Documentary Vanessa Guillen Service dog, Therapy dog,  vs. Emotional Support dog PTSD Dysregulation "It's literally...your ordinary brain trying to cope with an extraordinary situation, and that is human.

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025 – 9:30 AM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515, USA Witnesses Panel one Harry Antonio Governor Pueblo of Laguna Myron Armijo Governor Pueblo of Santa Ana Charles Riley Governor Pueblo of Acoma Panel two Chuck Hoskin Jr. Principal Chief Cherokee Nation Jonodev Chaudhuri Ambassador Muscogee (Creek) Nation Rodney Butler Chairman Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Native American Finance Officers Association Panel three Mitchell Hicks Principal Chief Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Cheyenne Robinson Secretary Omaha Tribe of Nebraska Victoria Kitcheyan Chairwoman Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Panel four Doreen Leavitt Tribal Council Secretary Iñupiat Community of the Artic Slope David Boxley Councilman Metlakatla Indian Community Cynthia Petersen President Yakutat Tlingit Tribe Panel five Stephen Roe Lewis Governor Gila River Indian Community Duane Clarke Chairman Hualapai Tribe Martin Harvier President Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Terry Rambler Chairman San Carlos Apache Tribe Panel six Carla Johnson Vice-Chairwoman Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona Tanya Lewis Chairwoman Yavapai-Apache Nation of Arizona More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/02/24/video-american-indian-and-alaska-native-public-witness-hearing-day-2-morning-session/

Public and tribal radio and television stations are fortifying their defenses ahead of what could be the biggest funding threat they've ever faced. President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly called for an end to federal funding for public broadcasters. Bills proposed in Congress would go as far as eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the nearly 60-year-old entity created by Congress to facilitate federal support for non-commercial media. We'll hear from broadcasters about what changes might be in store. GUESTS Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee Creek Nation), co-founder of KGUA, president of the Native Media Resource Center and an independent producer Lenora Ward (Iñupiaq), general manager of KOTZ, Kotzebue Broadcasting Brian Wadsworth (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe), chief operating officer for Native Public Media Oi Zephier (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho), station manager of KILI

A Wisconsin tribe agreed to stop operating an online high-interest loan operation in neighboring Minnesota in a lawsuit settlement just announced. But the Lac du Flambeau tribe and several others still insist on their sovereign ability to operate the businesses, despite laws in several states working to prevent consumers from falling victim to interest rates that reach up to 800% in some cases. We'll talk about the struggle between tribes' ability to operate unrestricted payday loan business – and the ongoing efforts to regulate damaging loan businesses. GUESTS Miranda Lente (Isleta Pueblo), loan officer for Tiwa Lending Services Barry Brandon (Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma), commissioner for The Muscogee Nation Office of Public Gaming Nathalie Martin, professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law

A bill to formally provide federal protections to the Ocmulgee Mounds in Georgia is making progress in Congress. If approved, it would establish the state's first National Park and Preserve overseen by the National Park Service. The land is the ancestral home of the Muscogee Creek Nation and other tribes. The preservation momentum comes as several other locations look to better document and protect mounds. In Wisconsin, officials identified two mounds in Milwaukee's oldest cemetery. We'll get updates on recent efforts to recognize and preserve mounds.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with David Chiu, communication manager at The Braid and producer of their new video series, “Tastes of Tradition.”   “One thing that we at The Braid notice is that food and storytelling, especially for us Jews, are  inseparable,” Chiu explains.  “Food is as much about the people you're sharing it with as the recipes themselves.”   In their snackable videos (they are about two-and-a-half minutes each), “Tastes of Tradition” invites the audience into the kitchens of five diverse Jewish families.    Featured in the series are Instagram chef Sivan Kobi (Sivan's Kitchen) and her Iraqi Jewish mother, Yafa, who prepare kitchri, and Chinese-American celebrity chef and cookbook author Katie Chin and her teenage daughter Becca, an Asian American Jew, who make latkes with Asian-inspired dipping sauces.    Also,  graphic novelist Emily Bowen Cohen, a Muscogee (Creek) Nation member, joins her son Maccabee and mother-in-law Beth to make fry bread for Hanukkah; award-winning comic and educator Joshua Silverstein, who is black and Jewish, and his 16-year-old stepson, Ami, make allergy-friendly hamantaschen for Purim; and Kimberly Dueñas, co-founder of Jewtina y Co, and her father Solomon, a crypto-Jew from El Salvador who kept his Jewish identity hidden for years due to the legacy of the Spanish Inquisition, prepare challah.    The series is on brand for The Braid, a vibrant cultural hub for connection, creativity, and stories that reflects the diversity of the Jewish experience. And food is frequently part of the mix.    “To me, the most powerful thing about food is that it's passed down,” Chiu explains. “Even if you don't  pass down Shabbat traditions or other religious things,  there's something that you take from your family related to food.”    Chiu, who is a Chinese American Jew, says he finds that also true on the Chinese side of his family. When he went off to college, Chiu wrote to his dad, asking him how to cook.    “He sent me all these recipes, which was hard for him because he's an immigrant and he never wrote anything down,” Chiu explains. “But his recipes became my way of connecting with him and his culture.”   David Chiu shares the origin story of “Tastes of Tradition,” the different ways The Braid integrates food into their offerings, and how he developed his love of cooking. He also shares Katie Chin's recipe for double happiness latkes with Asian dipping sauces, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.   Learn more about The Braid's “Tastes of Tradition” video series at The-braid.org/tastes.  For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

 In this sermon conversation, the main themes center around understanding tribal nations, citizenship and cultural pluralism within the Muscogee Creek, Osage and Cherokee Nations in Oklahoma. Eli Grayson and Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar discuss how tribal identity transends race, religion and nationality. Being part of a tribe like the Muscogee Creek or Cherokee is a matter of legal and political status, not just ethnicity. The homily recounts significant historical events and the complexities around citizenship within Native American nations. This conversation underscores how these nations have evolved and adapted, similar to the broader United States in some aspect, while also dealing with unique tribal governance and societal norms.

This episode was recorded on May 20th, 2024. Melvin and Tammeria Battiest, both members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, faced a separation of 35 years after moving to Tulsa in 1980; their lives took vastly different turns. Melvin, initially focusing on a welding career, succumbed to addiction, leading him into a life of crime, resulting in life imprisonment. Tammeria, on the other hand, ventured into motherhood with four children, becoming a respected school teacher. Fate brought the childhood sweethearts back together after Melvin's release from 38 years of incarceration. Since then, the couple has dedicated their lives to helping those striving to reintegrate following incarceration through their Yukon, Oklahoma-based non-profit organization, Native Wings Like An Eagle Inc., partnering with Native tribes. Melvin additionally spreads his experiences and learnings through church ministries nationwide. Fine more from Melvin and Tammeria: https://www.nativewings.org Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tammy.m.peterson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TammyPetersonPodcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tammypetersonpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tammy1Peterson Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/TammyPetersonPodcast

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Billy Smith, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024. The hearing took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The court heard from attorneys representing the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the United States government and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. At issue is the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's efforts to protect Hickory Ground, a sacred site in Alabama. The tribe is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over development that has occurred on the land. The oral arguments lasted about 43 minutes.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024. The hearing took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The court heard from attorneys representing the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the United States government and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. At issue is the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's efforts to protect Hickory Ground, a sacred site in Alabama. The tribe is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over development that has occurred on the land. The oral arguments lasted about 43 minutes.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024. The hearing took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The court heard from attorneys representing the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the United States government and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. At issue is the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's efforts to protect Hickory Ground, a sacred site in Alabama. The tribe is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over development that has occurred on the land. The oral arguments lasted about 43 minutes.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024. The hearing took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The court heard from attorneys representing the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the United States government and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. At issue is the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's efforts to protect Hickory Ground, a sacred site in Alabama. The tribe is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over development that has occurred on the land. The oral arguments lasted about 43 minutes.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, No. 21-11643, on September 25, 2024. The hearing took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The court heard from attorneys representing the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the United States government and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. At issue is the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's efforts to protect Hickory Ground, a sacred site in Alabama. The tribe is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over development that has occurred on the land. The oral arguments lasted about 43 minutes.

Georgia's Emergency Management agency is warning the entire state to brace for Tropical Storm Helene; Former President Donald Trump pitched a plan to stimulate manufacturing during a campaign event in Savannah Tuesday; The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is preparing for a court hearing in Atlanta over a casino development they say was built on sacred burial grounds.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fof of Truth: Bad Press and the Fight for Free Press In this episode of 'The Fog of Truth,' we delve into the documentary film 'Bad Press,' which highlights the significance of free press within Native American communities, specifically focusing on the Muscogee Creek Nation. The film's directors, Rebecca Lansbury Baker and Joe Peeler share their journey of making the documentary and the challenges faced by Indigenous journalists.   Introduction to the Episode with clip from the film. Discussion on the Film 'Bad Press Meet the Directors The Importance of Free Press The Making of 'Bad Press" Challenges and Trust Building  Economic Implications Fundraising for the Film Editing and Storytelling Global Relevance of the Film Shooting and Editing Dynamics Conclusion and Final Thoughts

“What do some of the most prominent and successful Indigenous artists, leaders and professors have in common? They aren't Indigenous. There are hundreds of cases of Indigenous identity fraud that we know about, and likely thousands that we do not. So why do these so-called “pretendians” do it? How do they pull it off? And what happens when they are exposed?” (From the Pretendians Podcast Description) My jaw dropped multiple times while visiting with Robert Jago (Kwantlen First Nation & Nooksack) & Angel Ellis (Muscogee (Creek) Nation), the hosts of the hot new podcast, Pretendians. In this episode you'll especially learn about "Grand Chief" Guillaume Carle, “a French Canadian who made a small fortune creating his own fake First Nation and issuing phony Indian Status Cards to thousands of other identity thieves.” Pretendians are individuals who are non-Native, but pose as Native in order to gain attention and often times, money and fame. Enjoy this 2-part cringy ride as Robert and Angel expose some of the most notorious pretendians. And they'll also share their own stories and that of their ancestors too! Native ChocTalk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nativechoctalkpodcast All Podcast Episodes: https://nativechoctalk.com/podcasts/

“What do some of the most prominent and successful Indigenous artists, leaders and professors have in common? They aren't Indigenous. There are hundreds of cases of Indigenous identity fraud that we know about, and likely thousands that we do not. So why do these so-called “pretendians” do it? How do they pull it off? And what happens when they are exposed?” (From the Pretendians Podcast Description) My jaw dropped multiple times while visiting with Robert Jago (Kwantlen First Nation & Nooksack) & Angel Ellis (Muscogee (Creek) Nation), the hosts of the hot new podcast, Pretendians. In this episode you'll especially learn about "Grand Chief" Guillaume Carle, “a French Canadian who made a small fortune creating his own fake First Nation and issuing phony Indian Status Cards to thousands of other identity thieves.” Pretendians are individuals who are non-Native, but pose as Native in order to gain attention and often times, money and fame. Enjoy this 2-part cringy ride as Robert and Angel expose some of the most notorious pretendians. And they'll also share their own stories and that of their ancestors too! Native ChocTalk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nativechoctalkpodcast All Podcast Episodes: https://nativechoctalk.com/podcasts/

In this episode VEST Member Terra-Branson Thomas, Senior Policy Advisor at Clause Law and former Secretary of the Nation for the Muscogee Creek Nation talks about the Status of Women in Politics with Kelly Dittmar, Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Director of Research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Eagleton Institute of Politics. Kelly is a published author in the field of Gender and Politics. She is also an influential expert in the field, contributing to publications like Forbes Women and serving as a commentator for various media outlets.If you enjoy the episode share it with a friend and don't forget to leave us a review.About our Guest(s)Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University–Camden and Director of Research at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is a published author in the field, co-authoring "A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen's Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters" (Oxford University Press, 2018) and authoring "Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns" (Temple University Press, 2015). Her work primarily revolves around gender and American political institutions. Dittmar also serves as a co-editor of Politics & Gender, an influential journal in the field. With a background as an American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Fellow and experience working for Governor Jennifer Granholm (MI), Dittmar is recognized as an expert in her field, contributing to publications like Forbes Women and serving as a commentator for various media outlets. She holds a B.A. from Aquinas College and earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University-New Brunswick.Terra Branson-Thomas, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, has over a decade of experience in federal Indian policy, government relations, and self-governance. At Clause Law, she leverages her expertise from her tenure as Secretary of the Nation for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, where she increased federal funding by $18 million, boosted grant funding by 40%, and provided strategic economic advice. Her career includes roles in national tribal non-profit management, federal negotiations, and legislative development, with prior experience at the National Congress of American Indians. Terra holds a BA in Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and an MPP from Georgetown University.This episode is brought to you by VEST Her Ventures, a peer network of women professionals and investment fund for women-led companies building the future of work and care infrastructure needed to unlock women's labor participation, career potential and lifetime earnings. Learn more at www.VESTHer.coIf you enjoyed the episode share it with a friend and don't forget to leave us a review. If you are ready to take your career to the next level, apply to join our community of professional women, all eager to help you get there and stay there. Check out our VEST Membership and apply today! www.VESTHer.co

More than 30 pieces of century-old Hopi pottery, baskets, and other items are making a return visit to the Hopi community, making them available to the descendants of the artists for the first time. The project is called Tuma Angwu Owya. The pieces were originally acquired by a wealthy Massachusetts family who visited the Hopi reservation during cross-country trip in the late 1920s. They forged a lasting relationship with some Hopi community members. Their collection is now housed at Wesleyan University, which is helping facilitate this unique return to their place of origin for a weekend. We'll talk with the event organizers about bringing these works back to the Hopi reservation. GUESTS Patty Talahongva (Hopi), journalist and community curator Donna Humetewa Kaye (Hopi), facilitator for Hopitutuqaiki Lea McChesney, curator of ethnology at Maxwell Museum of Anthropology We'll also hear from a Freedmen descendant about the implications of the Oklahoma State Supreme Court denying reparations to the two remaining survivors of the deadly 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Greenwood, Oklahoma. Dr. Maurice Franklin (Muscogee [Creek] Nation, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Freedmen descendent), lecturer and consultant on organizational sustainability and development strategies; professor at California State University, Northridge; and a founding member of the National Black Justice Coalition Break 1 Music: We're Going Home (song) Clark Tenakhongva (artist) Hear My Song, Hear My Prayer – Songs from the Hopi Mesas (album) Break 2 Music: Over and Over (song) Celeigh Cardinal (artist)

“She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.”  -Zora Neale Hurston There can be no liberation without a commitment to living.  It's Gemini season, and life (with all of its chaos and beauty) abounds! In today's episode, We begin with a recognition that this tropical Gemini new moon brought some clarity with its heaviness. Then Brendane sits with Amber Starks, aka Melanin Mvskoke, to discuss a Black feminist spiritual-political commitment to living. This commitment includes celebration–Brendane turned 31 on Monday–and dedication to honoring oneself and one's ancestral inheritances. As you listen, may you remember that your life is an ancestral inheritance. You were brought here for this moment, as you are, to live well. Self-compassion and self-forgiveness are essential to surrendering to life, as they allow us to find self-love in moments of imperfection. A recognition of one's "inside and outside" is necessary to persist in times of chaos, famine, drought, and abundance. Who and what will you hold close as you fight, love, and rest for your life? Tune in now to hear more! Amber Starks (aka Melanin Mvskoke) is an Afro Indigenous (African-American and Native American) advocate, organizer, cultural critic, decolonial theorist, and budding abolitionist. She is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and is also of Shawnee, Yuchi, Quapaw, and Cherokee descent. Her passion is the intersection of Black and Native American identity. Her activism seeks to normalize, affirm, and uplift the multidimensional identities of Black and Native peoples through discourse and advocacy around anti-Blackness, abolishing blood quantum, Black liberation, and Indigenous sovereignty. She hopes to encourage Black and Indigenous peoples to prioritize one another and divest from compartmentalizing struggles. She ultimately believes the partnerships between Black and Indigenous peoples (and all POC) will aid in the dismantling of anti-blackness, white supremacy, and settler colonialism, globally. She earned a Bachelor's of Science in General Science (emphasis in Biology and Anthropology) from the University of Oregon.Her pronouns are she/her. You can find Amber on Instagram and Twitter @MelaninMvskoke ! Find out more information about the podcast at blacklovedandfreepodcast.com. Donate to the podcast here. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/black-loved-free-podcast/message

Is there really a mass of Chinese immigrants forming an army within the United States? Are there legions of ineligible voters deciding elections? Are the people you disagree with politically getting influenced by Russian agents? Anymore, news consumers can choose where they get their facts from - and increasingly those facts are in dispute. A new poll by the Media Insight Project finds 53% of those asked think news organizations will report inaccuracies or misinformation about the upcoming election. We will get some clues about what Native news consumers should look out for, and what news organizations could do to restore trust in their products. GUESTS Cristina Azocar (Upper Mattaponi), professor of journalism at San Francisco State University Jason Begay (Navajo), associate professor at The University of Montana School of Journalism Angel Ellis (Muscogee [Creek] Nation), director of Mvskoke Media, treasurer for the Indigenous Journalists Association, Oklahoma Media Center board member, and co-host of the Pretendians podcast by Canadaland

Basketball fans are glued to their teams' performance in the NBA conference finals, with at least two Native players still battling for the title. And the WNBA just started its season, welcoming Minnesota Lynx draft pick Alissa Pili (Iñupiaq and Samoan) onto the court. We'll hear from Pili, as well as University of Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson (Lumbee), who the AP just named Coach of the Year, along with some other perspectives on Native representation on the court. GUESTS Alissa Pili (Iñupiaq and Samoan), Minnesota Lynx player Kelvin Sampson (Lumbee), University of Houston coach Dominic Tiger-Cortes (citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation), basketball trainer and founder and creative director of Hoop Medicine L.A. Williams (Diné), sportscaster and radio talent

As appealing as it may sound, is it really possible to live in a world completely free of conflict? No. And since differences and disagreements are inevitable and natural, Joy Harjo gives ground rules in “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.” Her call to us echoes across time and space — a call to listen, to humility, to justice, and to recognizing the land, the living, the dead, the not-yet-living.Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and the 23rd Poet Lau­re­ate of the Unit­ed States. She is the author of 10 books of poet­ry, including An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, and She Had Some Horses, and the memoirs Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior. Her most recent poetry collection is Weav­ing Sun­down in a Scar­let Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years. She's also produced several award-winning albums of music, including her most recent, I Pray for My Ene­mies.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We're pleased to offer two sections of Joy Harjo's longer poem, and invite you to read Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound book, or listen back to all our episodes.

In a part of the United States with more than 17,000 years of human history, cultural preservation advocate Tracie Revis is working to turn the Ocmulgee Mounds into Georgia's first national park and preserve. This park would be co-managed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, bringing the tribal voice back to an area they were forcibly removed from 200 years ago. Revis explores the complex feelings of caring for this land and shows how it's fostering healing in return.

In a part of the United States with more than 17,000 years of human history, cultural preservation advocate Tracie Revis is working to turn the Ocmulgee Mounds into Georgia's first national park and preserve. This park would be co-managed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, bringing the tribal voice back to an area they were forcibly removed from 200 years ago. Revis explores the complex feelings of caring for this land and shows how it's fostering healing in return.

In a part of the United States with more than 17,000 years of human history, cultural preservation advocate Tracie Revis is working to turn the Ocmulgee Mounds into Georgia's first national park and preserve. This park would be co-managed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, bringing the tribal voice back to an area they were forcibly removed from 200 years ago. Revis explores the complex feelings of caring for this land and shows how it's fostering healing in return.

The Fort Yukon (Alaska) Lady Eagles capped off a winning streak to capture the first state championship in the school's history. Their coach said it's like “winning the Super Bowl”.  The Navajo Prep (New Mexico) boys team, also the Eagles, won their first state championship, joined by a championship win by the school's girls team. It's basketball tournament time and we're talking free throws, three-pointers, and trophies. GUESTS Josh Cadzow (Gwich'in), Fort Yukon Lady Eagles basketball head coach L.A. Williams (Diné), sportscaster and radio talent Dominic Tiger-Cortes (citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation), basketball trainer for 7G Ann Gardner, Cherokee Lady Braves head coach