Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond

Episode #1: IRS seizes and auctions Crow Creek Sioux Land
Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for an episode that features Brandon J. Sazue, Sr., Chairman of Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. He will discuss the politics of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) auctioning off 7,100 acres of tribal land on December 3, 2009 to recover $3,123,789.73 dollars it claims is unpaid employment taxes. Chairman Sazue has been occupying the land since December 7th; he is currently camped in a travel trailer on the land in sub-zero temperatures and invites supporters and people from all nations to join him in the struggle.
Original air-date: 1-12-10.

Episode #2: Joseph Nicolar, The Life and Traditions of the Red Man
Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for an exploration of a 1893 book, The Life and Traditions of the Red Man, written and self-published by Joseph Nicolar (Penobscot Nation). Nicolar (1827-94) was an elder and political leader of the Penobscot Nation of Maine. He served six terms as the tribe’s elected representative to the Maine State Legislature. A rediscovered treasure of work, The Life and Traditions of the Red Man tells the story of his people from the first moments of creation to the earliest arrivals and eventual settlement of Europeans. The book is one of the few sustained narratives in English composed by a member of an Eastern Algonquian-speaking people during the nineteenth century, which was written by Nicolar in an urgent effort to pass on Penobscot cultural heritage to subsequent generations of the tribe and to reclaim Native Americans’ right to self-representation. The guests on the show will include scholar Annette Kolodny, who edited and annotated the text for re-release with a History of the Penobscot Nation and a full introduction to the work, and esteemed elder Charles Norman Shay (Penobscot Nation). Original air-date: 1-26-10.

Episode #3: Coal Controversy and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe
Join your host for an episode that examines a controversial plan to mine coal on lands adjacent to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s reservation. Southeast of Ashland, MT in Powder River County, the Otter Creek Coal Tracts contain more than 1.2 billion acres of unmined coal, half of which is part of Montana school trust land. In December 2009, the State Land Board voted (4-1) to call for bids on the coal. This week the answers to call for Otter Creek bids will be in, and both proponents and opponents will learn more about the market for this huge coal reserve. All three guests on the show are opposed this plan: Steve Brady (Northern Cheyenne Tribe), Chairman of the Northern Cheyenne Cultural Commission; and Alexis Bonogofsky, Senior Coordinator of the Tribal Lands Conservation Program of the National Wildlife Federation; and Philip Whiteman (Northern Cheyenne Tribe), co-founder of Yellow Bird, a Native non-profit organization. Original air-date: 2-09-2010