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Peace Talks Radio explores efforts to rename and reclaim holidays like Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Veterans Day.

When there are false narratives behind those holidays, it can be hurtful and harmful. Those stories might be covering up painful truths; the holiday names can be used to promote the political agendas of those in power.

Mahtowin Munro (Oglala Lakota), co-leader of United American Indians of New England, organizes a National Day of Mourning each year on Thanksgiving. She’s also campaigned to transform Columbus Day into Indigenous People’s Day. And former US Army ranger turned war resistor Rory Fanning is part of a campaign to give Veterans Day back its pre-1954 name: Armistice Day.

Mahtowin Munro and Rory Fanning

Peace Talks Radio is the flagship series of Good Radio Shows, Inc., a non-profit media organization dedicated to producing programs that inform, inspire, and strengthen the human condition. The series blends artistry with social purpose, using voice, sound, and storytelling to promote understanding, healing, and practical, nonviolent approaches to resolving conflict.

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Enduring Freedom – Honoring Native Women Veterans offers a rare and powerful look at a shared history through the voices of Native women who served. Recorded in the early 2000s, these veterans reflect in their own words on their experiences in the U.S. military — from the challenges of service and the prejudice they faced as women and as Native people, to the pride of representing their Nations and communities.

You’ll hear the voices of Arlene Manuel Wall (Pima, deceased 2009), Sandra K. Tiger (Seminole, Cherokee), Carol Buckles (Pima Maricopa), Michelle Bowman  (Gila River), Rita Aragon  (Cherokee, Chocktaw), and Geri Wisner-Foley  (Mvskoke Deer Clan).

While little has been written about the role of Native women in the armed forces, we know they have served with distinction in every conflict, from the time of first contact with Europeans to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in ongoing global missions today.

Written and produced by Peggy Berryhill (Mvskoke, Bird Clan), this landmark documentary from the Native Media Resource Center honors the courage, resilience, and enduring contributions of Native women veterans.

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The government that tried to destroy Indigenous culture used it as a weapon on the battlefield. Most of the men who had been sworn to secrecy during the war kept those secrets as long as they lived. But their families and tribal communities remember.

Host Travis Zimmerman helps tell two stories: One about Lex Porter, an Ojibwe speaking code talker from Grand Portage and a member of the Fond du Lac band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Nagaajiwanaang); the other about Reuben St. Clair, a Dakota speaking coder talker from the Lower Sioux Indian Community (Mdewakanton).

The World War Two code talker program was declassified in 1968. The public learned about Navajo (or Diné) Marines who were deployed in the Pacific Theater. Then, in 2008, Congress passed the Code Talker Recognition Act to acknowledge other tribes whose languages had been used in the war. In 2013 it honored tribal leaders and families from 33 tribal nations. We’ll never know the numbers of actual code talkers, but the stories they shared are still being told.

Special thanks:
Gary Robinson at Tribal Eye Productions
Travis Zimmerman, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Freedom Porter, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Darlene St. Clair, Lower Sioux Dakota Oyate
Moira (“meer ree”) Villiard (“vill-yerd”), Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Allison Waukau (“wah-kaw”), Menominee/Navajo
Laurie Stern, producer

DeCoded is produced by Minnesota Native News & Ampers, Diverse Radio

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Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands don’t have electricity. A majority of them are spread across the Navajo Nation, where climate change is making it harder for families to keep cool. In the first installment of this two-part story, the Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel visited the reservation to learn how Navajo families are coping without power.

Our Living Lands is a five-minute, weekly segment focused on climate change’s impact on Indigenous communities across the country. The program highlights the wide-ranging impact of climate change – and shares potential solutions for addressing these problems.

Our Living Lands is a collaboration of the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, and Native Public Media.