This episode, host Lyla June is in conversation with Theresa "Bear" Fox, a song carrier and knowledge bearer of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk Nation) from Akwesasne Territory in northeastern Turtle Island. Together, they explore her journey as a community member, her deep connection to her culture, and how she came to carry the songs and stories of her people. This heartfelt exchange offers insight into the preservation of traditions and the power of music and storytelling.

Learn more about Theresa "Bear" Fox on her official website.
Stream her music on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music.
Doante or learn more about the Akwesasne Freedom School on their website.

In this episode, host Lyla June interviews Charlene Nijmeh, the chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which is comprised of all known surviving American Indian Lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay Region.

Throughout the episode, the discussion focuses around the powerful history of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, stories of resilience, and the "Trail of Truth", a 90-day horseback journey across the United States, all the way from San Francisco to Washington, beginning August 4th.

With a strong sense of public service and duty towards her tribal communities, Charlene sits at the helm of the "Trail of Truth" protest and is determined to make sure that the voices of the unrecognized tribes are heard.

To learn more about the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, visit Muwekma.org.
To donate to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, vist https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=NJSTHL7GYM7WE.
To learn more about Charlene Nijmeh, visit CharleneforCongress.com.

In this episode, host Lyla June interviews Dean Barlese, an elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and Max Wilbert, writer and community organizer whose been part of grassroots political work for 20 years, and is the founder of Protect Thacker Pass.

Their discussion focuses around the status of the lithium mining project to be built on Thacker Pass, a physical feature located in Humboldt County Nevada, traditional and unceded territory of the Paiute and Shoshone people, currently designated as United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public land. The traditional Paiute name of Thacker Pass is Peehee Mu’huh. Now it is also the site of a massive lithium mine under construction, that is destroying the area and valuable habitat for the creatures who live there.

Throughout the episode, our guests touch on how they are fighting against this project and why everything we do counts, and matters.

To learn more or get involved, visit ProtectThackerPass.org
To donate, visit GiveButter.com
To read the autobiography of Billy Haywood, visit Archive.org

In this episode, host Lyla June talks with Maria Azhunova of the Buryat-Mongol Indigenous Peoples, Director of the Land of Snow Leopard Network.

Their discussion focuses around the significance of the Snow Leopard, it's meaning and how they are spreading awareness and education on this sacred animal, as well as protecting the animal from humans and outside dangers that can interfere with the endangered snow leopard, who lives in the mountains of South and Central Asia. Throughout this episode, they also talk about how interconnected all indigenous beings are, human and non-human and how to reflect on your own connection.

To learn more about the Snow Leopard, visit snowleopardconservacy.org or landofsnowleopard.org.

In this episode host Lyla June talks with  Shelly Covert, spokesperson for the Nisenan Indigenous Nation, native to Grass Valley & Nevada City areas of northern California. Co-founders of CHIRP (California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project) Shelly Covert and Ember Amador discuss their $2.4M GoFundMe campaign to recover sacred lands stolen during the California  Gold Rush. As of the publishing of this episode, they have already raised $2M. We discuss the tragedy of having to buy back stolen lands, but also celebrate that stolen wealth is being put towards the return of Indigenous lands. We request more support, and also celebrate that this small native nation, nearly extinguished by the California genocide and state-funded bounty hunting of indigenous peoples, is making a roaring comeback in the 21st-century.

CHIRP's mission to preserve, protect and perpetuate Nisenan Culture is informed by the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribal Council, which assesses and identifies the needs and best practices of their Tribal citizens. This episode  focuses on their fight and journey to buyback the Nisenan homelands and how CHIRP is able to uplift their community and impact those around them to donate, volunteer and stay informed about the buyback.

To learn more about CHIRP, visit chirpca.org or their social media: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Twitter
To learn more about the Nisenan Tribe, visit nisenan.org

In this episode, host Lyla June interviews Marina Thomas, a curly haired, light skinned Onk Akimel O'odham mother fighting for the existence of our culture so our kids can play in the water.

Their discussion focuses around the intense urbanization, colonization, distortion of their history and water theft the Akimel O'odham people are facing in the Phoenix and Tucson area. Throughout the episode, Marina also touches on what it means to be an Onk Akimel O'odham woman and how she got in touch with her indignity and her ancestors while working with Oak Flat.

To learn more about the O'odham Led Direct Action Collective of Native Aunties, visit their Instagram.
To learn more about the O'odham Piipaash Alliance, visit their  Instagram.
To learn more about protecting Oak Flat, visit their website.

In this episode, host Lyla June interviews Jeffrey Haas, a Jewish civil rights and criminal defense attorney who has represented with the families of Black Panther leaders, Water Protectors at Standing Rock, and many more. The conversation focuses on the topic of indigeneity between Zionists and Palestinians, how some members of the Jewish community are feeling about what Israel is doing, the United State's affect on the war against Palestinians and how to focus on making the world a more equitable place.

To learn more about Jeffrey, visit his Instagram.

To learn more about his work with Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine, visit their website.

In this episode, host Lyla June interviews two Palestinians who work with Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian group in Jerusalem. They work for Palestinian liberation within the context of the settler Zionism of the USA-Israel alliance. We discuss 1) how they are the original and Indigenous Christians of that land, 2) what gives us hope, 3) what the world can do amidst the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people, 4) what it means to be a Palestinian Christian, and 5) how they have spent their lives as Palestinian men working for a better world and what it means to work for a better world.

Follow Sabeel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naimateek
Follow Sabeel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabeelelquds

Indigenous People of Turtle Island (ala North America) have been intentionally burning the landscape for millennia with low intensity burns. This cycles the nutrients of dead grasses in the fall into mineral rush ash, that nourishes the seeds and shoots for the coming spring. It also curtails incoming vegetation that may compete with old growth or other highly selected trees. It helps to keep the trees in the forest spaced widely apart to prevent crowding which results in many dehydrated, nutrient poor, shaded trees, instead of a few healthy trees with plenty of nutrients, sunlight and water. In this episode we talk with three members of the Karuk Tribe, Vikki Preston, Frankie Tripp and Leece Larue. We discuss the tribe's proactive, cultural use of prescribed fires. These prescribed burns are important to wildland systems in the Klamath River region, bringing new life, growth and protection from larger, more rapidly burning wild fires.  While working with local departments, the Karuk peoples are able to put fire on the ground and educate those in their area why and how these practices should be done to ensure a safe, purposeful burning, that may not happen when left up to official departments alone controlling these prescribed burnings. Join along as they share their stories and what this work means to then


To learn more about the Karuk Tribe, visit their website.

To learn more about Vikki Preston, visit her Instagram.

To learn more about Leece Larue, visit their Linkedin or Instagram.

In this episode, we talk with Beverly Longid, an Igorot (Indigenous Philippine) woman of the Bontok-Kankanaey  community. We discuss her efforts with KATRIBU (Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas)—a national alliance of Indigenous Peoples  in the Philippines, to protect the land and environment. The organization is striving to help others understand the land should be protected. While not against land development overall, they are focusing on development that not only helps Indigenous Peoples, but the country as a whole. The pushback they are receiving is detrimental manifests as unlawful imprisonment, extrajudicial killings, and other forms of severe repression, all for saying the earth is sacred and should be protected.  As they continue with their mass movement, they are looking for the support of not only their country, but people across the world to show their support.


To learn more about Beverly Longid, visit her LinkedIn.

To learn more about KATRIBU, visit their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
              Support their Indigenous Political Prisoners.
              Free Julieta Gomez | Free Niezel Velasco

To learn more about the IPMSDL, visit their website.

In this episode, we talk with Grace Johnson about traditional Indigenous parenting techniques, from rites of passage to holding our babies when they cry. We also speak with Misty Flowers about the recent win for the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) which was recently challenged by a white family that wanted the right to take a Native child over an available native family because it was a "racist" priority. We also speak with Elizabeth Lovejoy Brown about epigenetics and how what our ancestors experience can affect our behavior today at least three generations forward, how we feel things and we don't know why. We are so grateful for this discussion on how to take care of our children today. 

In this episode, we speak with Sherlien Sanches of the Kaliña Nation of Suriname, a country in Abya Yala (South America). Her peoples were colonized and enslaved by the Netherlands starting in the 1500s. She currently lives in Amsterdam to advocate and educate for her people, where she helped create the Indigenous Knowledge Center. There are currently the bodies of Kalina babies in the basements of Dutch museums in preserved water. Part of her work is to rematriate their bodies to proper places of dignity and respect. She also is working to include Indigenous Peoples in the Netherlands reparations effort and not allowing them to “start” history with transatlantic slavery, but remember that it started with the enslavement of Indigenous People in Suriname. She is working to help the Indigenous Nations of Suriname (such as the Kaliña [Carib], Lokono [Arawak], Trio [Tirio, Tareno] and Wayana) be more visible both in the Netherlands and in the world! We in Turtle Island are deeply connected to Suriname because the only reason we have New York City as a British rather than Dutch colony is because it was "traded" by colonial genocidal maniacs to the British in exchange for Suriname. There are many parallels to her peoples position and that of Indigenous People in what some call the USA. Please listen, learn, enjoy, and act!

To learn more about her rematriation effort feel free to watch the following film: https://vimeo.com/858891304?fbclid=IwAR221GbCJS0RFp3p154ygV8lMHyfUFNm3k-bx2ldo-DovcGv6UrzPky0Iec_aem_AeJSA1GjmR8BokqrmXFy_J5gyZs5ty5uqvzpU1yRDgWVFoaHcrkWTwbGG2cKn2V0WT8

Two sisters from different cultural backgrounds discuss the beautiful ways in which Black and Indigenous struggles intersect and have the potential to strengthen one another. Lyla June, of the Diné (Navajo) Indigenous Nation and host of Nihizhi Podcast, speaks with Katina Stone-Butler, musician, advocate, and host of the Black History for White People podcast. They also have hard conversations about the tragic histories and contemporary ways these two demographics have not always supported each other. Ultimately the two sisters band together in renewed commitment to stand solidly together in their respective struggles for Black and Indigenous liberation.

www.nihizhi.com
www.BlackHistoryforWhitePeople.com
www.KatinaStoneButler.com
www.LylaJune.com

Join us, as we delve into the brilliant mind of Indigenous illustrator, cosplayer, comic book creator, Indiginerd, and organizer of áyACon, Denver’s new Indigenous arts convention (www.ayacondenver.art). As a Sičangu Lakota/Tsalagi woman, we are going to learn more about how she is helping to Indigenize the space of fandom, heroes, comic conventions to be more about kinship, support, multiracial unity, and Indigenous liberation.

Website: https://www.badhandillustrations.art/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/napesica

In this episode Lyla June and Mona Haydar discuss the similarities between Turtle Island and the various cultures of Islam. Their discussion covers treating animals with honor, the importance of Creator, and the characterization of "savages," as an imperial framing used to justify the extraction of their homelands' resources. Their conversation also reviews the ways in which European forces have appropriated their culture's global contributions-- America’s democracy for instance was deeply influenced by the Haudenosaunee Indigenous Confederacy; European sciences were heavily influenced by pre-inquisition Islamic universities; and Arabian horses were co-opted and retitled as European horses. Join us for this fascinating conversation! 
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Follow Mona on Instagram at @themostmona or visit her website www.monahaydar.com (http://www.monahaydar.com)
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In this episode, Nikyle and Kelli passionately discuss the Indigenous practice of sheep herding as a living, breathing system, spanning across centuries despite colonization and its recurring narrative that seeks to erase us. Our conversation also delves into sheep as relatives, an indivisible entity within a wholistic framework of subsistence living practices, wholly spiritual as food, song, clothing, and an embodiment of land. Join us!

In this episode, Chef Crystal Wahpepah (James Beard Award Winner) of the Kickapoo Nation discusses our connection to food as it relates to living close to the land, and honoring our responsibilities and gifts as Indigenous people. Her new restaurant, Wahpepah's Kithcen has opened in Ohlone Lands (Oakland, CA) and is a must visit site for artistic and high quality Indigenous foods and dishes. 

Website: https://wahpepahskitchen.com
Instagram: @WahpepahsKitchen
TikTok: @WahpepahsKitchen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WahpepahsKitchen

In this episode, we celebrate and uplift Tall Paul's recent album release "The Story of Jim Thorpe." A concept biographical album honoring the life of Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), athlete and Olympic gold medalist of the Sac and Fox Nation.  We also get a chance to hear about the needs and challenges that Native men (and men in general) face and ways to overcome them. Thank you for listening!

Listen to the full album here: 
https://tallpaulhiphop.bandcamp.com/album/the-story-of-jim-thorpe

Sherri Mitchell, author of Sacred Instructions, reviews the many-layered causes of lateral violence (or the ways in which colonization turns communities against each other) as well as the flourishing “lateral kindness” that is revitalizing across Turtle Island. Join us!

To learn more about Sherri Mitchell, visit her website at www.sacredinstructions.life

We speak with Monaeka Flores of the Chamorro Indigenous Community of Guåhan (colonially known as Guam). She works with Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian and other groups working to protect water, land, sacred sites and advocate for the demilitarization of their precious island. In these transmissions, hope burgeons from shared song and protest, as affinity between Indigenous brothers and sisters is internationally contextualized to offer connection. Through our shared histories, what occupies and pollutes people, land, and waters is both acknowledged and named. Alongside this recurring narrative of both horror and caliber, we observe the beating of butterfly wings that inflect and ripple through our awareness as tranquil, powerful, and crowning as the Eight-Spot Butterfly, an endemic species found only in Guåhan. Monaeka shares with us whats working, what gives them hope, and how we can continue these challenging yet essential fights. Join us! Visit @PrutehiLitekyan on Instagram for more info.

Join us in this immersive and inspiring episode with Karen Rodriguez (Maya) as we recount her journey from the urban streets of Los Angeles as an immigrant to the sacred volcanoes and lakes of Guatemala, her homelands. In these tellings, Rodrigues un-cradles from economic capitalism to realize true power-- that of community and living in the rhythm of the natural currents. In this episode, Rodriguez shares with us the walking, the crying-- and above all the empowerment of returning to our homelands. Join us! 

Poet, Doula, Seed-keeper, and Land Defender Beata Tsosie-Peña of the Santa Clara Pueblo Indigenous Community, generously reads her poetry, venturing us into the midsts of her homelands, into grief, into seeds, and into the cosmos. Beata’s poetry-- beyond academia, beyond publishing, beyond capitalism-- is a reclamation of healing and truth-telling.

Nicolle Gonzales educates us on the topic of Indigenous midwifery within the context of Diné society.  From cradle to womanhood, Indigenous doulas reclamation of these traditional roles supports cultural kinship ties that inform land-body justice practices— an act of sovereignty and paradigm shifting.   

Jessa Calderon's first fiction publication celebrates Indigenous women in the heart of Tongva Territory, narrating their strength in the face of the settler colonial system of present-day Los Angeles. Join us as Calderon touches on the topic of  healing, and the process of bringing SisterHood  into publication. 

In honor of National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day, we draw attention to the epidemic in Abya Yala (Latin America) of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and transgender relatives. In the MMIWGTSTR movement, northerners often forget to include and think about relatives south of the imaginary, colonial border, and how they often times have EVEN LESS protection than those native people north of the imaginary, colonial border. Here to break it down for us is Dr. Lydia Huerta, a binational scholar of both Indigenous and colonial descent who has studied and presented the topic extensively.