Monday, May 13, 2019 – Book of the Month: “There There” by Tommy Orange
Tommy Orange is giving readers a view into contemporary Native life in his book “There There.” This enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma is being hailed for his storytelling abilities. The novel was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His book takes readers into the lives of several characters in Oakland, California. They both find and lose themselves in the urban setting, wrangling the tangles of life and defining their Native American identity. We visit with Tommy Orange and our May Book of the Month.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 – Peer counseling: being a good relative to each other
Compassion, empathy, and what practitioners call ‘assertive communication’ are among the ways young people connect with each other through peer counseling. It involves learning a set of skills to recognize when people around you might need emotional help. The practice is producing results in Pine Ridge’s Little Wound School in South Dakota. We’ll hear from guidance counselors and others about what peer counseling is and how Native youth are using it to help each other.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 – Gaps in consultation
The government is falling short on consultation with tribes on major infrastructure projects. That’s according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Some complaints from tribes include dismissing tribal input, a lack of respect for government-to-government relationships and consultation invitations coming too late in the process. Federal agencies have complaints of their own, including a lack of accurate tribal contact information and poor coordination when multiple federal agencies are involved. We’ll get a run-down of what’s in the report and talk about recommendations for improvement.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 – Tribes and tornado season
About one thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States every year and they can be deadly. One person was killed and 25 others injured in April when a tornado struck a culture festival at Caddo Mounds Historical Site in Texas. The Kiowa tell of a being resembling a horse that whips around its lizard tail to create tornadoes. The Kiowa’s Silver Horn Calendar, which dates back to the early 19th Century, includes a drawing of the Storm-Maker Red Horse during a particularly bad tornado season in 1905 the calendar calls Great Cyclone Summer. We’ll focus on tribes’ connections to tornadoes as well as the latest in preparing for them.
Friday, May 17, 2019 – “I’m your No. 1 Fan!”
Fans, and their wallets, are the lifeblood of creative and talented performers and they come in all shapes and sizes. They are parents sitting in the bleachers at a basketball game, they’re friends who were there at the first gig in an empty bar and they are online sharing kudos about an author’s new book. What are you a fan of?
