October 12 is the traditional "Columbus Day," marking the day in 1492 the first Columbus expedition made landfall in the Western Hemisphere, on an island in the Caribbean. The day is still recognized as a national holiday in the United States and throughout the Americas (though since 1970 it is observed as a U.S. federal holiday on the second Monday in October). But, especially since the rise of "Red Power" and the American Indian Movement in the 1960's, along with the People's History movement to correct distortions, prejudices and omissions in the dominant historical narrative, there has been a steadily growing resistance to celebrating the onset of brutal colonization and genocide in the 'Americas.' In recent years, a number of U.S. cities, including Portland and Seattle, have renamed the day Indigenous Peoples' Day. Portland celebrated its second Indigenous Peoples' Day this past Monday.
So this week's show falling on October 12 seems like an auspicious time to inaugurate a new version of Wednesday Talk Radio with now once-amonth co-host Jacqueline Keeler, who has appeared several times already as a guest on this show. She's calling it "Pollen Nation Report," to coincide with her new online magazine, "Pollen Nation." The program will continue to be a call-in talk show, but in this edition we will be focusing specifically on issues involving Native Americans: their history, politics, governance, culture, relations with the dominant society, stereotyping and racism, etc. As regular listeners to this show are aware, these issues are also of critical importance and relevance to all of us residing in colonized indigenous territory.
Today's show will focus on Sovereignty: what it is, what it's based on, how it plays out in current struggles like the one over the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, where she is heading now and will be speaking with us by phone from on the road. She also recently attended and spoke at a rally in Sacramento about the difficult and divisive issue of tribal disenrollment.
- KBOO