Podcast
Native Circles
Hosted by Dr. Farina King, Dr. Davina Two Bears, Sarah Newcomb, Eva Bighorse, & Brian D. King · EN
This podcast features Native American and Indigenous voices, stories, and experiences for everyone to learn, not only in North America but also throughout the world. The founders of Native Circles are Dr. Farina King (Diné) and Sarah Newcomb (Tsimshian), who were inspired to start this podcast to educate wider publics about the interconnections and significance of Native American, Alaska Native, and Indigenous experiences and matters. The primary co-hosts of the podcast are Dr. King, Dr. Davina Two Bears, and Eva Bighorse. Dr. King is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Two Bears (Diné) is an assistant professor in the School for Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. Bighorse (Cayuga and Diné) is an Indigenous human development advocate with expertise in tribal healthcare relations. Brian D. King is an editor for the podcast with experiences in journalism and writing. Learn more about the podcast and episodes on the official website of "Native Circles" at https://nativecirclespodcast.com/.
62episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
"Buffalo Dreamer": Violet Duncan on Creativity, Community, and Healing
Jan 15, 202500:52:40Tap to summarizeIn this Native Circles episode, Eva Bighorse and Dr. Farina King sit down with Violet Duncan, an award-winning author, dancer, and storyteller from the Plains Cree of the Kehewin Cree Nation and of Taino descent. Together, they trace Violet's path as a creative force, diving into the themes of her National Book Award-nominated youth novel, Buffalo Dreamer (published by Nancy Paulsen Books in 2024), and her upcoming children's book, "Life is a Dance." The conversation touches on the impacts of the Indian residential school system, the power of storytelling in mental health and community healing, and the joys and challenges of family life. Violet's reflections on promoting Indigenous storytelling and arts through her work with Young Warriors, dedicated to cultivating spaces for Indigenous performance and practices, offer a powerful reminder of the resilience and vibrancy of Indigenous peoples.Recommended Resources:Violet Duncan, official websiteViolent Duncan, About the Author webpage on Penguin Random HouseBuffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan webpage on Penguin Random House"Buffalo Dreamer: An Interview with Author Violet Duncan [S7 Ep. 228]," Brave New Teaching podcast, October 10, 2024I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer Reviewed by Debbie Reese, Social Justice Books"Violet Duncan- I Am Native," interview on KidLit in Color"Guest Post: Recognizing Our Past, Awakening Our Future by Violet Duncan (Buffalo Dreamer)," School Library Journal, September 4, 2024Violet Duncan on Instagram @violetduncan
Transcribe →Kaitlin Reed and "Settler Cannabis"
Dec 16, 202400:49:46Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Dr. Davina Two Bears and Dr. Farina King are joined by Dr. Kaitlin Reed (Yurok/Hupa/Oneida) to discuss her groundbreaking first book, Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California, published in 2023 by the University of Washington Press.Dr. Reed is an Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, where she serves as the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Faculty Fellow and Co-Director of the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute. They talk with Dr. Reed about the histories of resource extraction and settler colonialism in California and examine the far-reaching impacts of the cannabis industry on Native Nations in northern California.In addition to unpacking the themes of Settler Cannabis, this episode offers an introduction to Dr. Reed’s academic journey and her work in advancing food sovereignty and Indigenous ecological knowledge. This discussion features the intersections of environmental justice, sovereignty, and colonial legacies.Recommended Resources:Dr. Kaitlin Reed, Native American Studies, Cal Poly Humboldt webpageOrder Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California (University of Washington Press, 2023)Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute websiteDr. Kaitlin Reed presents on "From Gold Rush to Green Rush: Settler Colonialism & Natural Resources in Northern California" video recording (posted November 2023)"Cal Poly Humboldt faculty member Kaitlin Reed wins 2024 award," the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award
Transcribe →Indigenizing Technologies for Learning: Kelly Berry on Gaming, Education, and Culture
Nov 16, 202400:39:20Tap to summarizeThis episode features Dr. Kelly Berry, an enrolled citizen of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma (Plains Apache) with affiliations to the Kiowa and Choctaw Nations. Dr. Berry is a Mellon Impact Post-Doctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. His groundbreaking research explores the intersections of eSports, Native American education, and technology, focusing on infusing Indigenous knowledge into classrooms and reimagining the possibilities of gaming through an Indigenous lens.In this episode, Dr. Farina King and Dr. Davina Two Bears discuss Dr. Berry's work with him regarding Indigenizing eSports and game technologies. Dr. Berry shares his vision for education in Indigenous communities, considering how culture, technology, and education come together in innovative ways.Dr. Berry earned a Master's of Public Health from the University of Oklahoma and then a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University. Before his current position, Dr. Berry contributed as an Indigenous Initiatives Research Associate and curriculum advisor for Kansas State University’s Indigenous Education Leadership Certificate Graduate Program. His extensive teaching experience includes faculty appointments at Upper Iowa University, Bacone College, Cameron University, and Comanche Nation College, and he is a certified 5-12 social studies teacher in Oklahoma and Kansas. A past fellow of Harvard University’s Management Development Program, he is also a current fellow in the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute Tribal Professional Governance Program and Arizona State University’s Indigenous Peoples Leadership Academy. Dr. Berry serves on the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Committee and is a University Council for Educational Administration Barbara L. Jackson Scholar.Resources:Dr. Kelly Berry, bio webpage for Esports and Co-Curriculuar Innovation at the University of OklahomaBerry, Kelly. "eSports in Indian Education: A Case Study." PhD diss., Kansas State University, 2024.Berry, Kelly. "Using that Good Medicine: An Indigenous Autoethnographic Recount of Teaching and Learning with Elders during COVID." In F. King and W. Davies (Eds.) COVID-19 in Indian Country: Native American Memories and Experiences of the Pandemic (forthcoming).NAS Mellon Impact Fellowship at University of Oklahoma website
Transcribe →Blaire Morseau and Neshnabé Knowledge
Oct 18, 202400:53:15Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Dr. Blaire Morseau joins Dr. Davina Two Bears and Dr. Farina King to discuss her work with Neshnabé (Potawatomi) knowledge systems, focusing on birch bark, language, and archives. Dr. Morseau highlights the significance of Simon Pokagon's nineteenth-century birch bark books, featured in her edited volume As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories in their Contexts. The conversation explores how traditional cultural knowledge and ecological wisdom are preserved and revitalized through these archival works.Dr. Blaire Morseau, a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Her research spans Indigenous science fiction, traditional ecological knowledge, digital heritage, and Native counter-mapping. Her forthcoming book, Mapping Neshnabé Futurity (May 2025), explores how Native environmental activism and traditional knowledge intersect with Indigenous speculative fiction to reclaim Indigenous spaces in the Great Lakes region.Additional Resources:Blaire Morseau (Topash-Caldwell) websiteBlaire Morseau, Michigan State University directory webpageBlaire Morseau, ed. As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon's Birch Bark Stories in Their Contexts (Michigan State University Press, 2023)Here is a discount code for Morseau's book, As Sacred to Us, if purchased directly from MSU press: MSUP24Blaire Morseau, Mapping Neshnabé Futurity: Celestial Currents of Sovereignty in Potawatomi Skies, Lands, and Waters (University of Arizona Press, 2025)Here is the linked flyer with a discount code for Mapping Neshnabé Futurity.Listen to recordings of tribal citizens reading Simon Pokagon's birch bark stories on the following websites:wiwkwebthegen.com https://wiwkwebthegen.com/digitalheritage/category/audio/field_collection/2069 This was an initiative sponsored by the Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership at MSU through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Transcribe →Calling Back Home with Ah-in-nist Sipes
Sep 15, 202400:52:43Tap to summarizeAh-in-nist, also known as Clifford, Sipes is Cheyenne with family ties in both Oklahoma and Montana. His father was the last authorized historian of the Cheyenne People, and a respected Chief and Pipe Carrier. His Mother is a citizen of the Caddo Nation. Ah-in-nist currently resides and works in Oklahoma. He writes and speaks publicly, working most recently on the "Calling Back the Spirits" initiative to "preserve by art and the written word what was previously learned only through the oral recounting of the story of Fort Marion by the descendants" of the warriors and Indigenous people imprisoned there. Ah-in-nist is one of the descendants who supports this work with his relatives. Dr. Farina King and Dr. Davina Two Bears talk with him, in this episode, about the path that led him to this "calling back home."Learn more with these resources:"Calling Back the Spirits," Cassville Democrat article written by Sheila Harris (December 28, 2023)"A look at local sculptor Lew Aytes and the Calling Back the Spirits Project," written by Adriana Keeton (November 29, 2023)"The Native American warriors whose 'faces' are in museum storage: Robbed of their freedom on the Great Plains, imprisoned and used as models for plaster 'life masks' that forced them to breathe through tiny straws in their NOSTRILS," article written by Sheila Flynn (February 12, 2018)
Transcribe →"With the Ancestors": Mel Fillmore and Policy Work with MMIP
Aug 16, 202400:56:39Tap to summarizeCo-founders of the Native Circles podcast Sarah Newcomb and Farina King co-host this session introducing Dr. Melanie ("Mel") Fillmore (they/them/she/her) who is urban mixed Hunkpapa, Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota. Mel is an assistant professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma (OU). Their work is an iterative approach to understand the political engagement of Indigenous communities in policy and data. They envision a future of collaborative governance led by Indigenous ancestral wisdom and lived experiences. Melanie was the lead researcher on the 2020 HCR33 Report on Idaho’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP). Their 2024 dissertation, “Redefining Missing in the Third Space of Sovereignty,” considers how US federalism is fundamentally changed in collaborative structures and are created between tribes, states, and the federal institutions, particularly when tribes are leading collaborations on agreements or policy initiatives. Prior to joining OU, Mel has taught University Foundations and Anthropology courses at Boise State University on social change, political violence, Native American and Indigenous studies, and Indigenous Methodologies. They have worked as a data analyst for the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence to understand the impacts of domestic violence on Indigenous families across Idaho. In this episode, Mel emphasizes the importance of knowing and being "with her ancestors."Resources:Mel Fillmore professional OU webpageHCR33 Report on Idaho's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP)Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence
Transcribe →Liz Ellis and "The Great Power of Small Nations"
Jul 14, 202400:45:05Tap to summarizeDr. Elizabeth (Liz) Ellis talks with co-hosts Davina Two Bears and Farina King about her journey, which led her to writing her first book The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South. She highlights aspects of the book and her research that trace the formation of Native Nations in the early Southeast and the ways that Indigenous migration and immigration practices shaped and limited the extent of European colonization. Liz is Peewaalia and a citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. She serves as her nation's historical liaison. She is an associate professor of history at Princeton University, who specializes in early American and Native American history. While her research focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth-century South, Liz also writes about contemporary Indigenous issues and political movements. She is committed to organizing and fighting for Indigenous self-determination. She is currently working on a project on early Indigenous iconography and is part of a collaborative research initiative with the Miami and Peoria tribes that is focused on reclaiming historical stories and material culture.Resources:Book webpage for The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (2022)Elizabeth (Liz) Ellis official faculty webpage for the Department of History at Princeton"Sitting down with Elizabeth Ellis, Native American History scholar" (October 9, 2022)"Behind The Research: Elizabeth Ellis Illuminates Native American Histories," Princeton Alumni WeeklyDr. Liz Ellis also collaborates on the Reclaiming Stories Project, the “Unsettled Refuge” working group on Indigenous histories of North American Sanctuary, and the “Indigenous Borderlands of North America” research project.*Please note the following correction from Dr. Liz Ellis: At 7:35 of the episode, Dr. Ellis misspoke when she said that “so half of our nation is Miami, so we’re Peoria, Miami, Kaskaskia, and Wea.” She meant to rather say “Peoria, PIANKESHAW, Kaskaskia, and Wea.” Both the Wea and Piankeshaw are historically Miami, but she did not mean to use Miami when she said that.
Transcribe →Dr. Joshua Nelson and "Trail of the Thunderbirds"
Jun 15, 202400:46:47Tap to summarizeDr. Joshua Nelson, a Cherokee Nation citizen scholar, talks with Dr. Farina King about his experiences in Italy and work on a documentary tentatively titled, "Trail of the Thunderbirds." His documentary film project features two Native American Medal of Honor awardees, Ernest Childers and Jack Montgomery of the 45th Infantry Division, known as the "Thunderbirds," during World War II. President's Associates Presidential Professor Dr. Nelson is an associate professor of English and affiliated faculty with Film & Media Studies, Native American Studies, and Women's & Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma, focusing on American Indian literature and film. He is the author of Progressive Traditions: Identity in Cherokee Literature and Culture, and a co-producer of the PBS documentary Searching for Sequoyah (directed by James Fortier and produced by LeAnne Howe). He is also one of the leading organizers of the Native Crossroads Film Festival and Symposium at OU. He and his wife divide their time between Norman and Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma.Resources:Dr. Joshua Nelson's OU webpageSearching for Sequoyah website- https://searchingforsequoyah.comNative Crossroads Film Festival- http://www.nativecrossroads.orgDemichelis's Iperstoria Interview with Dr. NelsonOklahoma National Guard Museum website- https://www.okngmuseum.comOU in Arezzo
Transcribe →Fry Bread Stories with Kevin Maillard
May 16, 202400:43:42Tap to summarizeDr. Kevin Maillard (who has a PhD and JD) shares key insights about his award-winning children's book Fry Bread with co-hosts Dr. Farina King and Dr. Davina Two Bears. Dr. Maillard is Professor of Law at Syracuse University, a contributor to the New York Times and an author of children’s literature. He has written for The Atlantic and has provided on-air commentary to ABC News and MSNBC. He is the debut author of Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he is based in Manhattan, New York. Additional Resources:Kevin Maillard's websiteDr. Maillard's university webpageFry Bread book websiteAmerican Indians in Children's Literature by Dr. Debbie Reese
Transcribe →Skylar Begay and Indigenous Land Conservation
Apr 16, 202400:51:34Tap to summarizeIn this episode co-hosted by Dr. Davina Two Bears, Eva Bighorse, and Dr. Farina King, Skylar ("Sky") Begay shares insights from his life and work with Conservation, Native representation in new spaces, the Great Bend of the Gila, Save History, Archaeology Southwest, LandBack, and the Conservation Corps (specifically ancestral lands conservation corps). Sky identifies as an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and is also Mandan and Hidatsa. He grew up in the Navajo Nation and in Flagstaff, Arizona. He currently resides in Tucson, Arizona where he works as the Director of Tribal Collaboration in Outreach in Advocacy for Archaeology Southwest. Additional Resources and Links:-Skylar Begay biography webpage on Archaeology Southwest: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/team/skylar-begay/ - Main Respect Great Bend website: https://www.respectgreatbend.org/ - The Respect Great Bend Story Map: https://story.respectgreatbend.org/ - Respect Great Bend linktree: https://linktr.ee/GreatBendOfTheGila - Main Save History Website: https://savehistory.org/ - cyberSW, online archaeological database: https://cybersw.org/ - Another podcast with more detail on the Great Bend of the Gila: https://bit.ly/GreatBendGilapodcast - A recent segment on Phoenix Channel 12 news about the effort of the Great Bend of the Gila: https://bit.ly/PhoenixChannel12GBG - Arizona Conservation Corps: https://azcorps.org/ - Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps: https://ancestrallands.org/
Transcribe →