The Our Living Lands team includes host Antonia Gonzales (Navajo), editor Joseph Lee (Aquinnah Wampanoag), and reporter/producer Daniel Spaulding (Nimíipúu). Mountain West News Bureau Managing Editor Michael de Yoanna oversees the program. Theme music by Delbert Anderson (Navajo).
Stations can contact Native Voice One for distribution information.
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In the Western U.S., extreme wildfires are damaging tribal lands. Climate change has only made the situation more dire. That’s why the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California is working to reintroduce intentional, cultural fire. These are once-banned burning practices they use to restore the health of their forests and plants. -
Rising seas are forcing Indigenous communities to move. Higher temperatures are causing drought and loss of traditional foods. Michael Charles, a Navajo professor at Cornell University, is trying to quantify the impact of climate change on Indigenous life in North America. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Charles about his work. -
Horse Creek is the last known free-flowing groundwater stream in Laramie County, meaning it’s fed by an underground aquifer rather than snowmelt. Its waters also weave through the history of the area. Students from two high schools on the Wind River Reservation and the University of Wyoming School of Law took a trip there to connect with the land. -
Archeologists at the Udax̂tan site in Unalaska are trying to protect artifacts from being destroyed by storms and rising seas. Other sites face similar dangers as climate change makes weather more intense. -
Animal shelters nationwide have been full, but the problem is especially acute on reservations that have long had underfunded infrastructure. Heat waves and wildfires are making the problem worse. -
Many Americans, particularly Indigenous people in the Southwest, have been exposed to radiation from atomic testing dating back to World War II. But this summer, Congress let the main way of paying for treatment expire – the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. -
Last week, Our Living Lands highlighted the challenge of living without electricity. Now, hear from Navajo families who are getting power for the first time through a life-changing mutual aid program. -
Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands still need electricity hook-ups. A majority of them are spread across the Navajo Nation, where climate change is making it harder for families to keep cool. In recent years, however, a mutual aid program has been helping change lives.
