Our Living Lands

Last week, we reported on a nickel refinery in Oklahoma that is built on the historic reservation of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache tribal nations. But the refinery is operating without consent, which brings up questions of tribal sovereignty.

Across the country, critical minerals are in increasingly high demand for green technology and national defense. In the first of a three part series, KOSU’s Sarah Liese reports on a nickel refinery in Oklahoma facing pushback from three tribal nations.

Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, was the first Indigenous US Secretary of the Interior. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with her about the challenges and opportunities facing tribes, including climate change and political headwinds.

In 2021, Chuck Sams became the first Indigenous director of the National Park Service. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Sams about his work, climate change, and what the country can learn from Indigenous land management practices.

Last week, Mountain West News Bureau reporter Murphy Woodhouse brought us a story about cultural burning efforts by the Karuk Tribe in Northern California. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Woodhouse to discuss Karuk burning and its implications across the West.

For millennia, Indigenous peoples have intentionally set fires to care for the land. The Mountain West News Bureau's Murphy Woodhouse reports how a new law in California has opened the door to restore cultural burning - a potential model for other Western states.

Indigenous communities in Alaska's North Slope rely on Walrus for subsistence but climate change has shifted walrus habits. The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Alaska Museum of the North are working with Indigenous hunters to understand these changes and document traditional knowledge.

A group of young Indigenous men spent a week on the Wind River Reservation for a photo camp with National Geographic. The students camped, fished, explored and even helped with a bison harvest, all while honing their skills as storytellers and photographers.

In June, the US government withdrew from an agreement designed to protect salmon and renewable energy in the Columbia River Basin. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Erik Holt, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe's Fish and Wildlife Commission, about the future of salmon in the region.

For the Nez Perce, and many tribes across the country, devastating wildfires have become more common. Lauren Paterson from Northwest Public Broadcasting reports on a new generation of Nez Perce firefighters in Idaho.