Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar

Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar is chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She has spent decades helping her community fight for federal recognition of their tribe and finding resilient solutions to the political and environmental challenges that have seen their traditional lands literally wash away into the Gulf of Mexico. We did this interview on the front porch, on a windy … Continue reading Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar

johnnoltnerApril 5, 20231 Comment

Podcast

Harvey Goodsky, Jr.

“So I carry all these things for my family. And now I’m the top of my family. I have my mother on her side, but on my father’s side, that’s it. My grandpa’s gone, my father’s gone. There’s nobody else. So I gotta carry it all for my sons. Gotta be strong, you know.” Continue reading Harvey Goodsky, Jr.

johnnoltnerNovember 22, 2022November 22, 20222 Comments

Podcast

Wenipashtaabe – Sandy Gokee

Sandy Gokee is Anishinaabe—Bear Clan—and lives in Ashland, Wisconsin. For the interview, we sat outside at a park overlooking Lake Superior as a storm skirted around us, so you might hear a little wind and maybe even thunder in the recording. Sandy introduces herself in her native language, Ojibwemowin. Her Ojibwe name, Wenipashtaabe, means “She Carries a Light Load. She shares her concerns about the … Continue reading Wenipashtaabe – Sandy Gokee

johnnoltnerNovember 13, 2022Leave a comment

Podcast

Nora McDowell

Nora McDowell is a member of the Fort Mojave Tribe in Mojave Valley, Arizona and was the chairperson of the tribe for more than 25 years. She’s a part of the leadership team for the Water and Tribes Initiative and is passionate about protecting all natural and cultural resources along the Colorado River. “The water, especially…We have to care for it. We have to speak … Continue reading Nora McDowell

johnnoltnerJune 9, 2022Leave a comment

Podcast

Natalie Brewster Nguyen

Natalie Brewster Nguyen is an artist, a mother, a social justice advocate, a business owner, a writer and a sex worker. I met her in Tucson, Arizona. Because of COVID, I interviewed Nat outside on a windy day, in a busy neighborhood, so the sound quality is challenging, but the conversation is powerful and interesting. “We need broad-based movements. We need to be working on … Continue reading Natalie Brewster Nguyen

johnnoltnerJanuary 9, 2022Leave a comment

Podcast

Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar

Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar comes from the Purépecha people of Michoacán, Mexico. She is an activist and an educator, on a journey to celebrate her culture that was nearly wiped out through colonialism. I met Noemi at a Water Protectors camp near Palisade, Minnesota where she went by the camp name Luna. She traveled there from her home in California to protest the construction of the Line … Continue reading Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar

johnnoltnerOctober 11, 2021December 22, 2021Leave a comment

Podcast

Zachary Pierce

Zachary Pierce is a member of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. At three weeks old, he was adopted by an English and German mother and an Irish father. Zachary spent more than a decade on the streets of Corvallis but viewed COVID as an opportunity to reset. He used it as a filter that allowed him to keep what he wanted and discard the things that … Continue reading Zachary Pierce

johnnoltnerOctober 9, 2021December 22, 2021Leave a comment

Podcast

Bazile Panek

Bazile Panek is majoring in Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University. He is an enrolled tribal member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Red Cliff, Wisconsin. “There’s all sorts of barriers to existing as a native person. Ever since colonization in 1492, things have been hard for native people. It’s hard just to even exist sometimes. So the power and … Continue reading Bazile Panek

johnnoltnerAugust 3, 2021December 22, 20211 Comment

Podcast

Tania Aubid

Tania Aubid is an Anishinaabe woman involved in the Water Protector movement resisting the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. “You know, they wanted their pristine lands, and then they pushed us all into the swamps. And now that the swamps have resources for them to exploit, they want to push us out over here too. Through the logging companies, through the pipelines, through the … Continue reading Tania Aubid

johnnoltnerJuly 28, 2021December 22, 20212 Comments

Podcast

Joe Hill

Joe Hill is from the Seneca Nation. He traveled to northern Minnesota to a Water Protectors camp north of Palisade, to protest an oil pipeline that will cross the Mississippi River and many others. He spent the winter there living in a yurt and said he had come to support an Indigenous women-led movement, to live simply, and to exercise his obligations under the Great … Continue reading Joe Hill