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Uplifting Indigenous stories

For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Up First newsletter is recognizing the work NPR’s member stations do to uplift Indigenous voices. NPR network member stations are independent and locally operated. They determine their own schedules and base their reporting on the needs and interests of their communities, many of which feature large Indigenous populations.

Lily Hope, a Lingít master weaver, is using the popular Labubu dolls to raise awareness of Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving. She has dedicated her life to reviving this craft. So far, Hope has assisted hundreds of Alaska Native individuals in establishing their own weaving practices. (via KTOO)

For her senior thesis, Natalie Zenk researched a Native American statue that had been in Cornell College’s art collection for more than a century. But her project quickly shifted when she discovered its origins were from the Etowah Indian Mounds, a Mississippian burial site in Georgia, hundreds of miles from where the college is located in Iowa. (via Iowa Public Radio)

One hundred and seventy years ago, the U.S. Army massacred a Lakota village near Lewellen, Neb., and soldiers took dozens of the Lakota people’s belongings. The historic possessions were later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. After serious negotiations, these items have now been returned to the descendants of the tribe. (via Nebraska Public Media)

Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines-Roberson Jr. is a Nipmuc cultural steward who teaches traditional Indigenous arts and advocates for Indigenous communities to have access to and manage conservation land. His efforts have brought attention to the declining supply of Atlantic white cedar trees in Nipmuc territory. These cedar saplings are essential for constructing the traditional dwellings of Eastern Woodlands tribes. (via WBUR)

President Trump’s recent Pentagon DEI directive has resulted in the erasure of some Native American war heroes’ legacies from military history records. Although some previously removed photos and stories have been restored, this three-part series by KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio focuses on the impact of the administration’s actions on the families and descendants of Arizona icons Ira Hayes, Lori Piestewa, and the Navajo Code Talkers.

Have five minutes of your time to spare? Our Living Lands is a weekly radio segment that examines how climate change affects the health, culture, and environment of Indigenous communities. It is led by a three-person Indigenous team, in collaboration with the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Listens

Journalist Rebecca Nagle poses next to her new book, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

Photo credit: Brittany Bendabout

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Photo credit: Brittany Bendabout

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Journalist Rebecca Nagle poses next to her new book, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

Photo credit: Brittany Bendabout

Common Land: Delves into the history, science and politics behind the creation of one particular patch of protected common land.

• 🎧 Show producer Matt Podolsky attempts to hike the Appalachian Trail with his 65-year-old mom, Candy. The two face extreme weather, illness and injury as they trek 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. Along the way, Podolsky shares stories of remarkable people, intriguing history, and the modern challenges facing the Appalachian Trail — all as the iconic footpath marks its 100th anniversary.

The Evergreen: Listen to this audio portrait of the Pacific Northwest that showcases stories of the people, places, communities and cultures that make up the region.

• 🎧 Central Oregon’s High Desert Museum’s exhibit, “Sensing Sasquatch,” is interactive, multidimensional and includes larger-than-life installations. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the artwork through touch and smell. The exhibit showcases Native American interpretations of the being known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot or “the big guy.” In this episode, hear from three of the artists — Charlene Moody, Frank Buffalo Hyde and Philip Cash Cash — who co-curated the exhibit.

Curious City: This WBEZ podcast answers listeners’ questions about the Chicagoland region. Including the public in the storytelling makes the journalism more transparent and interconnected.

Code Switch: The podcast explores how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between. This podcast makes all of us part of the conversation — because we’re all part of the story.

• 🎧 On this episode, Native journalist Rebecca Nagle discusses her book, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land. The book alternates between the history of Native displacement in the U.S. and a Supreme Court decision that rectifies some of its sins.

Throughline: Each episode travels beyond the headlines to answer the question, “How did we get here?” Sound and stories bring history to life and put you in the middle. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei take you directly to the moments that shaped our world.

• 🎧 The word “reservation” implies the land is “reserved” specifically for Native Americans. But most reservation land actually isn’t owned by tribes. Instead, it’s mixed into private farmland, federal forests, summer camps and even resorts. That’s evident for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota. The tribe owns only a small portion of its reservation land. But just northwest of Leech Lake is Red Lake, one of the only reservations in the country where the tribe owns all of its land. In this episode, a road trip through Leech Lake and Red Lake to tell a tale of two tribal nations, the moments of choice that led them down very different paths, and what the future looks like from where they are now.

The Internet Says it’s True: Forgotten history, bizarre tales and facts that seem too strange to be true: Host Michael Kent asks listeners to tell him something strange, bizarre or surprising that they’ve recently learned, and he gets to the bottom of it. Every episode ends with a game show-style quiz game with a celebrity guest.

• 🎧 In 1957, an amazing discovery was made: a Viking Penny dating back to 11th century Norway. The find itself was rare but not unheard of. What made it so remarkable? The penny was unearthed on the eastern shore of Maine in the U.S. Hear about the founder’s incredible story.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

Diane Keaton, who remained one of Hollywood’s quirkiest and most beloved actors decades after her Academy Award-winning performance in the movie Annie Hall, has died aged 79.

Her film producer confirmed her death to NPR Saturday.

When I met Keaton for an interview in 2014, she was sporting her trademark look: a bowler hat, tinted glasses and oversized clothes.

“Clothing that actually hides the body,” she half-joked. “There’s a lot to hide in my case, so I’m the only remaining person on Earth with this particular look.”

Keaton was really something of a fashionista, inspiring generations of women with her unconventional lifestyle. Onscreen, she was known for playing endearing, unique and sometimes eccentric characters.

In one of her memoirs, Keaton wrote about aging and love in Hollywood and becoming a parent late in life. She was also upfront about some of her insecurities; she fretted about aging, her hair thinning, her eyes drooping. But Keaton told me that later in life, she had finally come to accept that all flaws are beautiful.

“I feel that wrong can be right. It can be right in a lot of ways,” she said. “So all those things that you’re disappointed with in yourself can work for you.”

FILE – Oscar winners Charles H. Joffe, winner of best picture for “Annie Hall,” left, and Diane Keaton, winner of best actress for “Annie Hall,” poses with presenter Jack Nicholson, and producer Jack Rollins at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978.

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She was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles in 1946, the daughter of real estate broker and civil engineer Jack Hall. Her mother Dorothy was once crowned Mrs. Los Angeles.

Keaton said her mom cheered her on as she pursued her dreams of becoming a singer and performer in New York. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1960’s, Keaton ended up an understudy in the original Broadway production of the rock musical Hair.

“It was wild. It was unexpected,” she said. “But I could see that I really wasn’t a hippie. I knew that I wasn’t a hippie in Hair.”

Keaton famously refused to go onstage nude for the final scene of Hair.

Then, along came Woody Allen, with whom she had a romantic relationship. Allen cast her in Play It Again, Sam, his play, then his movie. Also his film comedies Sleeper, Love and Death, Manhattan, and, of course, Annie Hall.

Keaton’s kooky, quirky role as Annie Hall and her “lah-de-dah” charm won her a best actress Oscar in 1978. She thanked Woody Allen in her acceptance speech and later, for her entire career. She stood by him throughout the controversy over allegations that Allen once molested his daughter, which the director denies.

“That’s never going to change,” Keaton said of her support for Allen. “He’s my very, very good friend.”

In Annie Hall, Keaton showed off her comedy and singing chops. But she also had dramatic film roles, most famously in The Godfather trilogy. Her character marries into the Corleone mafia family.

Her Godfather costar, Al Pacino, was one of her boyfriends in real life. Another of her real life loves, Warren Beatty, directed her in his 1981 film Reds.

FILE – Filmmaker Woody Allen, left, greets actress Diane Keaton onstage to present her with the 45th AFI Life Achievement Award on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles.

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In the historical drama about journalist John Reed, Keaton played his love interest, activist Louise Bryant.

“I loved her position in life,” Keaton said of her character, which she said played second fiddle to Reed (played by Beatty.) “And she wanted to be great. She wanted greatness in her. And fighting for herself, and failing and failing. I loved her for that. I loved her for her flaws. She was a difficult person who wasn’t very likable, yet I loved her.”

Jack Nicholson was also in Reds. He teamed up with Keaton again in 2003 for the comedy Something’s Gotta Give. In that movie, Keaton also played opposite Keanu Reeves.

Diane Keaton never married, though in films, she was one of the very few older American actresses who still got leading romantic roles. That was something actress Carol Kane, Keaton’s long-term friend, raved about at the time.

“She’s playing the love interest a lot,” Kane said. “You know, kind of passionately kissing and swooping into the bedroom…at an age when most people just sort of say, ‘OK, well, that part is over.’ I mean, she just gets more and more beautiful because she’s more and more herself.”

Diane Keaton attends the premiere of “Book Club: The Next Chapter” at AMC Lincoln Square on Monday, May 8, 2023, in New York.

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For years, Keaton acted in such films as Looking For Mr. Goodbar, The First Wives Club and Baby Boom. She directed the documentary Heaven in 1987. She also wrote books about her life, about architecture, photography and beauty; she collected photos of beautiful men, she renovated beautiful houses, and as a single mother, raised two beautiful children. When she turned 50, she adopted her daughter, Dexter and five years later, her son Duke.

“It’s an unconventional life, it’s true,” she told me. “But I don’t really see it that way, because I just think everybody has a pretty– is there a life that doesn’t have a story that isn’t pretty astonishing? I’ve never come across anybody who hasn’t. I just worked my way into the life that I have because I had a goal and it was very simple: I wanted to be in the movies.”

Keaton told me she was a late bloomer. But her fans might say death came to her far too soon.