The Red Nation Podcast

The Red Nation Podcast features discussions on Indigenous history, politics, and culture from a left perspective. Hosted by Nick Estes and Jen Marley with help from our friend and comrade Sina. The Red Nation Podcast is also the home of Red Power Hour, hosted by Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz. Our show is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon, support the show and get access to bonus content and other patron exclusive benefits here: Patreon.com/redmediapr Website: therednation.org Follow the hosts on Twitter @nickwestes and @JenMarley1680 and the Red Nation @The_Red_Nation. Theme song: "Dead Horse" by Weedrat https://weedrat.bandcamp.com/

"ICE is a colonial police force" w/ Alex Aviña 07/21/2025

"The Red Power movement had been going since 1492" w/ John Redhouse and Carol Wright 07/14/2025

"The Red Power movement had been going since 1492" w/ John Redhouse and Carol Wright and are proud to announce our second co-publication! by legendary warrior John Redhouse is a one-of-a-kind lyrical and fast-paced memoir of the frontlines and trenches of Native liberation in the Four Corners and Southwest in the 1970s. This episode is a recording of the celebrating the publication of the book. John and his wife Carol spoke with Red Power Host Melanie Yazzie about their lives and work. We will be publishing more episodes of these events in the coming weeks! Watch the on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel "From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact. Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region. As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions. Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction. Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day." Empower our work: GoFundMe: Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: Patreon: /episode/index/show/therednation/id/37302170

Warrior intellectualism w/ John Redhouse and Jennifer Denetdale 07/14/2025

Warrior intellectualism w/ John Redhouse and Jennifer Denetdale The John Redhouse book tour makes its way to Albuquerque where comrades from Red Nation, Dr. Jennifer Denetdale and Red Power Hour co-host Melanie Yazzie join author John Redhouse to discuss his new book, Watch the on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel "From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact. Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region. As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions. Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction. Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day." Empower our work: GoFundMe: Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: Patreon: /episode/index/show/therednation/id/37397155

Kuskalla#26: Karumanta Qamurqani w/ Jonathan Ritter [English] 07/06/2025

Kuskalla#26: Karumanta Qamurqani w/ Jonathan Ritter [English] ***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest episode of Kuskalla, a trilingual (Quechua-Spanish-English) podcast produced by Red Media and hosted by our comrades Yojana Miraya Oscco and Renzo Aroni. Listen to the full episode on the In this episode, I talked with , who is the Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside. We discussed his viral Quechua Pumpin song “” (I have come from far away). Characterized by a carnivalesque style, Pumpin is often interpreted as testimonial music from the Fajardo province in Ayacucho, a central region deeply impacted by the Peruvian internal armed conflict between the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and Peruvian state security forces, lasting from 1980 to 2000. This conflict resulted in nearly 70,000 deaths, primarily affecting Quechua-speaking Indigenous peasants in this region, as noted in the 2003 report of . In 2001, shortly after the conflict ended, the Truth Commission began its efforts in communities throughout the Pampas River valley in central Ayacucho, where the Pumpin enjoys popularity. A year earlier, Jonathan Ritter started his fieldwork in the village of Colca for his dissertation focused on this music. After mastering the , he composed his song “Karumanta Qamurqani” to perform at the newly relaunched Pumpin contest held on the Waswantu plateau in February 2001. This contest had been on hold since 1983 when government security forces shut it down, targeting locals for allegedly supporting the Shining Path guerrillas. In February 2002, he performed his song again, and Asto Producciones filmed it for the first time on video cassette. In this episode, we talk about how Pumpin transforms from traditional music into a powerful form of testimony that recounts wartime experiences and survival in the aftermath. We then examine the lyrics of “,” discussing their meanings and the song’s reception both during the live performance in Waswantu and after its 2008 upload to YouTube. The response from Peruvians sheds light on issues of race, class, and identity, as well as the reclamation of Quechua language and culture in the post-war context. This episode is dedicated to Alejandro Mendonza Alca from Colca, Jonathan Ritter’s mentor and maestro of Pumpin, who sadly passed away a few years ago. For more information on Pumpin music and its history, check out Jonathan Ritter’s articles, including “,” published by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2013. Thank you for tuning in to the Kuskalla Podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by sharing it, hitting subscribe, or leaving a review. Our podcast is produced by Red Media and Red Nation; please consider supporting our work if you don't already on Patreon: Follow us on social media: on Twitter; on IG Kuskalla Abya Yala /episode/index/show/therednation/id/37294620