This Land

The police tell us they are here to protect us. But what if their original purpose was something else altogether? Peabody Award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika takes listeners on a journey to uncover the hidden history of the largest police force in the world – from its roots in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to everyday people who resisted every step of the way. As our society debates where policing is going, Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD explores where the police came from.From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.Follow Empire City wherever you get your podcasts and listen to the second episode, available now. You can listen ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

BY THE FIRE WE CARRY, the new book by Rebecca Nagle, is a powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation. Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country. Learn more: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/by-the-fire-we-carry-rebecca-nagle

Episode 1: The Police Officer and the Priest: One night back in the late 1970s, an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pulled over a suspected drunk driver. When he walked up to the vehicle, he came face-to-face with a ghost from his past: a residential school priest. That officer was journalist Connie Walker’s late father. What happened that night on the side of the road compelled her to return home to Saskatchewan nearly 40 years later to try to investigate a secret in her own family. What she uncovers is a much bigger story. Subscribe to Stolen to hear more episodes, wherever you get your podcasts.

Last week the Supreme Court made an historic ruling upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Rebecca Nagle takes us inside the courtroom to break down the decision, how we got here, and what it all means.

While we wait to see whether the Supreme Court takes the case, we attend a ceremony run by a program that helps Native adoptees reconnect with their tribes. Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

As the case heads to the Fifth Circuit - the last stop before the Supreme Court - we go inside the courtroom to hear the arguments and the decision.Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ Jennifer Brackeen’s Personal Blog https://web.archive.org/web/20201221201802/https://thebrackeens.blogspot.com/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

We know which law firms and think tanks are bringing these lawsuits, but no one has been able to figure out who’s funding them—or why—until now. Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The fight against the Indian Child Welfare Act is much bigger than a few custody cases, or even the entire adoption industry. We follow the money, and our investigation leads us to a powerful group of corporate lawyers and one of the biggest law firms in the country. Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ Mashpee Wampanoag face double crisis: COVID-19 and feds https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/mashpee-wampanoag-face-double-crisis-covid-19-and-feds Interior takes reservation away from Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/interior-takes-reservation-away-from-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe Mashpee Wampanoag ruling a 'win for all of Indian Country' https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/mashpee-wampanoag-ruling-a-win-for-all-of-indian-country The Fight for Baby Veronica, Part 1 https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-fight-for-baby-veronica-part-1 The Fight for Baby Veronica, Part 2 https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-fight-for-baby-veronica-part-2 The Fight for Baby Veronica, Part 3 https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-fight-for-baby-veronica-part-3 The Fight for Baby Veronica, Part 4 https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-fight-for-baby-veronica-part-4 The Fight for Baby Veronica, Part 5 https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-fight-for-baby-veronica-part-5 Supreme Court Takes on Indian Child Welfare Act in Baby Veronica Case https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/supreme-court-takes-on-indian-child-welfare-act-in-baby-veronica-case For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The private adoption industry has been fighting against the Indian Child Welfare Act the longest. We learn why by following one couple’s journey to adopt and their mixed feelings about the process.Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ Blood Memory documentary https://www.bloodmemorydoc.com/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The Brackeens aren’t the only ones suing to strike down the Indian Child Welfare Act. So are Danielle and Jason Clifford, a foster couple from Minnesota.Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The Brackeens' case would have been a normal adoption dispute, but then one of the most powerful corporate law firms in the United States took it on and helped the couple launch a federal lawsuit.Show Notes This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ Blood Memory documentary https://www.bloodmemorydoc.com/ “Indian Adoption Project Increases Momentum” April 18, 1967 press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior https://www.indianaffairs.gov/as-ia/opa/online-press-release/indian-adoption-project-increases-momentum For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

ALM – as referred to in court documents – is a Navajo and Cherokee toddler. When he was a baby, a white couple from the suburbs of Dallas wanted to adopt him, but a federal law said they couldn’t. So they sued.Show Notes: This Land website https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/ Resources For Survivors https://crooked.com/resources-for-survivors/ Resources For Journalists & Investigators https://crooked.com/resources-for-journalists-investigators/ Have a tip? Share it with our reporting team via SecureDrop https://criticalfrequency.org/securedrop/ Jennifer Brackeen’s Personal Blog https://web.archive.org/web/20201221201802/https://thebrackeens.blogspot.com/ "An Untold Number Of Indigenous Children Disappeared At U.S. Boarding Schools. Tribal Nations Are Raising The Stakes In Search Of Answers." https://theintercept.com/2018/09/25/carlisle-indian-industrial-school-indigenous-children-disappeared/ "My Relatives Went To A Catholic School For Native Children. It Was A Place Of Horrors" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/30/my-relatives-went-to-a-catholic-school-for-native-children-it-was-a-place-of-horrors "Indigenous Children Finally Headed Home" https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/indigenous-children-officially-headed-home "Indian Boarding School Investigation Faces Hurdles In Missing Records, Legal Questions" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indian-boarding-school-investigation-faces-hurdles-missing-records-legal-questions-n1273996 "U.S. Boarding Schools To Be Investigated" https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/us-boarding-schools-to-be-investigated For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

ALM – as referred to in court documents – is a Navajo and Cherokee toddler. When he was a baby, a white couple from the suburbs of Dallas wanted to adopt him, but a federal law said they couldn’t. So they sued. Today, the lawsuit doesn’t just impact the future of one child, or even the future of one law. It threatens the entire legal structure defending Native American rights. In season 2 of This Land, host Rebecca Nagle investigates how the far right is using Native children to quietly dismantle American Indian tribes. Tune in beginning August 23rd.

The Supreme Court has ruled, delivering a historic decision on the reservation status of Eastern Oklahoma. Rebecca Nagle talks to the lawyer who argued the case at the High Court, Native law professors, scholars, and journalists to break down the significance of this decision and share what it means to the future of Muscogee (Creek) Nation and all Five Tribes.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

Today, the Supreme Court made a historic ruling on the reservation status of Eastern Oklahoma. Rebecca Nagle is here to break down the decision, talk through the implications, and hey, celebrate a little. Because this win -- it’s huge.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

A murder case sparked an investigation into the treaty rights of five tribes. But another case -- a simple case about an adoption -- could actually dismantle America's tribes as we know them. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

Tribes are asking that the Supreme Court keep the promises that it made to them, because what's lost when those promises are broken is much more than just land.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The Supreme Court punted a decision on Carpenter v. Murphy to the next term. What does this mean for the tribes?For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/thisland.

The geography of this country was reshaped in the late 1800s and depending on who tells it, it's either a story of good intentions...or one of outright theft.

In a surprise twist, the Supreme Court announced that Carpenter v. Murphy will not be decided this term.