Seeing Red
Seeing Red, co-hosted by Suzan Shown Harjo and Frank Harjo, ran from 1967 to 1974, and was the first nationally syndicated show to focus on Native issues.
It was recorded at WBAI in New York, and was broadcast on Pacifica Radio stations across the country. The show featured a mix of musical guests, interviews with Native leaders, press conferences, news reports, and pieces about the historical background of various tribal and advocacy groups.
In an interview in 2011 Harjo described an aspect of the broadcast:
“(W)e would do a midnight-to-4:00 a.m. personality show, where we would talk, play music, and take telephone calls. Any Native person at that time with a pressing issue or struggle would either come to New York or join us by telephone for news coverage, because the WBAI listeners numbered in the millions in a six-state area.”
More recordings of broadcasts can be found here.
Susan Shown Harjo:
is a Native American rights advocate as well as a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate. She was born in 1947 and is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muskogee. Harjo first became involved with WBAI as a volunteer, and was eventually hired to co-produce and host Seeing Red. Following her time with WBAI Harjo was a journalist in Washington D.C. and nationally. She served as the Congressional liaison on Indian Affairs under the Carter Administration and was the President of the National Council of American Indians. She is a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. She has continued activism around Native reparations and representation. She received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2024.
Interviews the cast and creator of the theater show Disquieting Muses: A Response to the Suicides of Women Artists
Disquieting Muses and Women on Trial: The Forbidden Texts of the Three Marias