Journalist addressed Native issues in columns, radio shows
For some two decades, Harlan McKosato’s columns and radio news shows spotlighted both the challenges and success stories within Native American communities around the country.
The longtime host of the nationally syndicated radio show Native America
Calling, who also wrote a weekly column on Indigenous issues for The
New Mexican for years, died Monday morning at his home in Albuquerque at the age of 54.
His death came from complications associated with alcoholism, his sister,
Shelley McKosato Haupt, said.
“If we don’t call it out, the young people may think it’s not a problem,” she said of her brother’s struggles with alcohol.
But she said McKosato’s addiction could not dim a bright light striving to shine on the “world of Native America.”
“His brain was like a gift,” she said. “He could read an entire book on a subject the night before he had to do a radio interview about it, and the next day he was ready. He was knowledgeable, he knew what he was talking about.”
A member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, McKosato was born in April 1966. He grew up on the Iowa reservation in north-central Oklahoma.
McKosato would later publicly recount how he fought against racism and stereotyping, whether it was on the basketball court — where he threw the epithet “chief ” back at the white players on opposing teams, effectively silencing them — or in his efforts to fend off a trio of white racists threatening violence when he returned to his hometown as an adult.
He said during a 2006 National Public Radio All Things Considered show that as a child he was “ashamed of being Native American because of the way we were looked down upon as second-class citizens and by the way we were portrayed in the movies and in the classroom.”
That all changed when he learned about his Indian name, Kabaniquay, which he said translates to “the village’s son.”
It instilled a sense of racial, ethnic and cultural pride in him, McKosato said.
He studied journalism at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.
Later, the college named him one of its distinguished alumni, an honor McKosato deemed “amazing.”
After moving to New Mexico in the mid-1990s to begin working for Native
America Calling, he became host of that show and began writing a regular column for The New Mexican.
Even in his columns, the reporter in him ran deep, as McKosato culled historical notes and quotes from archival documents and interviewed contemporary experts on issues such as the impact the railroad had on Native life in the 1800s or the Jewish-Native and
Black-Native experience.
He was capable of a warm, open humor, but even when he used comedy in a column — recounting his frustration at trying to eat a Navajo taco with a plastic fork and knife — McKosato used it to encourage Native Americans to pursue healthy eating habits.
He often gently nudged people away from forming stereotypical views of Native Americans. McKosato once said he was not “an angry Indian” as he deftly walked the line between his culture and others’. He said he did not care if he was classified as a Native American or an American Indian, but McKosato did take umbrage at sports team names and mascots he found derogatory, like the recently dropped mascot used by the Washington Redskins.
Anyone calling him a redskin to his face, he said, would likely get a punch in the nose.
When his column came to an end in 2015, McKosato signed off with a retrospective piece that said, “What I really wanted to convey to readers is my own personal outlook that Native Americans are not victims. We are proud and we are strong. We win some, we lose some.”
He carried that attitude over into his producing and hosting of Native America Calling ,in which he tackled contemporary issues facing Native Americans — including racism, the legalization of marijuana on tribal lands, substance abuse and the environment.
The daily show eventually grew to nearly 70 stations nationwide and attracted some half-million listeners, according to media reports.
McKosato said it was his job to ensure people understood the history behind Native American people and their lifestyles.
“We have a story to tell,” he said to radio talk show host Vincent Schilling in a Native Trailblazers show.
Journalist Joseph Leon recalled McKosato as a man of great humor and passion who was relentless in getting to the heart of a story.
“We always had an agenda when it came to tribal issues — sovereignty, the environment. We knew where we stood and how to approach the issues,” Leon said. “And Harlan was always right there. He knew the right questions to ask.
“And once a movement started gaining ground, that was it — we were there to cover it.”
His sister said McKosato was open about his battle with alcohol. He once told her, “I underestimated alcohol.”
In Albuquerque in 2003, McKosato was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated — an action that temporarily sidelined his career as a talk show host. He owned up to it, telling reporters, “I don’t have any excuses.”
Speaking to his drinking problem at the time, McKosato said, “I should have asked for help a long time ago. I’m going to try to use this as a learning experience. Try to become a better person. Try to become a better father.”
To the end, he tried to find the bright side of a story, telling Schilling, “I’m more of an optimistic Indian. People say, ‘Hmmmm … an optimistic Indian.’ That’s unusual.”
Besides McKosato Haupt, Harlan McKosato is survived by sister Deanna McKosato, brother Kenneth Robert McKosato and son Nekon Che McKosato.
McKosato Haupt said the family is taking her brother’s body back to his home in Oklahoma for a traditional Native burial ceremony.
Leon called Harlan McKosato’s story “a combo of divine comedy and divine tragedy. To lose him to alcoholism — we’ve all had it affect our lives — is very Homeresque. It’s a righteous story with tragedy, love and humor.
“He went out in his sleep, with his eyes closed and the sun shining, surrounded by his family. There’s no better way to end.”