Episode 2 This Land Was Your Land #firstnations #america #americanhistory #declarationofindependence

The America @ 250 Podcast is devoted to enabling us to see and feel America through the eyes and hearts of others, and as a result take concrete steps to make America truly great. That seems like a fitting question during the year in which America turns 250. I am Kevin Caldwell, and in order to pursue the purpose of this project, throughout the podcast I will be inviting a very diverse set of guests to share how they experience America, and how they would answer “what would make America Great?” In this Episode, I sit down with Joey Williams to try to see and feel the experience of America through his eyes and heart as a a descendant of the original inhabitants Mr Williams is a member of the Nuwa (Kawaiisu) people from the Kern Valley Indian Community. He is President of the Coalition of California State Tribes and Vice Chair of the Kern Valley Indian Community. Joey began organizing over 17 years ago as a youth pastor, working to dismantle the school-to-jail-and-prison pipeline in Bakersfield. He has been a product of the foster care, jail, and probation systems since age 7, and went on to earn his AA at Santa Barbara City College, and his BA and MA at Cal State Bakersfield (History, Sociology, and Political Science). Joey has committed his life to bringing people of color, young people, and disenfranchised communities off the sidelines and into the fight for good jobs, quality education, and the end of mass incarceration and police brutality. Joey served as the Co-Vice Chair of the LA County Cares First Community Investment Advisory Board (CFCI, Measure J) in 2021–22, representing the Native American community. The board is allocating $100 million from the LA County Sheriff's Department and investing it back into the communities it has harmed. Joey is formerly the Director of Organizing at the CA Native Vote Project and a former Senior Program Manager at The California Endowment (Native Power Building)..He is committed to dismantling white supremacy and building Native power, sovereignty, self-determination, and collective liberation.