Podcasts about Lake Superior Chippewa

Tuition is going up at the University of Minnesota this fall. The Board of Regents yesterday approved a 6-and-a-half percent increase — the largest in a decade and a half. In-state tuition for undergrads on the Twin Cities campus will be just over 16-thousand dollars in the next academic year. That does not include additional fees — which are also going up.Brooklyn Park police are investigating a break-in at the home of DFL leader Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark. The incident comes days after the Hortmans were shot and killed in their home in what authorities are calling a politically motivated attack. Police say they discovered pried-off plywood that was covering the home's rear window. The window was also broken to gain entry by an unknown individual.A new law requires some Minnesotans to get a permit before operating a boat or personal watercraft.The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa recently celebrated the completion of a new heating facility. The facility will use locally sourced hardwood chips to heat the tribe's community center.The Minneapolis City Council passed an honorary resolution Wednesday commemorating Juneteenth. The federal holiday celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.

A candlelight vigil to honor the late DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark is planned for Wednesday night at Minnesota's state Capitol. Organizers are asking attendees not to bring signs of any kind. The Hortmans were the target of a political assassination early Saturday morning at their home in Brooklyn Park. The Capitol building will be closed to the public during the vigil that begins at 8 p.m.Federal authorities have revealed that the man suspected in the shootings had an alleged target list that included leaders of Planned Parenthood.A Twin Cities man who joined the Islamic State terror group a decade ago is out of federal prison after providing extensive help to investigators in other terrorism cases.The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa recently celebrated the completion of a new heating facility.

Today, we're very excited to speak with David Wise, descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and founder of Native Wise, a farm which is focused on soil health, restorative farming and Indigenous agricultural practices. David started his bison herd after a dream with Chief Buffalo, who told him to bring back his namesake. Starting with twelve, he now has a herd that numbers close to sixty, including Renegade and Brutus, two bulls that have become best buddies. The ranch is also home to three Ojibwe Spirit Horses. David and wife Patra teach their kids that good food is good medicine. They share that good medicine with the community through Native Wise's seasonal CSAs and online store. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expediting permits for the Line 5 oil pipeline project. It's the first project to be put on a fast track under President Donald Trump's executive order declaring a national energy emergency. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is among a number of tribes in at least three states that oppose the project by Canadian energy company Enbridge, saying it posing significant risk to the environment, most notably the Great Lakes. The existing pipeline runs across Bad River land, but the company's new route bypasses the reservation. We'll get a perspective on the new status of the project and the near-term possibilities. GUESTS David Gover (Pawnee and Choctaw), senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund Jennifer Smith, director of U.S. tribal engagement at Enbridge Stefanie Tsosie (Navajo), senior attorney in the Tribal Partnerships Program at Earthjustice

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expediting permits for the Line 5 oil pipeline project. It's the first project to be put on a fast track under President Donald Trump's executive order declaring a national energy emergency. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is among a number of tribes in at least three states that oppose the project by Canadian energy company Enbridge, saying it posing significant risk to the environment, most notably the Great Lakes. The existing pipeline runs across Bad River land, but the company's new route bypasses the reservation. We'll get a perspective on the new status of the project and the near-term possibilities.

Patrick Kruse is a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a descendant of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. He lives and works along the shore of Mille Lacs Lake and has been creating birchbark art since the late ‘80s.  As a young adult, he says his mother had a dream where he worked with birchbark.  “My mom, kind of, not scolded, but warned me of the cultural significance of birchbark and not to be wasting it, because it's sacred,” he said.  He creates wall hangings and baskets, with scenes and images of nature. Kruse has even made birchbark cradles with colorful Ojibwe floral designs. Kruse says birchbark has always been used to tell stories. A prominent figure in several of his pieces is the Thunderbird, a spiritual figure in Ojibwe culture. He depicts the Thunderbird, using birchbark of various tones, surrounded by florals to show the changing of seasons. “When Native Americans hear the first thunder and lightning coming, they understand that it's the change of season — spring, flowers and rain. So, everything, instead of frozen ground, frozen tundra, everything starts growing,” Kruse said.  Melissa Fowler is a birchbark artist from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She began working with birchbark 14 years ago after becoming more involved in learning cultural traditions.  She fears that working with birchbark could become a lost artform someday.  Fowler has created elaborate pieces, including contemporary ones. She hopes to inspire younger people with pieces, such as earrings and a crossbody handbag. “I know that we don't preserve our food in it [birchbark] anymore but maybe wearing it as an adornment is something that really excites people and makes people feel good about themselves as a way to push that forward into our contemporary society,” Fowler said.  Kruse shares those sentiments. He says he doesn't know many other people who work with birchbark. Alongside his work as an artist, he shares the knowledge of birchbark with those wanting to learn. “I'm trying to teach a better way about the birch and the forest, the water and the rice, different things I promote them things because it's important,” Kruse said. “I'm not going to be here, but these children, and the children's children are going to be here.” According to Fowler, the Ojibwe word for birchbark is “wiigwaas.” She says the wiigwaas and birch tree are referred to as the tree of life, an important part of the survival of Ojibwe people.  “We would use birchbark on a daily basis, from gathering to preserving our food and water, our canoes, our shelter.  We'd use it for medicine. We'd even use it to record our teachings and stories on birchbark scrolls,” she said.   Not a single piece of bark goes to waste either. Kruse says he uses leftover pieces to create smaller artworks or to make baskets.  “I learned that even the most smallest birchbark can be used to make a nice little piece of art,” Kruse said. “So, we try not to waste nothing.” He says learning about culture and participating in traditional crafts gives people strength.  “It brings hope, and it gives you better strength, because you're actually doing some work in whether it's small, big, medium." Fowler currently has an exhibit at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, titled, “Endazhi-Dabendaagoziyaan - The Place Where I Belong.” She says her artwork will be at the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center in Duluth in August.  Kruse's artworks are featured in various collections and locations, including but not limited to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the Science Museum of Minnesota and Minnesota Historical Society in downtown St. Paul and the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post in Onamia.  

An entire wall of one school building is buckling after a leaky roof went unattended for 19 years. Students at another school have to go home to use the bathroom during the day because the school's water pipes burst. Exposed insulation hangs from the ceiling in another school. For more than a quarter century, the Alaska legislature has devoted only a fraction of the funds needed to keep the public school buildings that serve a predominantly Alaska Native student population functioning properly. We'll hear about the investigation by KYUK in collaboration with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network and NPR's Station Investigations Team that exposed a problem many years in the making. GUESTS Emily Schwing, KYUK senior reporter Jason Dropik (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), National Indian Education Association executive director

Only someone with a personal worth of $40 billion would think that wasteful government spending is how you'd label healthcare for veterans, cancer research, humanitarian aid, and preserving our national parks. Our guest, LuAnn Bird, has been battling the people who are bashing the budget programs that take care of fellow Americans. We'll also catch up with filmmaker Mary Mazzio whose documentary about the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa fighting against a big company's oil pipeline continues to be sought out for screenings around the country. UpNorthNews with Pat Kreitlow airs on several stations across the Civic Media radio network, Monday through Friday from 6-8 am. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows to see the entire broadcast line up. Follow the show on Facebook, X, and Instagram to keep up with Pat & the show! Guest: LuAnn Bird

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025 – 1:30 PM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515, USA WITNESSES Panel one Jeffrey Stiffarm President Fort Belknap Indian Community Harlan Baker Chairman Chippewa Cree Tribe Business Committee and Rocky Boy Health Center Ryan Rusche Citizen Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck Panel two Carole Lankford Councilwoman Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation Gene Small President Northern Cheyenne Tribe Panel three Bruce Savage Chairman Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Darrell Seki Sr. Chairman Red Lake Band Chippewa Indians Leonard Fineday Secretary Treasurer Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Virgil Wind Chief Executive Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Panel four J. Conrad “JC” Seneca President Seneca Nation Wena Supernaw Business Committee Chair Quapaw Nation Jeff Wacoche Chief United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians Panel five Ken Ahmann Tribal Utility Authority Director Colusa Indian Community Council Jose Simon III Chairman Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians Panel six Josh Cook Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians Lester “Shine” Nieto Chairman Tule River Indian Tribe of California James Naranjo Governor Pueblo of Santa Clara More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/02/24/video-american-indian-and-alaska-native-public-witness-hearing-day-1-afternoon-session/

Elk used to roam across the entire state of Minnesota. Today there are just a few hundred, and only in the northwestern part of the state. But that could soon change. On Thursday night, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have a public meeting to discuss the reintroduction of elk to the Fond du Lac Reservation and surrounding areas in northeastern Minnesota.  It's a project that started more than ten years ago, and now is on its way to becoming reality.  Makenzie Henk, the elk biologist with the Fond du Lac band, joined Minnesota Now to talk about the project.

The Bad River tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa, along with several organizations, announced Thursday, Dec. 12, that they are challenging the Wisconsin DNR's decision to permit a controversial pipeline project in far northern Wisconsin. They are concerned about the impacts the project could have on the wetland- and stream-rich region.

The arrest of a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a relief for people who worked with Thompson. A 26-year-old man, Luigi Nicholas Mangione, has been charged with murder after a quick-thinking McDonald's customer in Pennsylvania recognized him from a surveillance photo and police officers found a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush.St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter says he wants to raise taxes. Some homeowners say they can't afford it. Carter is proposing a nearly 8 percent increase in the city's 2025 budget.And Frank Paro, a prominent figure in the American Indian Movement, has died. Paro was a tribal citizen of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.This is a MPR News morning update, hosted by Jacob Aloi. Music by Gary Meister.Find these headlines and more at mprnews.org.New York prosecutors charge suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing with murderRead the latest edition of the Minnesota Today newsletter.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or RSS.

Erik Redix, Ojibwe Language Coordinator with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa joins this episode, along with Superior National Forest Archeologist Lee Johnson who returns to Forest North, to talk about the Ojibwe language, or Ojibwemowin, and some of the original place names in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Superior National Forest and the North Shore of Lake Superior.Show Notes:Ojibwe People's Dictionary | the Ojibwe People's Dictionaryhttps://www.nps.gov/grpo/learn/historyculture/north-shore-place-names.htmhttps://openrivers.lib.umn.edu/article/rivers-north-shore-ojibwe-dialects/Anishinaabe Bizindamoo Makak | WTIP

Curtis Basina, owner and founder of the first Native American-owned distillery in the country, joins Derrick and Jonathan on the show!In the northern coastal town of Bayfield, Wisconsin, an impressive black building is nestled into the pines surrounded by the lands of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the location of Copper Crow Distillery. Owned by Linda and Curtis Basina, Copper Crow began production in 2017 and now has a tasting room slinging cocktails and selling bottles of their spirits. They've partnered with many local producers to make some of their more unique craft spirits, like an apple brandy made with fruit from Bayfield's many orchards and whey-based vodka and gin.Tours and tastings are offered, and encouraged!   Follow Pour Another Round:Facebook: /PourAnothrRoundInstagram: @PourAnothrRoundX: @PourAnothrRoundWebsite: pouranotherround.com

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is the first Minnesota tribe to join a growing legal battle across the Midwest in Indian Country. Five tribal nations are together taking aim at social media giants, as Indigenous youth suffer a disproportionate mental health crisis the tribes say is worsened by social media. Robins Kaplan LLP partner Tim Purdon joined us to talk about the details of this lawsuit, the dangers social media is posing on children and much more! 

The world's attention is gripped by an assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump, as he is preparing to accept his party's nomination in Milwaukee, Wisc. Already a tumultuous race, the violence portends a political event like no other. We'll be in Milwaukee to hear about what is on the political minds of some of the state's 11 federally recognized tribes as the November election begins to come into focus. GUESTS Brandon Yellowbird Stevens (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), vice chairman of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin Bill Trepanier (Lac Courte Oreilles), secretary and treasurer of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Marlon WhiteEagle (Ho-Chunk), freelance writer and copy editor for Native News Online

The movement to shutdown Line 5 in Wisconsin has been growing since the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa won a federal court case against Enbridge in 2023. That […] The post The Consequences of Line 5 to Public Health and the Environment appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Child support payments could be cut for hundreds of Native American mothers. The looming change revolves around a debate in Congress over access to private IRS information. Child support enforcement efforts use that information to garnish tax refunds going to non-custodial parents. It's a system that reroutes some $2 billion across the country every year. But tribes fall into a special category that would prevent them from solutions that non-tribal agencies are able to use. North Dakota tribes have already had such child support payments cut off because of an IRS directive, but that decision is now reversed. We'll hear about the complex issue of child support enforcement for tribes. GUESTS Jerl Thompson (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), director of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's Child Support Enforcement program Sunnie Bisonette (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), assistant director of Lac Courte Oreilles Child Support Tish Keahna (Meskwaki Nation citizen), attorney employed by Lac Courte Oreilles

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Public Witness Hearing - American Indian & Alaska Native: Day 1, Morning Session Date: Tue, 05/07/2024 - 9:00 AM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515 Witnesses Mr. Lee Juan Tyler Chairman, Fort Hall Business Council of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Ms. Whitney Gravelle President, Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority Mr. Kirk Francis Chief of Penobscot Indian Nation, United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) Mr. Robert Blanchard [Note: Witness was not present] Chairman, Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians Mr. Grant Johnson President, Prairie Island Indian Community Mr. Darrell Seki, Sr. Chairman, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians Mr. Kevin Dupuis, Sr. Chairman, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Mr. Jason Schlender Administrator, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission Mr. Austin Lowes [Note: Initial part of statement not audible] Chairman, Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians Mr. George W. Thompson Vice President, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Mr. Henry Fox Vice Chairman, White Earth Nation Mr. Dana Sam Buckles Councilman, Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation Ms. Carole Lankford Councilwoman, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation Mr. Joseph Rosette Councilman, Chippewa Cree Tribe Ms. Ashleigh Weeks General Manager, Assiniboine and Sioux Rural Water Supply System Mr. Marvin Weatherwax, Jr. Councilman, Blackfeet Tribe of Montana Mr. George Jay Ball Councilman, Fort Belknap Indian Community Ms. Shere Wright-Plank Councilwoman, Rosebud Sioux Tribe Mr. Ervin Carlson President, Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council Mr. Frank Star Comes Out President, Oglala Sioux Tribe Mr. Frank Adams Chief, Upper Mattaponi Tribe Mr. Stephen Adkins Chief, Chickahominy Tribe Committee Notice: https://appropriations.house.gov/events/hearings/public-witness-hearing-american-indian-alaska-native-day-1-morning-session

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Public Witness Hearing - American Indian & Alaska Native: Day 1, Morning Session Date: Tue, 05/07/2024 - 9:00 AM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515 Witnesses Mr. Lee Juan Tyler Chairman, Fort Hall Business Council of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Ms. Whitney Gravelle President, Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority Mr. Kirk Francis Chief of Penobscot Indian Nation, United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) Mr. Robert Blanchard [Note: Witness was not present] Chairman, Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians Mr. Grant Johnson President, Prairie Island Indian Community Mr. Darrell Seki, Sr. Chairman, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians Mr. Kevin Dupuis, Sr. Chairman, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Mr. Jason Schlender Administrator, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission Mr. Austin Lowes [Note: Initial part of statement not audible] Chairman, Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians Mr. George W. Thompson Vice President, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Mr. Henry Fox Vice Chairman, White Earth Nation Mr. Dana Sam Buckles Councilman, Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation Ms. Carole Lankford Councilwoman, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation Mr. Joseph Rosette Councilman, Chippewa Cree Tribe Ms. Ashleigh Weeks General Manager, Assiniboine and Sioux Rural Water Supply System Mr. Marvin Weatherwax, Jr. Councilman, Blackfeet Tribe of Montana Mr. George Jay Ball Councilman, Fort Belknap Indian Community Ms. Shere Wright-Plank Councilwoman, Rosebud Sioux Tribe Mr. Ervin Carlson President, Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council Mr. Frank Star Comes Out President, Oglala Sioux Tribe Mr. Frank Adams Chief, Upper Mattaponi Tribe Mr. Stephen Adkins Chief, Chickahominy Tribe Committee Notice: https://appropriations.house.gov/events/hearings/public-witness-hearing-american-indian-alaska-native-day-1-morning-session

Director Mary Mazzio provides an update on her documentary, “Bad River,” and the legal fight by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa against a petroleum pipeline running across their environmentally sensitive lands. And Salina Heller's daughter becomes a junior correspondent interviewing teachers and a principal about Teacher Appreciation Week. UpNorthNews with Pat Kreitlow airs on several stations across the Civic Media radio network, Monday through Friday from 6-8 am. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows to see the entire broadcast line up. Follow the show on Facebook, X, and Instagram to keep up with Pat & the show! Guests: Kristin Lyerly, Salina Heller, Mary Mazzio

Most tribes have important traditional connections to the stars and other celestial bodies in the night sky. But increasing encroachment from artificial lights is diminishing those connections. A handful of tribes are supporting a dark skies initiative to preserve what night sky visibility is left and promoting methods to limit light pollution. In the process, they're raising awareness of their own night sky traditions. GUESTS S.D. Nelson (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), author and illustrator of children's books Travis Novitsky (Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), nature photographer Daniel Bulletts, cultural resource director for the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians and director of the Southern Paiute Consortium

Director Mary Mazzio talks about her new documentary that tracks how the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa must constantly fight to preserve their lands, their customs, and their waters, especially in the legal fight to remove an aging petroleum pipeline. Also: Danielle Whitaker from the Bristol School Board and Angela Lang from BLOC talk about school referendums in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. Guests: Angela Lang, Todd Allbaugh, Danielle Whitaker, Mary Mazzio

Female, Jewish comedians who paved the way for women in comedy. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's battles the Line 5 pipeline. Golda Meir and her Milwaukee influences. Marquette's annual Dreamers Gala.

Myron Johnson of Minneapolis, former artistic director for Ballet of the Dolls, recommends “The Conference of the Birds” from Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre. The dance piece is based on an epic poem by 12th-century Persian mystic Farīd al-DīnʿAṭṭār.“It's been performed and created by one of my absolute favorite artists in this community, Susana di Palma,” Johnson said. “I can't imagine anyone taking this story and doing an interpretation any better than Susana and her live musicians and singers and flamenco dancers and original music.”“The Conference of the Birds” plays Feb. 10-11 at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis.Minneapolis resident Mary Thomas is an art historian and arts administrator. She is looking forward to “In the Middle of Somewhere,” an exhibit by artist Martin Gonzales.An alum of the University of Minnesota's art department, Gonzales is based in Massachusetts. Thomas sees Gonzales “grappling with questions of how he takes up space and how he can occupy space in different ways.” “The sculptures are a way to think through and meditate on some of those questions through his own life and his own experience,” Thomas said.The exhibit is on display at the Silverwood Park Visitor Center in St. Anthony through Feb. 29. Linda LeGarde Grover, a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in northern Minnesota, is a professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She's very pleased to recommend the Indigenous Writer Series at AICHO in Duluth. The series features Indigenous writers from around the region. “Some of them will actually have drawings for some of their books, and the community will get to listen to them, ask questions of them and especially hear them talking about their writing,” Grover said. The event Saturday will include authors Tashia Hart of Red Lake Nation and Staci L. Drouillard of Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, from 2-4 p.m. at the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center in Duluth.

The state of Michigan now has an official State Native Grain, one of cultural importance to indigenous people. Manoomin, the Anishnaabe word for Wild Rice, is an ancient species of grain producing grass native to the Great Lakes area. Roger LaBine, Tribal Elder for the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in the Western Upper Peninsula, started fighting for the protection of Wild Rice in Michigan in 2003 when his tribe's restoration efforts on Lac Vieux Desert (lake on the border of MI and WI) was met with opposition by the Wisconsin power company who dammed the lake, and lakefront owners. Roger discusses what it means to have Manoomin become a state symbol, future public harvest regulations, and current restoration efforts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

White Earth Band of Chippewa member and Fond du Lac fire program manager Damon Panek as well as Rachel Olesiak, Research Plot Coordinator for the U of M Cloquet Forestry Center join us to talk about how the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Cloquet Science Center partnered to bring back cultural fire for the first time in 100 years. The Cloquet Science Center stopped Ojibwe from practicing their fire management 100 years ago to preserve the forest. Rather than preserving the forest, the lack of fire drastically changed it. Learn how this partnership uses TEK and Western Science to restore the Red Pine forests to what they used to be. 

Conservators and artists have worked this past year to restore a work of art created by artist George Morrison half a century ago. Morrison's vision is felt by the people who helped to restore his work, and by those redesigning the building where the mural lives.The late artist George Morrison was from a small town near the Grand Portage reservation in northern Minnesota. He attended art school in Minneapolis and New York City and was part of a leading generation of American artists working as abstract expressionists. Known for his intricate wood sculpture and collage, George Morrison was commissioned to create the mural for the Minneapolis American Indian Center in 1974.Morrison once told a biographer the design was inspired by feathers. Its chevron V-shapes work in unison to create an optical illusion.  Although never formally named, Morrison suggested the work might be called — “Turning the Feather Around: A Mural for the Indian.”  Sam Olbekson is an architect and the chair of the Minneapolis American Indian Center's board of directors. He is a part of a team working on the center's renovation.“That pattern and the way it's constructed allowed us to take it apart piece by piece, and one of the main goals of this entire project is to preserve this piece art,” says Olbekson.In 2022, the Midwest Arts Conservation Center, or MACC, answered the center's call to restore the mural.Chief conservator Megan Emery served as the manager of the project. MACC called on another team of conservators from Montana with expertise in rigging and reinstalling complicated works of art.“We decided we were going to have to start the project by doing full documentation with photographs of the mural to basically map out exactly out how it looked and how everything was laid out,” says Emery.“When it was time to start to start the project, we physically removed every single board, and that's when we need a team of people.” Josie Hoffman is an Anishinaabe multi-media artist whose family is from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Hoffman was tasked by MACC to work on the restoration.“There wasn't a ton of problems. And actually, when we were taking it down it came down really easily. It was also the documentation of [the mural],” says Hoffman. “It's about over 700 cedar boards, so it's about documenting and making sure we have all these pieces in the right place.”Once the pieces were carefully removed, they were packed into crates and shipped to specialists at the firm Wolf Magritte in Missoula, Mont. The firm cleaned the mural again and worked to design a series of interlocking panels on which to mount jigsaw-like pieces for reinstallation.When the full sun hits the mural at its new home on the east side of the building, the contrast of the light and dark surfaces of the cedar planks is striking — adding a sense of movement.  George Morrison mural in Minneapolis preserved for future generations by Olbekson says the restoration of the mural is a part of the long-term vision for community development along Franklin Avenue. “Where it was on the building ... [George Morrison] was so intent on it being open to the public. So that art was accessible to the community. He wanted it to be large scale, in your face, out, and unapologetically Indigenous on Franklin Avenue,” says Olbekson. Olbekson points out the mural's new location on the east side of the center will mean that it has a different experience with environmental elements and weather. “We tried to preserve the aging, the integrity of it,” says Olbekson. “It was about making sure the original artist's intention was conveyed in the new building, to do it in a way that will make it last there in another fifty years.”The restoration of the mural is part of the Minneapolis American Indian Center's first major renovation since opening in 1975.

Winona LaDuke recalls “Salsa Tuesdays” outside the old Carnegie Library in Park Rapids. In 2021, water protector activists and members of the community would dance — salsa, macarena — in protest against Enbridge, the building's then occupant, the Canadian conglomerate behind the controversial Line 3 pipeline.“We would stand out there with little signs that said, ‘Water is life, protect the water, stop Line 3,'” LaDuke says. “We would always look at the building and hope that one day something would be different there.”On Thursday, Giiwedinong: The Anishinaabe Museum of Treaties and Culture opened on the spot. The museum sits just off the main drag of a downtown lined with candy shops, bars and an old cinema. Now, the stone building, built in 1908, is striped with red, white, yellow and black, the medicine wheel colors representing the four directions. It is the first museum in Minnesota devoted to the Indigenous perspective on treaty rights, environmental justice and culture.“This is not a tribal museum,” explains LaDuke, a member of the Mississippi Band of Ashinaabeg. “This is an Indigenous museum, but it is off the reservation. It received no state funding, it's entirely independent. We think of ourselves as the little museum that could.”In Oct. 2022, the building was purchased for the museum by Akiing, an Anishinaabe community nonprofit based on the nearby White Earth Indian Reservation.  “It's being put in a place that's so ironic,” says Frank Bibeau, a museum board member and the Akiing executive director.Bibeau is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe at White Earth and a treaty rights attorney. Park Rapids is in the heart of ceded treaty territory, explains Bibeau. Enbridge placed the Line 3 pipeline across Northern Minnesota despite public opposition. Water protector activists, including Native and climate advocates, warned it could pollute waterways. With the museum, Bibeau says they are correcting the actions of the building's past occupants, Carnegie and Enbridge. Related Winona LaDuke resigns as Honor The Earth leader after sexual harassment case “So, the imperialist who took and raped our land and resources created that building in Park Rapids,” Bibeau says. “The next round of imperialists also were there, and so we're taking that space, and we're saying that's not the proper use of this space. That's been harmful to our area.”At the museum are interim executive director Jerry Lee Chilton, a member of the White Earth Band, and museum organizer Mary Crystal Goggleye, who is Anishinaabe and Pueblo. They stand in the entry, surrounded by a freshly painted mural. In jewel tones, Red Lake artist Brian Dow painted animals representing many Anishinaabe clans. “Giiwedinong” is Anishinaabe for “in the north,” says Chilton, who is also the executive director of the Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute.“It's a lot of cool artifacts, a lot of cool heritage,” Chilton says. He points to the ground and cites the 1855 Treaty. “This was all reservation at one point. So, we're just bringing that to light,” Chilton says. Goggleye walks among the maps and photographs.“We are fighting for our history to be told,” Goggleye says. “We are in society, you see us in society, and we will revitalize our own history.”The intimate galleries of Giiwedinong unfold with historical photos, treaty maps, and documents. Displays outline ceded territories defined by the Treaties of 1837, 1854, 1855 and 1867. They also show the rights to hunt, fish and gather in these territories, and tell the stories about how these rights have been breached. More displays depict agreements the Anishinaabe had with other indigenous nations, like One Dish One Spoon, the treaty about shared hunting rights that dates back to the 12th century.“It's a new concept, an important concept,” says museum board member Travis Zimmerman, a descendent of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Zimmerman is also the site manager for the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, which is run by the Minnesota Historical Society. Giiwedinong is different, he says.“A museum run by an American Indian organization, having American Indian curators, and really having that Native voice come out, is something that you don't really see much of, anywhere really, much less in Minnesota.”The museum is an educational resource for Native and non-Native folk alike, Zimmerman says.“The thing that's really behind treaties, it's all about sovereignty, and I think that's what people don't realize and struggle with, that American Indians are sovereign nations,” Zimmerman says. “We always have been, and we always will be.”Giiwedinong also puts these treaty rights into a contemporary context. A special exhibit features photos and stories from the Line 3 protests, and the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. A photo on display by Sarah (Miskwaa-ens Migiziwigwan) Kalmanson includes water protector activist Tania Aubid at Standing Rock in North Dakota. In September, Aitkin County judge Leslie Metzen dismissed charges related to a Line 3 protest against Aubid, LaDuke and fellow activist Dawn Goodwin.Metzen reasoned, “We moved them by force and power and violence off the land where they lived for thousands of years. To make peace, we signed treaties with them that promised many things they never received.”Kalmanson, an Anishinaabekwe descendant of White Earth, photographed many of these protests. She is also a curator and marketing director for the museum.“We had tens of thousands of people at Standing Rock. I was there. And I want to honor that. There were a lot of atrocities that happened,” she says.Curating the museum has been healing, she says.“It was pretty brutal, what we all went through, and I just feel really energized and I'm so happy to share and carry this on,” Kalmanson says. “I'm really excited to have folks come in and see how beautiful we are.”LaDuke says there will be another dance party at the opening tonight.

In this week's episode my special guest, Shanne Soulier, shares his insights on overcoming his biggest myth about money and how aligning it with his purpose led to abundance in his business. Join us as we explore the challenges Shanne faced and the mindset shifts he made, including the transformative power of adding someone to his team, that created the space where he could better serve his community.If you're ready to unlock the secrets of finding your marketing spirit and harnessing innovative strategies that can work for you, this episode is a must-listen. Empower yourself to make a meaningful impact in both your business and the community you serve and infuse your marketing with purpose as you move towards your next quantum expansion.Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Lots Money To Be Made (5:21)Not Overnight Success (11:19)Team Growth (13:15)Finding His Marketing Spirit (17:22)3 Phases Of A Marketing Strategy (19:48)Caring About The Work (22:55)Marketing Is Your Logo & Messaging (27:15)About Shanne SoulierFounder and CEO of Big Spirit, Inc; specialized marketing and promotional products supply resource. Big Spirit founder Shanne Soulier is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. His heritage is aligned with the richness of the Ojibwa. His personal and business mission is to foster prosperity, build awareness, promote culture, and contribute to our client's success by helping clarify their vision and find their marketing spirit through innovative multi-channel marketing strategies and promotional products.Connect with ShanneWebsite: https://bigspiritinc.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suga.shanne/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigSpiritInc/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-spirit-inc-/FREE GIFT: - Mention “Quantum Revenue Expansion” and receive 25% off your 1st order.About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Her Podcast, Double Your Sales NOW, is available on iTunes, iHeartRadio and other outlets. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA...

On the radio show this week we cover why the US Supreme Court Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) decision was a big deal and the ongoing need to protect native sovereignty; we touch base with the Women's March about how people are rising across the country – and how you can get involved; we hear the latest about the attack on our communities and schools by the Moms (Against) Liberty; and we get some good news about the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Pump for Nursing Mothers Act.   *Special guests include: Manilan Houle, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa member, @ManilanH; Rachel O'Leary Carmona, Women's March, @womensmarch; Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers, @AFTunion; Tina Sherman, MomsRising, @MomsRising, @MamasConPoder, and @TinaShermanNC

On the radio show this week we cover why the US Supreme Court Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) decision was a big deal and the ongoing need to protect native sovereignty; we touch base with the Women's March about how people are rising across the country – and how you can get involved; we hear the latest about the attack on our communities and schools by the Moms (Against) Liberty; and we get some good news about the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Pump for Nursing Mothers Act. *Special guests include: Manilan Houle, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa member, @ManilanH; Rachel O'Leary Carmona, Women's March, @womensmarch; Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers, @AFTunion; Tina Sherman, MomsRising, @MomsRising, @MamasConPoder, and @TinaShermanNC

Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett made history this month when she was named the Best Chef of the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation. She's the first Native woman to be given such an award. Meanwhile, Miijim, a new Native-owned restaurant in La Pointe, Wis. is making waves with an Indigenous menu by Red Cliff Band chef Bryce Stevenson. And the new book Our Precious Corn: Yukwanénste by Rebecca Webster (Oneida) recounts the history and travels of her tribe's traditional corn. It's all on The Menu with Andi Murphy. GUESTS Sherry Pocknett (Wampanoag), chef and owner of Sly Fox Den Too Bryce Stevenson (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), chef and owner of Miijim Rebecca Webster (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota

Native fathers by marriage sometimes have to work a little harder to make sure they fulfil their end of the parenting partnership. Step parents often have to navigate complicated relationship situations like shared child custody, ex-husbands, and divided parent loyalty. GUESTS Bruce Savage (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa band member), owner and operator of Spirit Lake Native Farms  Troy Watlamet (Yakama Nation Tribal Member from the Klickat Cayuse Band), stepfather  Halo Tomma (Yakama, Wanapum, North Thompson, and Flathead), daughter William Penn (Squaxin Island Tribe and Quileute Tribe), program facilitator with Native Wellness Institute

In this show:The governor and the legislature reached a deal on state funding for local governments.A federal judge signals that the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa can continue their road blockage.Tim Michels, the former candidate for governor, sues an organizer who worked or him.TruStage CEO resigns following a worker strike.Republicans propose a new bill to address reading education.Riders prepare for the new bus routes this weekend.Marchers take to the streets to protest gun violence.We talk with the Wisconsin ACLU about increased punishments for people involved in drug-related death.Fishy Business talks about what to do in Madison if you are a rookie fisher.

A few miles from the Canada border, Heather Boyd walks the grassy trail of the national monument's Ojibwe Village. She passes the soaring pointed timber of the palisade fence that encircles the recreated historic depot, what was once the famed 18th-century cultural crossroads of the Grand Portage Anishinaabe and the fur trade.Boyd then stops in the field where the National Monument hosts the annual Rendezvous Days event. Thousands of visitors flock to the remote site every August for music, camping, reenactments and craft workshops. “This is the encampment area,” Boyd says. “It's wild to see tent upon tent here.” She looks up at the nearby western hills, the site of the Grand Portage Band's annual powwow, also in August.“I'm really looking forward to blending the two events a bit more, the powwow and the Rendezvous here” Boyd says. “Well, it's celebrating both cultures, right? So, being able to encourage not only visitors here, but encourage them to go up to the powwow, too, and have that experience.”Boyd is the new superintendent of the Grand Portage National Monument. She is the first woman and first Anishinaabe person to hold the National Park Service position since the monument was established in 1958. The Anishinaabe have occupied the land since “time immemorial,” as the monument's signage points out.Today, Boyd is wearing a pin given to her by the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the tribe that has been co-managing the site with the park service for decades. She is also wearing a traditional Native ribbon skirt, striped in red, white and black.  “The ribbon skirt represents resiliency and identity and is just empowering as a woman,” Boyd says, “and a woman in a management position — that I'm the first Anishinaabe and the first woman to ever lead here.” Many say her appointment is a historic moment in the co-stewardship of the monument, which is within the boundaries of the of the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. The Grand Portage Band donated the land to the federal government.“I understand living in a tribal community,” says Boyd, who is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa from Bayfield, Wis. “I think that's one of the things they saw in me.”Less than half a mile up the road, April McCormick sits in the timber building that houses the Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council, the partner in co-management with the National Park Service. McCormick is the Tribal Council secretary treasurer.“We're really trying to have our leadership be reflective of who we are,” McCormick says.   McCormick says Boyd is a good fit because of her 14-year tenure as an administrative officer for Isle Royale National Park, the Michigan island site in Lake Superior, which is part of the Anishinaabe ancestral homelands. It's less than 40 miles from Grand Portage and on a clear day, you can see it from Boyd's new office.McCormick adds that even though Boyd is from a different Anishinaabe band, she is one of them and the community has welcomed her.“She has a deep understanding of tribal government and protocol,” McCormick says. “And also, just understanding the value of our culture, and traditions, and how we're telling our story for national parks. Whose worldview, whose lenses are we using?”Citing the efforts of the Grand Portage Band, McCormick points to the growing number of Native women working at the national monument. She says the current chief of interpretation Anna Deschampe is the first Grand Portage Band member to fill the position, within the division of interpretation and education. Boyd will work with Deschampe to refine the storytelling at the national monument, from signage and exhibitions to reenactments and workshops. The National Park Service announced Boyd's appointment last summer. She's only recently relocated from Michigan. The choice to wear the ribbon skirt regularly at Grand Portage, instead of the typical green and khaki of the NPS uniforms, is one way she's making an impact on the site's culture.  “Throughout my career with the Park Service, I don't see a lot of Indigenous people,” Boyd says. “As I go to different meetings, I'm the only one in a ribbon skirt in a room. Breaking that barrier so people feel like this is a regular thing means a lot to me.”Boyd points to other Native women in leadership, who in growing numbers in the last few years have been wearing the ribbon skirt in their official capacity in state and national government.White Earth member and Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan often wore a ribbon skirt. And Deb Haaland, who in 2021 became the first Native woman to serve as the U.S. Secretary of the Department of the Interior (the department responsible for the National Park Service), wore a traditional ribbon skirt at her swearing-in ceremony in Washington D.C. While Boyd says she still has a lot to learn about the site, she knows she also wants to make an impact by doing more community events, like a recent Ojibwa language roundtable that was hosted in the monument's Heritage Center. The center houses a museum, art gallery and shop; she wants to bring more local artists into the space, too.  Joseph Bauerkemper, professor and director of the Tribal Sovereignty Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth, says Boyd's appointment is important but not surprising. “The Grand Portage Band has really sophisticated, long-standing, consistent leadership, even when different elected officials and community leaders have come and gone,” Bauerkemper says. “Grand Portage has worked very effectively in partnership with the National Park Service for many years, and so this is not a radical shift in that relationship, but it's a significant improvement in that relationship.”He compares Boyd's appointment to the Biden administration appointment of Haaland. “It's of similar import, because Secretary Haaland brings extensive knowledge and experience to that position” he says. “Native nations don't have to explain to the Secretary of Interior who they are, what they are, what they're up to, and that's a big deal. We can see the same thing going on — sure on a smaller scale, but no less important — at the monument there at Grand Portage.” Grand Portage National Monument is considered a leader in the National Park System for its co-management agreement, which creates a sharing of power and responsibility between the federal government and local tribes. Charles F. Sams III, the current National Park Service director (and the first tribally enrolled member to hold the position), testified before congress in 2022 about Grand Portage.“The stewardship of Grand Portage National Monument exemplifies how successful co-management can be, while infusing valuable dollars into the local Tribal economy,” Sams said.  Boyd also sits on the NPS Tribal Relations Advisory Committee for the Midwest region, which includes superintendents and staff from other parks and sites and meets monthly by video call. At the May meeting, Boyd sat in the conference room of the Heritage Center. St. Croix National Scenic Riverway superintendent Craig Hansen — who is the former superintendent of Grand Portage — was on the call and said Boyd's appointment is significant. “It shows the commitment to that community and that site,” Hansen said. Also on the call was Alisha Deegan, the superintendent of the Knife River Indian Village National History Site in North Dakota. A member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Deegan is also working at a federal site in her ancestral homeland. “Having that connection to the land that is beyond government is huge,” Deegan said. “The pride extends beyond her and her family.” Deegan explained that, as a Native person, it can be “really difficult” to work for government, or feel welcome entering a federal building or park, because of the U.S. history of oppression, violating treaties and taking land from Native populations. “Having Indigenous people in leadership positions, there is that permission to come back to sites,” Deegan said. “Elders may come and shares stories they wouldn't have before.” Boyd sits at her desk in her office at the Heritage Center. She is framed by a window that overlooks the Ojibwe Village and the Historic Depot, with Grand Portage Island and Isle Royale appearing as purple streaks in the distance on Lake Superior.  Boyd says she feels like she's home, even though she hasn't lived on her own Red Cliff reservation for 20 years.  “So, when I first came over here, it just felt right,” Boyd says. “When I first started with the Park Service, I wasn't promoting my heritage and my culture because it didn't feel right. Here, I feel like I'm empowered to do that. It feels awesome.” The Grand Portage National Monument grounds are open year-round. The Historic Depot opens for the season Memorial Day weekend. Correction (May 26, 2023): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Lieutenant Governor's title. This has been fixed.

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of surface area and it's not immune to climate change — it's also one of the fastest-warming lakes in the world.  MPR News guest host Dan Kraker speaks with a scientist who studies Lake Superior about the allure and science of this deep, clear and cold lake and how it's threatened by climate change. Plus, we hear from two artists — a photographer and a writer — about the lake's significance and healing presence. Guests:  Bob Sterner is a biology professor and director of the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth which studies Lake Superior and other big lakes around the world. He's also president of the Northeastern Association of Marine and Great Lakes Laboratories.  Halee Kirkwood is a writer, teaching artist and a bookseller at Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis who will be retracing the Ojibwe migration around Lake Superior and writing about it through a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. They grew up in Superior, Wis. and are a direct descendent of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Christian Dalbec is a photographer based in Two Harbors, Minn. known for his photographs of Lake Superior waves and other scenes, taken while wearing a wetsuit and photographing from within the lake. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.   

The Shinnecock Nation is seeing their first cannabis dispensaries opening. They are among a rush of weed businesses among New York tribes as the state starts welcoming recreational use sales. The same is happening all across the country—in Minnesota, New Mexico, California, and Nevada—as tribes see new economic development opportunities in places where cannabis is no longer prohibited by state law.   GUESTS Mary Jane Oatman (Nez Perce and descendant of the Delaware Tribe), founder of the Indigenous Cannabis Coalition & THC Magazine and the executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association  Rob Pero (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), founder and president of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association and owner of Canndigenous Chenae Bullock (enrolled member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation), managing director of Little Beach Harvest Gary Farmer (Cayuga, Tuscarora and Mohawk), actor and musician

Updated: 8:30 a.m. A massive new report details the University of Minnesota's long history of mistreating the state's Native people and lays out recommendations, including “perpetual reparations,” to improve relations between the university and Minnesota's 11 tribal nations.Among its troubling findings, the report by the TRUTH (Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing) Project concludes:The U's founding board of regents “committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain, using the institution as a shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources.”The U's permanent trust fund controls roughly $600 million in royalties from iron ore mining, timber sales and other revenues derived from land taken from the Ojibwe and the Dakota.The university has contributed to the “erasure” of Native people by failing to teach a full history of the land on which it was founded.Researchers didn't put a dollar figure to their call for reparations but urged the University to do more to help tribal nations, including providing full tuition waivers to “all Indigenous people and descendants” and hiring more Native staff and faculty.Totaling more than 500 pages, the report released Tuesday marks the first time a major American university has critically examined its history with Native people, said Shannon Geshick, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa.While Geshick praised the U's willingness to help unmask its past, she said the reckoning around that awful history was long overdue. “The TRUTH Project just rips that open and really reveals a narrative that a lot of people I think just don't know.” ‘We carry all of that trauma'The TRUTH effort draws on archival records, oral histories and other sources to examine through an Indigenous lens the troubled history between Native people and the state's flagship university.It launched following a series of reports in the publication High Country News in 2020 revealing how universities around the country were founded on the proceeds of land taken from tribes through the 1862 Morrill Act.That included a financial bonanza — dubbed the “Minnesota windfall” — that channeled more than $500 million to the fledgling University of Minnesota from leases and sales of land taken from the Dakota after the federal government hanged 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minn., in December 1862, ending the U.S.-Dakota war.Following the High Country News stories, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council called on the university to acknowledge its exploitation of Native peoples dating back to the U's 1851 founding.A team of Indigenous researchers began digging into university archives, cataloging and studying more than 5,000 pages related to the university's founding. Early on, they realized the work would be much more emotionally taxing than they had anticipated.“I remember a couple of times just sitting at a table and starting to cry,” recalled An Garagiola, a TRUTH Project coordinator and researcher who works for the Office of Native Affairs at the University of Minnesota.In the archives, “you're reading communications and policy and decisions that were made on a daily basis to commit genocide against people … millions of little cuts that we don't think about.” Tuition controversy Students urge University of Minnesota to better fund scholarship, Native American studies From February U recommends returning Cloquet Forestry Center land to Fond du Lac Band Troubling stories surface U probes its history with Native people For Garagiola, a descendant of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the research hit close to home when fellow researcher Audrianna Goodwin came across documents showing the involvement of the University of Minnesota's extension service in relocating 36 families on the Bois Forte reservation in the mid-20th century.The names of the families weren't mentioned in the documents. But her grandmother was relocated around that same time, and “thinking then of the trajectory that that set my family on, I guess I'm still trying to process that,” Goodwin said. “That was kind of the point where I knew I had to step away from the archives, because I couldn't take in any more of that at the time.”Goodwin, a research assistant for the TRUTH Project also appointed by the Red Lake Nation as a tribal research fellow, said she felt the sad weight of a brutal history as she pored over documents.“As soon as we got into the archives, and started to read through some of these firsthand accounts of what we experienced as a people, it was really hard to read and to learn about,” she said. “You start to see the connections from the past with what we're experiencing today.”Native people have some of the highest rates of fatal overdoses from the opioid epidemic; some of the highest rates of suicide and diabetes, and of other health and social disparities.The project received additional funding to pay for a Native American grief counselor and a spiritual advisor for researchers. The Mellon Foundation, which supported the TRUTH report through a $5 million higher education racial justice program called Minnesota Transform, paid for the added support.For Goodwin, to see and touch documents detailing how Native people were dispossessed of their land provided powerful evidence of how actions from the university and other governmental entities in the early 1800s have resulted in intergenerational trauma 200 years later.“Sometimes when we were researching, we would just have to stop,” she said. “Those emotions would become so overpowering, because we carry all of that trauma and all of that pain. Hopefully with this report, we won't have to carry that alone.”‘Used as test subjects'Researchers say the TRUTH report is notable for its Native-centered, community-driven approach. Each tribe appointed a research fellow to explore histories important to their communities.For the Red Lake Nation in northwestern Minnesota, Goodwin explored the history of medical research that was conducted by University of Minnesota doctors on young Red Lake children in the 1960s.After a disease outbreak in the 1950s killed a 2-year-old on the Red Lake reservation, U researchers planned a study around a decade later in which they enrolled about 100 children to conduct kidney biopsies. During that follow-up study, a second outbreak occurred.According to Goodwin's report, U researchers concluded during the first outbreak that a shot of penicillin was a viable cure for the disease. Yet in the second outbreak, they did not share that information with local doctors, the report said. Rather they enrolled more children in their study.“Our tribal members were used as test subjects,” said Red Lake Tribal Secretary Sam Strong.A companion report commissioned by the university tells a different story. The three physicians who compiled the report said there was no evidence penicillin would have helped stop the second outbreak, and said they were unable to determine whether parents had consented, in part because the tribe refused to share records.“Not having seen the consent forms (or patient charts) used for this work, despite repeated requests, we were unable to draw a conclusion as to the adequacy of the consent process,” the researchers concluded.That approach angers Strong, who says the university failed to keep records of the research. He said the university report also ignored strong circumstantial evidence that consent was not obtained in many cases.“I was hoping for a more transparent and accountable university system. And it's really disheartening to see that they're trying to silence our voice, the harm that they caused to our community.”In northeastern Minnesota, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has long pressed for the return of land that's now home to the Cloquet Forestry Center — 3,400 acres of land that was guaranteed to the Fond du Lac in an 1854 treaty was later transferred to the university without consent for use as an experimental forestry station.The TRUTH report notes a frustrating reality: Band members aren't allowed to hunt, fish or gather on the land, which is located entirely within the Fond du Lac reservation. But the U profits from the land through timber sales, tuition from forestry students and recognition for its forestry research.University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel, who is leaving the U to take over the University of Pittsburgh, recently recommended returning the Cloquet center to the Fond du Lac Band, a step it says would help restore its homeland.In response to the report, the University of Minnesota made a statement Tuesday morning.“First and foremost, we recognize that the countless hours of work reflected in this report and the truth-telling that will benefit us all going forward is built upon the time, effort and emotional labor of every individual involved. We want to reiterate our appreciation for each of you.In recent years the University has committed to acknowledging the past and doing the necessary work to begin rebuilding and strengthening relationships with Tribal Nations and Native people. Openly receiving this report is another step toward honoring that commitment. While documenting the past, the TRUTH report also provides guidance as to how the University can solidify lasting relationships with Tribes and Indigenous peoples built on respect, open communication and action. As we engage in the important discussions that will now follow, that guidance will be invaluable.”‘Can't do better until people know the truth'While the TRUTH report offers a damning assessment of the university's relationship with Native people over the decades, there are also passages reflecting slow, hopeful change.Researchers, for instance, detail for the first time the recent return of a sacred arborglyph to the Fond Du Lac Band. Standing about 5 feet tall, the artifact was kept by the Cloquet Forestry Center when student researchers cut the tree down decades ago.“It is a depiction of a spirit, completely unique to our people,” Charles Smith, Anishinaabe language specialist for the Fond Du Lac Band, explained in the report. “This ancestral artifact is rare. As this artifact is studied and grows older — its cultural significance will grow.”Fond Du Lac Band leaders learned of the arborglyph's existence in 2021 when forestry center staffers reached out.“It sat in the campus for over 60 years, knowing Fond Du Lac reservation is literally down the road,” wrote Kami Diver, the research fellow for the project appointed by the band.Researchers involved with the report understand that change won't occur overnight. But Misty Blue, coordinator of the TRUTH Project, remains hopeful that the university can “move from a place of harm to a place of healing.”That's a tall order, she acknowledged; “But I think that transformation can happen.”The University has taken meaningful steps toward addressing some of their concerns, tribal leaders say. In 2021, the U created a program that offers free or substantially reduced tuition to many enrolled members of the state's 11 federally recognized tribes.Gabel created high-level positions within her administration focusing on Native American issues and tribal relations and held quarterly, face-to-face meetings with tribal leaders. But Geshick, with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, said a lot more could have been done.For example, she and others have called for an expansion of the scholarship program, which has been criticized for only benefiting a fraction of Native students.“It's a great start. But it shouldn't be the end,” said Robert Larsen, president of the Lower Sioux Indian Community and chair of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council.Tribal leaders who pushed for a full accounting of university-tribal relations were fueled by a desire for more people to understand the true history of how the university was built on the proceeds of land stolen from Native people, he added.“It's not to shame or blame anybody here and now, but to put that simple truth out there,” Larsen said. “We really can't do better until people know the truth.”

Bennet Goldstein of Wisconsin Watch joined a fishing excursion in Lake Superior while reporting on the central role of fishing to the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and other Ojibwe communities in the Upper Midwest. States spent a century disregarding or rejecting treaty rights — fining or arresting tribal citizens who exercised them, Goldstein reports. A series of court rulings, starting in 1971, would affirm their reserved rights within territory ceded to the United States, including the right to fish on Lake Superior. But pollution in the Great Lakes — including hazardous PFAS chemicals — encroaches on how Ojibwe communities exercise their treaty rights, scholars and environmental advocates told Goldstein. Tribes aim to fill regulatory vacuums through their own regulation and input they share on cross-government committees. They may get support from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal that elevates consideration of treaty rights when states set water quality regulations. Originally published on February 24th, 2023.

Drost grew up in Grand Portage and is an enrolled member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Her interest in tribal politics traces back to her childhood and especially to her father.

Think about this: As long as humans have walked the earth, they've stepped out of their shelters at night, looked at the sky and come face to face with the universe. That is until the past hundred years or so. Now many of us look up and see the glow of electric lights. A new documentary looks at the history and science behind Northern Minnesota's night skies, as well as indigenous star knowledge and the impact of light pollution. “Northern Nights, Starry Skies” is a production of Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education in partnership with WDSE, the PBS member station in Duluth. Travis Novitsky is a night sky photographer and tribal member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa whose photographs and stories are included in the documentary.

It was 44 years ago this month when 15,000 people attended the National Women's Conference in a hotel Houston, Texas. It was the first and only women's conference approved of and funded by the federal government. The goal was to create a women's agenda and a plan of action to be submitted to Congress and the president. Bonnie Wallace was there. She's a feminist and an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She was part of the American Indian Women's caucus at the event, and she joined host Cathy Wurzer to look back at that historic event.

Matt is joined by Manilan Houle of the Fon Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. They talk about a planned merger between Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd and Kansas City Southern and the very negative potential environmental impacts.

Grand Portage National Monument has a new Superintendent, Heather Boyd. In 2008, Heather started with the National Park Service at Isle Royale. As a tribal member with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, she is the first Anishinaabe to head Grand Portage. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Heather shares with Walt Lindala and Frida Waara how her heart and heritage have lead her back to Minnesota's north shore. 

The city of Superior, Wisconsin has returned two sacred sites to the Fond du lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in a historic land transfer. The parcels include a burial ground at the end of Wisconsin Point, where nearly 200 Ojibwe people were exhumed in the early 1900s, and a mass grave site at a cemetery in Superior where the bodies were reburied.  This is the MPR News afternoon update for August 19, 2022. Hosted by Hannah Yang. Theme music by Gary Meister.

Native American students are just a tiny fraction of all the college students in the United States. And each student comes with different histories, confronting an education system once used to erase their languages and cultures. MPR News with Angela Davis is sharing a new documentary from American Public Media, “Standing in Two Worlds: Native American College Diaries.” Meet three Indigenous college students with Minnesota ties. They are using a college education to support their communities, and themselves, without losing sight of who they are. Archie Yellow: Archie is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and studies Ojibwe at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. Nevaeh Nez: Nevaeh is a Hopi and Navajo student at the University of Minnesota-Rochester who's planning to go to medical school. Reuben Kitto Stately: Reuben is Dakhóta from the Santee Sioux Nation and a tribal member of Red Lake Nation who majored in American Indian Studies at Augsburg University. Use the audio player above to listen to the show that aired on MPR stations. See portraits of the students, read their words and listen to an unedited version of the documentary here. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

For these four students, attending college is more than just their own personal achievement. It's a way to honor their people and give a part of themselves to their communities. It's also a way to represent their cultures within a system that often struggles to adequately understand where they come from. Thursday on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks with four students who share their struggles and triumphs working toward their educational dreams in the audio documentary from American Public Media, Standing In Two Worlds: Native American College Diaries: Nevaeh Nez (Hopi and Navajo), graduate student at the University of North Carolina; Reuben Kitto Stately (Red Lake Nation citizen and Santee Sioux), graduate from Augsburg University; Archie Yellow (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College student; and Camille Leihulu Slagle (Native Hawaiian), a Stanford University student.

This week, I sat down with Dr. Dianne Barton, Water Quality Coordinator at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in Portland, Oregon, where she puts her Ph.D. in geochemistry to good use by providing technical expertise related to water quality, environmental toxics, regulatory processes, and the fate and transport of contaminants. Dr. Barton, who is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Chairs the National Tribal Toxics Council (NTTC), which is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - tribal partnership group that provides tribes with opportunities to engage more specifically with EPA on toxics issues. In our conversation, Dr. Barton shares her significant expertise on toxics issues and how the NTTC is engaged with EPA on a wide variety of Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act implementation issues, particularly those affecting tribal communities. ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW. ©2022 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved

On today's show, we talk with Darek DeLille (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa/Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), Artistic Producer at New Native Theatre, community organizer, musician and audio artist. Darek now lives in Southeast Minneapolis after living on Fond du Lac for many years.Darek considers himself the “Anishinaabe army knife” who is always ready to learn and expand his knowledge while uplifting the people around him. Recently, Darek has started producing audio plays with New Native Theatre, managing the Four Sisters Farmers Market in Minneapolis and helping to organize the inaugural Two Spirit Pow Wow in Minneapolis.We loved hearing about Darek's love for community and his wisdom about life. Miigwech Darek DeLille!Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. Online at https://minnesotanativenews.org/