Minnesota Native News: Indigenous Superheroes & Villains

HOST INTRO: The Minnesota Indian Womens’ Resource Center recently teamed up with Hennepin County Library to host an Indigenous Comic Book Workshop in Minneapolis.

Youth ages 12 and over came together to look at how Natives are portrayed in comic books and to create their own super-human heroes or villains.

Reporter Melissa Townsend was at the workshop and has this report.

A good comic book character is unique, with a dramatic backstory and of course super human powers. So in the opening activity of this comic book writing workshop, all 15 or so youth here created their hero.

They named it Super Scumbiglio. Its pronouns are they and them. They have the body of a bumble bee, a cube shaped head with eyes on every side. Instead of legs - they have 7 and a half tentacles. Their arms are made of spaghetti and their hands are meatballs. What’s their superpower?

SARAH: Their meatball hands can change into different shapes, they can skip commercials and they have the power to control pasta. (:09)

Sarah Edstrom is a Sexual Assault Advocate at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. She’s also co-leading this session. She gives me Super Scumbiglio’s backstory.

SARAH: We asked the origin story and they said - this character had really terrible health insurance. so they were attacked by a shark and when they went for surgery, their insurance would only cover them being remade with parts left over from other surgeries. So… (:20)

Sarah tells me this is a great example of how a lot of comic book stories deal with social and political issues.

SARAH: So we talked about characters who have experienced life in foster care, who have experienced physical and sexual abuse.

Sarah wanted to host this comic book workshop at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center because she wanted to see more Native superheroes.

Jack Kotz is a comics artist and he’s co-facilitating this workshop. He works with a comics collective called WorldMonster HQ. Jack has one goal.

KOTZ: Right now it’s more about how can we actually get more Native people creating and how can we get more Native super-hero teams. (:09)

Lincoln Matt is one of the artists here today.

MATT: I’ve always had this interest in comics ever since middle school. I used to make a lot of strip funnies. My dream is to get into the comic book industry.

Linc is Native but he’s not creating Native characters. He’s working on developing two kung fu characters.

MATT: It’s kind of weird. I want it to be like an homage to a bunch of old Kung Fu movies especially like Drunken Master and Big Trouble in Little China - classic, low budget but still you can see the passion going into that choreography and I want to try and translate that into illustration. (:25)

Gerry Zink is a serious comics fan. He’s 16 and he’s here to participate in the workshop. I sit down next to him in front of 6 piles of his very neatly stacked comic books.

MELISSA ON TAPE: You like reading comics - do you like writing comics as much?
ZINK: No I don’t. Not really. [LAUGHS] I currently have a facebook account where I write film reviews now. (:16)

Gerry and I talk for a while. It’s clear he is really an expert on comic books and movies. He says the best ones are the most complicated and immerse you in a different world.

GERRY: Love it specially when there’s tons of world building and tons of character to it. (:09)

Workshop facilitator Sarah Edstron says that’s what she wants to see in a good comic book character — someone who is complicated like real people….

SARAH: And if we’re looking at people as just their tragedy or just one part of their story, we’re not actually seeing them. Sometimes we’re good guys. Sometimes we’re bad guys. That’s who we all are. Everthing in our live made us who we are but we get to decide what we do with that.

This was the first Indigenous comic book illustration workshop Sarah has organized at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. But she says it won’t be the last.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.

Funder Credits

Extra:
SARAH: I didn’t realize we had this many geeks in our community!
MELISSA ON TAPE: Would you call yourself a comic book geek?
SARAH: [laughs] Um, A little bit.

Minnesota Native News: Plans for Leech Lake Superfund Site

HOST (Marie): Leech Lake Community members recently meet with E-P-A officials to discuss the path forward for cleaning up tribal land, contaminated decades ago by hazardous waste from paper company. Reporter Kayla Doula attended the public meeting to hear more about the plans and concerns from official and local residents.

ELAINE FLEMING: I lived there, my family lived there. My friends lived there. Our people live there. That’s our story, that's our land. We have to keep it alive...we have to talk about it. We have to tell what happened to us.

REPORTER: That's Elaine Fleming. She’s a Leech Lake Tribal College Professor, author and historian speaking at a public meeting last month.

Fleming was talking about the St. Regis Paper company Superfund site — it’s a 125 acre site on the Leech Lake reservation.

About 75 people attended this community meeting put on by the U-S Environmental Protection Agency all about finalizing plans to clean-up the area they call “Operable Unit number 7” or O-U-7 of the superfund site.

Site OU7 refers to residential and habitable areas in the site, where soil was contaminated with hazardous waste. Currently that includes 5 homes and the Leech Lake Reservations Department of Resource Management Office and Fishery.

EPA OFFICIAL: My name is Herbito Leon, I’m community involvement coordinator with the US Environmental Protection agency and with me tonight is Leslie Patterson. She’s going to be presenting some details regarding the proposed plan for the cleanup of contaminated soil.

The Environmental Protection Agency declared the area a Superfund site in 1984.

But it took the agency almost TWO DECADES -nearly 20 years - to start the first clean up action.

The toxic chemicals in the area have been spilling into the soil and water ways that are important to the tribes sustainability.

Elaine Fleming is one of the many people representing residents who have been affected by the contamination.

She’s been fighting for proper clean up since the late 90’s.

I asked Elaine about her experiences living near the toxic site and how it has impacted her personally:

FLEMING: It’s been there for what about 61 years now, It opened up when I was going to kindergarten and I was sick all the time, and they diagnosed me with measles, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, and I don't know what else but I was always sick. My youngest brother Michael Johnny got cancer. When you talk to people who live over there, they will talk about their experiences and about being sick.

REPORTER: Community members talked about these issues at this meeting.

SPEAKER 1: I’m 62 years old now and I have survived 3 rounds of cancer.

SPEAKER 2: We don’t deserve this. I’m begging you to get the soil out of here because it’s killing us.

Most of the residents who live in the area were unaware of the site’s history before moving in.

Others learned about it but couldn’t afford to leave the contaminated land.

At this community meeting, EPA officials presented 12 plans but only 2 were identified as realistic options.

The EPA’s proposed plan s15b, would create a containment site on the reservation for highly contaminated soil.

It would take around 3 years and cost 18.5 million.

Plan s15a is backed by a majority of the Cass Lake and Leech Lake residents.

It calls for all contaminated soil be trucked off the reservation to a treatment facility near St.Cloud, Minnesota.

It would take roughly 3 years and cost around 30 million dollars to complete.

The current owners of the site, International Paper, would foot the bill.

Plan s15a is backed by the majority of the Cass Lake and Leech Lake residents.

SPEAKER 3: I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the residents to deal with another storage site. I think it’s unreasonable. There’s a storage site there now. I think the residents here deserve a 100% assurance that the contamination of soil and everything is going to be cleaned up and going to be removed from here

The EPA is still taking comments regarding the proposed plans online and through the mail.

A Final EPA report from the meeting is expected in late fall.

Further cleanup of non-residential sites will be addressed sometime in the future.

For more information on the St. Regis Superfund Site, check out the Leech Lake Department of Resource Management website

I’m Kayla Duoos with the DeBahJimon for MN Native News.

Minnesota Native News: “Native Lights” Podcast

Marie: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.

Headlines: This week, we’ll hear more from our recently released podcast - Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine.

Marie: Throughout the first season, we’re joined by many people all over Minnesota and beyond, people who talk about finding their purpose in life, finding family, celebrating accomplishments, and working through hard times, and lots more. And throughout the five episodes, our hosts, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo share a bit of their experiences as well.

BRIAND Music

Marie: In episode 2 of Native Lights, Leah and Cole explore the topics of *Artistry and Identity.* The episode highlights the story of Briand Morrison, a jazz guitarist from Grand Portage.

He talks about his musical project that combines his training as a jazz guitarist… with his heritage. He calls his project: Anishinaabe Jazz.??Briand: I want to bring them together as a form of self discovery.

and some of the most affecting music that to me ever that I've heard is the Anishinaabe drum and the native drum. Um, anyway, so when I hear this music, it's just, I, you know, I just, my heart just sore. It's like I can hear, I can feel my whole body mind fill out. Like that's how I wanted, that's how I want music, my music to be. And I, when I play it, I want to feel that I want to feel my body fell out, my soul, you know, fill up

when I'm, when I'm doing with Anishinaabe jazz … I listen to music and I listen to the drum, listen to the singing, and, and then I try start to play along with them and then I go to myself and play something, carrying through the same emotional content.

Marie: Leah and Cole are both musicians as well and talk about what inspires their own music. Here’s a bit of what Cole says about his musical inspiration.

Podcast: (Cole)One of my biggest musical influences is Robbie Robertson of the band, and he's Mohawk native. And he brings in a lot of his native experiences into his songs. (Leah)Yes. I, I hear that in some of the, the music that you do, including, you know, some of the incidental music or music that we have for the Minnesota Native News.

MUSIC (COLE)

Marie: What is important to the hosts is that the stories come from a place of strength throughout the podcast. In episode 5 of the series, Leah and Cole focus on Media coverage in Indian Country, and how stories are presented to audiences.

Podcast: (Cole)Today we're hearing from amazing native individuals who are fighting to tell their story in a mainstream media landscape where native voices are seemingly misunderstood or ignored. And we definitely have some strong feelings about that subject (Leah )seemingly? Really. (Cole)Maybe I should just strike that from the script. (Leah)No, I would say ah, are, yeah. Misunderstood and ignored. And you know, that's, that's my belief, (Cole) you know, but when, when you hear from the community, it's definitely something that is an overwhelming feeling. (Leah) Or overwhelming fact. (Cole)Yes. Overwhelming fact. This invisibility basically. Right. Exactly.

Marie: Scholar and Historian Dr Kate Beane is featured on the podcast. She is a media-maker both in front and behind the microphone. Here, she reflects on the assumptions made by the media.

Dr Kate Beane: A lot of the time, I feel like if a news story breaks and it has to do with, they'll quote the people, they'll quote the history or um, anything with our community. There's this assumption that we won't speak up or there's this assumption that there's not anyone to talk to. And the fact is we have a really beautiful community of educated, bright people that can speak up for ourselves. In the past, there have been a lot of people who spoke up for us. There were a lot of people who wrote books about us. There were a lot of people that did things about us. And that time has come to an end.

Marie: You can listen to these stories and a lot more on Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine wherever you get your podcasts… or online at AMPERS DOT ORG.

MN Native News: “Native Lights” on Family and Safety

{Marie}: This week on Minnesota Native News, more from our new podcast, Native Lights.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 Native Lights]
{Marie}:
The hosts of Native Lights are Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. They are proud members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, musicians, and reporters for Minnesota Native News. Episode Three of Native Lights is all about family. Leah and Cole talk about what is was like when their own family fostered Native kids. Here’s part of that conversation:
I don’t know how much you remember, Cole, you were a little bit younger. I was in I think ninth grade. I know we had several kids. I remember it was an American Indian foster care program. Do we know why they decided to do that? I asked dad, he said “ask your mom.” They together wanted to do something to give back and help the kids in foster care because this has been an issue forever. I thought it was cool, more kids to hang out with. It was almost like they fit into a space that we had.
{Marie}:
Also in Episode Three of the podcast, we meet people from every part of the foster care system. We meet an advocate for Native families who went through foster care herself and had to fight to get her own children back with her. We meet a Lakota woman who was adopted out, and didn’t meet her own family until she was 35. And we meet Jasmine Grika (GREEK-ah), a young advocate who spent years in the foster system.
My first home was non-native and it was really unfortunate because they get stipends for the children and they were using stipends for their own family not me. A lot of time I had to eat at my own table not the family table. And another time they were all going to the pool and I got my swimming suit and they said oh not you, you’re staying here. Leah (sign, holy smokes…)
{Marie}:
But Leah and Cole tell us that Jasmine’s story took a turn when she was adopted by a couple. Jasmine’s new mother had grown up in foster care too, but her roots were in White Earth. Together, she and Jasmine learned what it meant to be indigenous.
When you have an identity to claim and a culture to claim, you become more aware of who you are. Pretty much gave me what I needed to be successful. Cole: I thought it was really cool that they learned about it together. Leah: That was really cool.
{Marie}:
Episode Four is about how native people heal from trauma through cultural ways. We meet people who work with sex-trafficked girls and abused women. And we introduce two of those leaders to each other. Jenny Miller works with youth at the Minneapolis YMCA, and Anishinabe elder Eileen Hudon runs a healing drum circle, among other things. Eileen and Jenny share a remarkable personal history, as well as a lifelong commitment to help women and girls. Here’s part of their conversation. Eileen starts.
Eileen
so this, this is one of my thoughts. I think that the juvenile justice system is filled with compassionate people. I believe the institution is so tightly structured that they're not able to change their institution. One thing I love to see is the opportunity for them to do that because they totally get it.
Jenny: sometimes I feel that same way. Let me see how many young people I can help before the system catches me. You know? Because if you're going to issue out a bench warrant for a youth that's on run, chances are they're going to call us and you tell us that we can't work with them.
Eileen: That’s why we are providing sexual assault advocacy training to community women cause you're not going to be able to tell the grandma what she can and cannot do and helping her own grandchild or great grandchild. She can pretty much do what she wants.
Music sting.
{Marie}:
You can listen to “Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine”, wherever you get your podcasts… just search for Native Lights.
And do let us know what you think.

MN Native News: Introducing “Native Lights”

Headlines:
Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, we’re announcing the launch of our new podcast, Native Lights.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 Native Lights]
Marie:
Almost a year ago, the Minnesota Native News team asked the community what it wanted to hear more about. Our sense of humor, you said. Our resilience. Our elders’ stories. The result is Native Lights.
Tape: Welcome to Native lights podcast, where indigenous voices shine. I’m your host, Leah Lemm. And I’m your other host, Cole Premo. Thank you for joining us on our first podcast episode.
Marie: The hosts’ names will probably be familiar to you. But the people behind the names? Maybe not so much.
So first off we should probably let you know who we are. Why don’t you go first, Cole? First off we’re brother and sister, right? That’s right. Yep, I remember when you were born. Yep, I’m the younger brother, the middle child. We also have a younger brother, Brice, he’s amazing. We’re Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members. Proud members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. We’re both musicians; I’ve been playing guitar and singing for a couple decades now. We’ve played together a little bit too. I’m a songwriter and a giant fan of Tori Amos. And we’ve both worked in media. And we’ve both worked in media for quite a while now. Over a decade at least.
Cole and Leah tell stories with and about people in our community – some not very well known, and a few kind of famous. Rob Fairbanks from Leech Lake, for example. You many know him as the “Rez Reporter.”
Leah: He really is popular, some of his stuff has gone viral. He’s all around funny and a really nice guy. Rob: When I first started the Rez Report videos I thought my friends will get it, everybody in Northern Minnesota will understand, but I had no idea it would go viral as far as it has.
Marie: So Episode One is all about people doing what they were born to do. Like Leah, the host, who knew she like to sing, but needed encouragement at first to perform.
Leah: I never thought there’d be anybody who actually needed to hear my voice, but if we’re given a gift, then it’s meant to be passed along. Cole: And it’s your responsibility to share it. Leah: It absolutely is. And on the flip side, don’t waste your gift. You’re doing yourself and you’re doing the community a disservice if you don’t use it.
Marie: We hear from elders too, like Jody Beaulieu (BOWL-ee-oh), Black Standing Woman, from Red Lake. She learned how to stand her ground from her family, and went on to participate in the Red Power movement of the 1960s and 70s. She occupied Alcatraz and, later, with the American Indian Movement, Wounded Knee.
Jody: I was assigned to the guard shack along with a Lakota woman I was with and an Alaskan woman that I came from California with. We were getting up at 5 in the morning, manning the guard shack and getting on with the business of the day. One day there was a trailer house a little ways a way and I said “I think I’ll go over there and see if I can get us any breakfast. So I went over there and the AIM head guys were there and there was also a news reporter and I went in just like I owned the place because we did, and I walked through the kitchen, got maybe three pancakes and put them on a plate and the newsman said ,”Is there anything you want the outside world to know.” And I said yeah tell em we’re starving in here and we need food. And he says “well it doesn’t look like it,” And I said, “Well these 3 pancakes are going for 6 people,” and I took em back to the guard shack. And I was surprised I was able to stand up for myself.
Marie: That was Jody Beaulieu from Red Lake. You can hear more from her, and many others, by checking out our new podcast, Native Lights, wherever you get your podcasts.

MN Native News: The Land Buyback Program

Headlines:
Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, Bois Forte becomes the 2nd Minnesota tribe to take part in the Land Buyback Program for Tribal Nations.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 LBB]
[Marie:]
The Land Buyback Program exists because of the largest class action suit in U.S. history. Thousands of people and 3 million acres of Indian land are affected - including parts of Fond du Lac and – now - Bois Forte. Laurie Stern reports.
Laurie: Thirty years ago a banker on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana found a problem with how the US government distributed money for Indian land it held in trust. The land had been allotted to individuals under the 1887 Dawes Act, and had been divided and subdivided through generations. Oil and mineral companies, ranchers and loggers were making money from the land. The U.S. was supposed to be paying Native landowners accordingly. But Blackfoot banker Elouise Cobell smelled a rat. Not only had the United States been underpaying Native landowners, it had NO accounting system to measure the value of Indian land. So, in 1996, together with the Native American Rights fund, Elouise Cobell sued the United States government.. This is Elouise Cobell testifying before Congress.
Mary Johnson a Navaho cannot replace the windows on her small home because she lacks the funds, yet there are five oil wells pumping for decades on her land….
The clip is from a documentary called 100 years.
America said we will manage those lands for you and we will lease them and give you that check for as long as the grass grows and the wind blows. That was our money and they were using it whatever way they wanted to.
Elouise Cobell fought in court for more than 20 years. Originally she asked for 180 billion dollars. As the appeals and hearings went on, she watched elders - who might have benefitted - become frail and passed on. Cobell decided to compromise. So in 2009, she settled for 3.44 billion dollars.
PK: A lot of people opposed the settlement because it really was pennies on the dollar.
Patrice Kunesh was involved in the Cobell case from the beginning when she was a young lawyer at the Native American Rights Fund. She worked for the Obama administration and now she’s director of the Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Kunesh is Lakota from the Standing Rock reservation, one of 13 kids. She knew about allotment checks.
PK My mother was always wringing her hands. Is it going to come? How much is it going to be? We’re not talking a lot of money. But when times were tight it was just enough to get us over.
The 2009 settlement is making things. things a little better. $60 million dollars was will go toward the Cobell scholarship Fund for Native kids to go to college. But the bulk of it – nearly 2 billion dollars has to has to be spent on the land buyback program. Under the buyback program, the government pays people fair market value for their allotment, and then turns that land over to the tribe. In Minnesota, more than a thousand people with land on Fond du Lac decided to sell . Three thousand more turned down the government’s offer. Now, with about two years and 300 million dollars left to disburse, Bois Forte is eligible to participate.
Roger Heger is the fiduciary agent in charge of the program in Minnesota.
they will send you an offer that says here’s what we’re willing to pay you if you’re willing to sell that fractionated interest.
For Patrice Kunesh’s family, it was a tough decision. Her mother held on to the land.
PK: it was very important that we kept our original tract and the connection to the land. Other members of our family didn’t have that emotional connection and decided it would be better to give it back to the tribe.
You don’t have to be a member of Bois Forte or Fond du Lac to be eligible. You just have to hold an allotment there. For more information and to see if you may be eligible, you should check the tribal websites.
Marie: You can also call the trust beneficiary center. That number is 1 888. 678. 6836. 1 888. 678.6836.

MN Native News: Athena Latocha Exhibit In Grand Rapids & 2nd Annual Leech Lake Days

MN Native News: Athena Latocha Exhibit In Grand Rapids & 2nd Annual Leech Lake Days

MARIE: This week on Minnesota Native News, we explore Athena Latocha’s new exhibit in Grand Rapids that explores the relationship between man made objects and untamed nature. We’ll also check out the 2nd annual Leech Lake Days. First, here’s reporter Cole Premo.

------

ATHENA: “Letting the iron, just letting it run, letting it pool and letting it spatter and capturing that. I'm capturing that, those kind of moments, you know, and freezing them.”

Athena LaTocha says she’s more of an instigator than an artist, letting the raw material speak for itself. She’s worked with paper, ink, lead, tire shreds, grass, and many other types of materials. The list goes on..

Using these elements, her pieces often reflect the relationship of untamed nature and what is man made. She says she has an...

ATHENA: “Intrigue with materials, you know, and how, how place can influence that and how place has stories as well that can, um, that can learn to what it is that you do. You know, so there's a confluence.”

Her newest exhibition, showing at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, features an element well-known to the region. Iron.

ATHENA: “I've always wanted to, you know, for what, for almost 15 years now, I've been wanting to work, spend some time with iron, you know, and get to know iron a little bit more. But when you're getting to know the material, it's getting to know the history too, you know? And it's not just this, this thing, you know, there's something that brought it there, right? There's people that handled it. There's people that have stories about it.”

Fittingly, the exhibition is called “Mesabi” after both the Ojibwe word Mizaabee-wajew, meaning giant mountain, and the Mesabi Iron Range …a rough line of iron deposits in Minnesota -- and where she’s doing her exhibition.

So, in a way, she’s going to the “source”.. to work with iron in its many forms and create a piece of art reflecting the area.

The project required working with molten metal.

ATHENA: “There's the lure of the molten metal, you know, and there's a seductiveness with that. It's very, um, it's very hypnotic. You know, and it really kind of pulls you in because it's working with a different element, not just the element of, um, the element of the iron, but it's working with fire, you know, and liquefying it, right? And then seeing it move and flow and wanting it to move and flow in a way that you weren't controlling it. You're kind of like letting it do what it does, you know? So there was a certain kind of, there was a certain allure with that too.”

While Athena Latocha is not from Minnesota, she’s Lakota and Ojibwe from Alaska and says working with iron helped ground her to the area, like a coming home of sorts.

ATHENA: (41:39)”everything just kind of lit up, you know, the possibility of being in the woodlands, possibility of working iron, the possibility of being around Ojibwe and Lakota communities.”

As for the art itself, this Mesabi exhibition, I’m going to admit that I’m not the greatest at describing art… so let’s have Athena walk us around her piece, which was at the time a work in progress, and kind of bring it to life for us.

ATHENA:Speaker 1: (01:05:53) (WILL EDIT DOWN)
“I work on the floor. I can often see better when things are on the floor and I have some distance from them and they're not on a table or on an easel. So I can walk around them and consider them from all directions, from all sides, um, and access it more freely. So we're looking at, um, a lot of these poured iron forms and Spatters. some of them are spirals or um, ovoid spatter forms with an opening. And I'm also developing some works on paper using the, uh, some of the um, the spill from the poor little spatter forms, little minute spatter forms at, um, are separate from the larger forms that are just extra. Um, so I gather all those in a bucket and together with, you know, filings as I've worked on some of the pieces and laying them out on pieces of paper and introducing various chemicals and liquids to them to get them to rust. And moving them around on the paper and situating them in places and letting them rest there for a little while and stain the paper and to build up layers of rust on the paper. And then saturating the paper, relocating those iron elements to a different location and letting them rust and stain. Um, so there's, in the, in the works on paper there's more of an element of hand. There's more evidence of the hand cause you see a gesture or movement.”

You can see Athena Latocha’s exhibition, Mesabi, all through the month of July at the Macrostie Art Center in Grand Rapids. I’m Cole Premo.

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MARIE: Next, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe recently celebrated its 2nd annual Leech Lake Days. Reporter Kayla Duoos was there and she shares some of the sights and sounds from the celebrations.

[ambi sound with clip of Chairman Ferron Jackson’s speech] (if you’re crunched for time, upload what you’ve got and I’ll cut it)

REPORTER: That’s Leech band Member and MNDOT Tribal Liason Levi Brown on June 28th welcoming a crowd of about 800 people to Leech Lake Days.

[ambi from crowd cheering?] (upload what you’ve got and I’ll cut it.)

This is an official Band holiday for Leech Lake.

Band Leaders decided that in addition to celebrating the usual U-S federal holidays, the Band would create its own holiday.

It’s a time to acknowledge all of the positive things about being indigenous and living on the Leech Lake reservation.

Deputy Director Gordon Fineday sits on the planning committee.

I asked him to share his thought process behind the event.

FINEDAY: I think growing up here at home, we don't really have a chance to celebrate who we are, we always celebrate different things, different holidays. We never had a day designated for us and for who we are and to show that we’re still here, for me that's what resonates with me. I wanted this event so my kids and my grandkids will have something that they can say hey i'm from here, this is home, we’re still here.

It sounds like others agree that this event was needed.

Sydney Harper shared why she’s proud to celebrate being a Leech Laker.

AUDIO CLIP:

The holiday celebration is spread over 3 days.

Over the first two days there are 12 booths from the Band’s various programs and over 15 activities.

There’s a hand-drum contest…

[more ambi sound - hand drumming contest]

There’s also games, crafting, cook-offs, car pile-ins and a best of “rez cars” display.

On the third day of the celebration is the Band’s pow wow.

It used to be on July 4th.

But the planning committee moved it to coincide with the Band’s holiday rather than the U-S federal holiday.

For further coverage on Leech Lake Days, check out LeechLakeNews.com

I’m Kayla Duoos with the DeBahJimon, for MN Native News

OUTRO

Minnesota Native News: Indigenous Leadership

Story #1 - LaPionte Tiwahe Report from UN (2:05)

HOST: The Minnesota-based organizers of Mni Ki Wakan were at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues this past April. Earlier this month they held a community meeting in Minneapolis to report back on their experience at the UN. Reporter Melissa Townsend was there and has this report.

The LaPointe family is Sicangu, Lakota and based in Eagan, Minnesota. They started the Indigenous Decade of Water. mni ki wakan in 2016. Wakiyan Lapointe explains:

LAPOINTE:: Mni ki wakan is a global indigenous water movement that brings together indigenous peoples and youth for the future of water - to develop innovations, transformations that we can coordinate and plan together. (:13)

For the past 2 years the LaPointe family has organized a Mni Ki Wakan summit in the Twin Cities Metro. There, Indigenous people from across the globe have come to share knowledge and gain support for their local efforts.

It’s that work that the Lapointe family wanted to share at this year’s UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.It was timely, since the theme of this year’s UN conference was Traditional Knowledge Transmission, Generation and Protection.

LAPOINTE: Many indigenous peoples and youth contacted us and we met with them on their indigenous water initiatives, working on the areas of indigenous water governance, water policy, food sovereignty as it connects to water, indigenous human rights as it connects to water. (:19)

Wakiyan and his family plan to continue their work at the third Mni ki wakan conference.That’s happening this August in the Black Hills in South Dakota. For more information, check facebook for mni ki wakan

Wakiyan Lapointe: M-N-I SPACE K-I SPACE W-A-K-A-N.

There’s also a video from their trip to the UN.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.

STORY #2 - WHITE EARTH ELECTIONS RESULTS READER (:30)

In Minnesota ChippewaTribe election results ….The White Earth and Grand Portage Bands of Ojibwe have held their primary elections for new tribal Chairmen. At White Earth 2 candidates moved through the primary and will face off in the general election on August 6th.

It’s the same situation in Grand Portage.Two primary winners will compete in their General election on July 1st.

Both elections were scheduled after the tribal chairman of each Band passed away this spring. The winners of the upcoming general elections will serve out the remainder of the current term.

STORY #3 - ANNIVERSARY OF LANDMARK COURT CASE THAT MADE WAY FOR TRIBAL CASINOS (2:00)

HOST: June 14th marked the 43rd anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Bryan v. Itasca County. The ruling limited taxation on Indian reservations paving the way for tribal casinos.
Reporter Kayla Duoos has the story.

I asked the Director of the Indian Law Program at Mitchell Hamline School of Law Colette Routel to tell me about the history and implications of this case.

ROUTEL: In 1972, Helen and Russel Bryan were living on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, on a parcel of land that was held in trust by the United States, and that Helen Bryan had actually been born on. It was her grandfathers allotment, and the couple had recently purchased a mobile home which was on the property and Itasca County had decided to tax that property. (:25)

REPORTER: The Itasca county tax was levied according to the Termination Era Public Law 280.

ROUTEL: The state generally does not have the authority to tax tribal property, or property that's owned by tribal members on an Indian reservation unless Congress has explicitly granted the state that authority. The question in Bryan vs Itasca County really was whether Public Law 280 authorized local government [cut] to tax [cut] mobile homes on Indian reservations within the state of Minnesota. (:26)

REPORTER: The case went through serval court houses debating the true meaning of Public Law 280 before ultimately being presented to the Minnesota Supreme Court that ruled in the tribal members’ favor. Leech Lake Government Relations Attorney Lenny Fineday shares the impact that this case had on the tribe and Indian country.

FINEDAY: Bryan vs Itasca county was actually a seminal case that laid the foundation for the multi-billion dollar Indian gaming industry that we have today and it all started with a band member who was assessed for tax on trailer on trust property. (:18)

This case was the first big win for the Leech Lake Reservation Legal Services Project, now known as Anishinaabe Legal Services, a non-profit legal aid for Band members.

To this day Helen Charwood-Bryan resides on the property over which the initial dispute arose.

I’m Kayla Duoos with DeBahJiMon for Minnesota Native News.

MN Native News: The Creative Force

Headlines:
Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, a first-of-its-kind celebration of Native women.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 Hearts of our Peope]
[Marie:]
A new exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art – or Mia – honors indigenous women artists from many nations in North America. Reporter Laurie Stern met up with Mia’s Dakota Hoska for a tour.
Tape: Lakota greeting My name is Dakota. I'm a Lakota woman enrolled in the Pine Ridge reservation and I live in the twin cities.
Laurie: Dakota Hoska is a painter who has spent much of her adult life making and studying art. She’s been working for Mia on the new exhibit for four years.
Dakota Hoska
one of my favorite parts is this Rose Simpson tricked out El Camino. And this is a car that this artist built from the ground up
Laurie: I had noticed the black lowrider-pickup in the middle of the room, but for some reason I didn’t realize we were already in the exhibit. Dakota Hoska pointed out the detail:
The black glossy design on the black matte finish; the black suede covers on the black leather seats; the metal work on the mirrors, handles and grille, the rebuilt engine, the pulsing sound system, the special brakes a powerful car needs – it’s all part of Rose Simpson’s idea.
Dakota Hoska
She still drives this car. She actually offered to drive it up for the exhibition. We're like, no, no, no. We'll ship it.
Laurie: Rose Simpson – the artist – lives in Espanola New Mexico, which is the self-proclaimed lowrider capital of the world. Simpson has been working on cars since she was 12. She named this 1985 El Camino “Maria.” It’s design honors traditional black-on-black Pueblo pottery. It’s power defies machismo culture.
Dakota Hoska
her artwork just in general does challenge gender stereotypes. So she's doing a lot about questioning gender, questioning power questioning tradition and stereotypes and it's all kind of encapsulated in this one work.
Laurie: Just beyond the El Camino is a gallery with a video screen. The artist Mona Smith recorded the activist Juanita Espinosa greeting visitors to the exhibit. This is Juanita.
Juanita
I am Dakota Ojibwe from Spirit Lake nation and I've lived in the twin cities for about 40. You told my knowledge of, of what I understand to be date of art is that it's the act of doing, because there is no word for art in our culture specifically. Many of us forget that in this culture that we've come to adapt to. Um, it puts labels and titles on who we are and how we should be, and then it creates a measure in our way of life. The act of doing and creating and sharing encourages a communal family approach to how we live our lives and how we, um, encourage each other. So there is no scale but only a recognition of the act of being a maker.
Laurie: After the greeting from Juanita Espinosa, visitors enter galleries that display regalia, paintings, videos, sculptures and other installations, each one as carefully curated as it was made. A panel next to each piece of art tells visitors about the artist and the context – in English and, where possible, in the language of the maker. Dakota Hoska says at last count 68 languages were represented.

Dakota Hoska:
We were Gung Ho about translating all of the languages, but some communities came back and said, you know, we don't share our translations with the outside world, you know. So there, there was a lot of like give and take and deep listening. I think that was important in, you know, it's, it's really hard to listen deeply because we're not used to doing that.

So it was hard. It was hard for a Western institution who is running on like deadlines and timelines. And budgets and those things like deep listening kind of pushes the boundaries on all of those things.

Maybe good art always pushes boundaries, but THIS exhibit does it deliberately. Every single piece challenges conventional thinking. The exhibit was produced by a 21-member all-woman, mostly Native board. It will be at Mia through August 18, but will live on in a catalogue that’s available at the bookstore or online.
Dakota:
a lot of them were saying, I was looking for this stuff in the scholarship and I couldn't find that. I want to leave a legacy for our children. I want our young women artists to be able to find this when they are looking. And so like the catalog that the exhibition is great and I love it, but the catalog was in some ways more important for us because that was really a directive from our board that we created something that went on.
MARIE: You can see “Hearts of Our People” at no cost if you’re Native. You just have to say so at the ticket desk. You can learn more about the exhibit by visiting artsmia.org.