Minneapolis Police Try New Strategy to Connect with Urban Native Community

The Minneapolis Police Department is trying a new way to build trust with the urban American Indian community. Again, here’s reporter Melissa Townsend.

The Minneapolis police department has created a new community navigator position. Art Knight is Deputy Chief of Staff for the Minneapolis Police Department. He explains that this person is not a new patrol officer, but is part of the new Procedural Justice Division.

KNIGHT: Police response to a call is from a law enforcement standpoint. We are arresting people to deal with mental health issues. And we have to be looking at how we can solve that problem. And it shouldn’t be law enforcement doing it, because law enforcement is not equipped to do that. (:16)

The best case scenario is that Native residents of Minneapolis would trust the community navigator and use that person to connect with services when needs arise. That would be a pretty big change here.

LILLEGREN: The relationship between the community and the police department has been strained historically. (:06)

Robert Lillegren is CEO if the Native American Community Development Institute - or NACDI - in Minneapolis. He says he has been in consultation with police about this new community navigator position. He’s hopeful this person can be part of a larger strategy to build trust between urban Natives and the Minneapolis police.

LILLEGREN: To the extent that the liaison can really help the police department build authentic relationships in the community so that officers know and better understand who they are interacting with and who they are policing, that I think could change people’s behaviors. (:20)

The American Indian community navigator is one of 4 navigators being hired to serve specific ethnic communities in Minneapolis. The others will focus on the immigrant Latino community, the Somali and East African Community and the African American community.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend

Native Farm Bill Coalition is Making Headway in DC

A coalition of tribes and their allies are in Washington DC talking about food and agriculture.They want to help draft a federal farm bill that better serves tribal communities. Reporter Melissa Townsend tells us more.

It’s been since the 1970’s that tribal governments have been able to open and run their own medical clinics. That’s because they negotiated directly with the US government to receive federal funds to serve their citizens in a way they think is best.

Now - a coalition of tribes lead by Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community - are working to establish the same kind of self determination over food and agriculture programs. Colby Duren is part of the coalition.

He is Policy Director at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He says the coalition wants the U-S Department of Agriculture to allow tribal governments to run their own programs.

DUREN: There is a lot of ability for USDA to defer to states and so we want to make sure that in all those different places that it defers to states, it also defers to tribes as well.

And this goes way beyond food and agriculture. The USDA can lend money to state and local governments for rural development —so they can build anything from a community center to a housing complex to a broadband network. Colby Duren says the Native Farm Bill Coalition wants tribes to be able to access that money.

DUREN: That would really help tribal governments build out rural communities.

He says members of congress have been very receptive to these policy proposals. In fact, because of the work of the Native Coalition, Minnesota’s U.S. Senator Tina Smith proposed a bill that gives tribes authority to run their own SNAP programs — that’s the supplemental nutrition assistance program also known as food stamps.

DUREN: It’s really represents a very big step forward and an incredible recognition of tribal sovereignty. (:05)

The US House and Senate are expected to negotiate the final farm bill throughout the month of July.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.

Minnesota Native News: Farms, Sacred Sites and Police Navigators

STORY #1 - Native Farm Bill Coalition

A coalition of tribes and their allies are in Washington DC talking about food and agriculture. They want to help draft a federal farm bill that better serves tribal communities. Reporter Melissa Townsend tells us more.

It’s been since the 1970’s that tribal governments have been able to open and run their own medical clinics. That’s because they negotiated directly with the US government to receive federal funds to serve their citizens in a way they think is best.

Now - a coalition of tribes lead by Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community - are working to establish the same kind of self determination over food and agriculture programs.

Colby Duren is part of the coalition. He is Policy Director at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He says the coalition wants the U-S Department of Agriculture to allow tribal governments to run their own programs.

DUREN: There is a lot of ability for USDA to defer to states and so we want to make sure that in all those different places that it defers to states, it also defers to tribes as well.

And this goes way beyond food and agriculture. The USDA can lend money to state and local governments for rural development —so they can build anything from a community center to a housing complex to a broadband network. Colby Duren says the Native Farm Bill Coalition wants tribes to be able to access that money.

DUREN: That would really help tribal governments build out rural communities.

He says members of congress have been very receptive to these policy proposals. In fact, because of the work of the Native Coalition, Minnesota’s U.S. Senator Tina Smith proposed a bill that gives tribes authority to run their own SNAP programs — that’s the supplemental nutrition assistance program also known as food stamps.

DUREN: It’s really represents a very big step forward and an incredible recognition of tribal sovereignty. (:05)

The US House and Senate are expected to negotiate the final farm bill throughout the month of July. For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.

STORY #2 - MIAC denied expanded role in preventing disturbances to sacred sites

Back in Minnesota, we continue to follow up on the state legislative session that ended in May. The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council was denied their request for funds to expand their work preventing accidental disturbances to sacred sites.

Dennis Olson, head of MIAC, says they wanted to make sure tribe’s can weigh in on development projects before any ground is disturbed.

OLSON: There are things that are held by local tribal communities that doesn’t necessarily make its way into the full state record. (:09)

The provision was included in the state supplemental budget bill that Governor Dayton vetoed. Dayton said that bill was legislative gamesmanship on the part of state Republicans.

STORY #3 - Mpls Police Hire Create New Liason for American Indian Community

The Minneapolis Police Department is trying a new way to build trust with the urban American Indian community. Again, here’s reporter Melissa Townsend.

The Minneapolis police department has created a new community navigator position. Art Knight is Deputy Chief of Staff for the Minneapolis Police Department. He explains that this person is not a new patrol officer, but is part of the new Procedural Justice Division.

KNIGHT: Police response to a call is from a law enforcement standpoint. We are arresting people to deal with mental health issues. And we have to be looking at how we can solve that problem. And it shouldn’t be law enforcement doing it, because law enforcement is not equipped to do that. (:16)

The best case scenario is that Native residents of Minneapolis would trust the community navigator and use that person to connect with services when needs arise. That would be a pretty big change here.

LILLEGREN: The relationship between the community and the police department has been strained historically. (:06)

Robert Lillegren is CEO if the Native American Community Development Institute - or NACDI - in Minneapolis. He says he has been in consultation with police about this new community navigator position. He’s hopeful this person can be part of a larger strategy to build trust between urban Natives and the Minneapolis police.

LILLEGREN: To the extent that the liaison can really help the police department build authentic relationships in the community so that officers know and better understand who they are interacting with and who they are policing, that I think could change people’s behaviors. (:20)

The American Indian community navigator is one of 4 navigators being hired to serve specific ethnic communities in Minneapolis. The others will focus on the immigrant Latino community, the Somali and East African Community and the African American community. For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend

Minnesota Native News: Poet Joan Naviyuk Kane Joins North Woods Writing Conference, & Treasure Island Resort & Casino Presents Native American Heritage Night.

Marie: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
Headlines: Coming up…:
Poet and current Guggenheim Fellow, Joan Naviyuk Kane, teaches at the Minnesota North Woods Writing Conference in Bemidji…
And Treasure Island Resort & Casino Hosts Native American Heritage Night with the Saint Paul Saints at CHS Field in Saint Paul.

Here is reporter Leah Lemm with these stories…

STORY #1 - Guggenheim Fellow, Joan Naviyuk Kane, teaches at the Minnesota North Woods Writing Conference.

REPORTER: I walked into a large, circular room with tall ceilings displaying flags of the United States and tribal communities of Minnesota.

The American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University is the location of the annual Minnesota North Woods Writing Conference, where people gather to share writing, listen to others work, and enjoy the north woods.

Sean Hill is the Conference Director for the Minnesota North Woods Writing Conference.

HILL: Every year, in the third week in June, we hold the conference, and the goal is to bring excellent teachers of writing, creative writing, to northern Minnesota.

REPORTER: This year, the group of excellent writers includes Joan Naviyuk Kane, whom Sean had met at a reading in Fairbanks, Alaska, and was immediately struck by her work and her presence.

Mathew Hawthorne is Conference Coordinator:

HAWTHORNE: Since we're in between three reservations here in Bemidji, we try to draw native writers and native participants.

REPORTER: Joan is Inupiaq with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo, Alaska… and has earned several awards including the 2009 Whiting Writer’s Award… the 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship, a 2017 Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, and is a current Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry.

The Guggenheim is a highly selective fellowship for those who have proven themselves throughout their careers in scholarship… or the creative arts.

Joan made her way to Bemidji from Anchorage, Alaska to join the conference.

KANE: It feels really good to be in this space here, particularly in the American Indian Resource Center… and also to be in the same kind of boreal forest that I live in Anchorage. I feel this strange kind of almost lyric relationship to time and place that I'm coming.

REPORTER: Joan read on the second night of the conference, including poems from past works like “Cormorant Hunter’s Wife” and “Hyperboreal.” She recognized that the conference is an appropriate place to read new work.

KANE: I think a lot more of the new work, especially the prose type stuff is more of the projects I'm going to be working on in my Guggenheim year. Work that's a little bit more narrative than some of my earlier work. But I think that's kind of what I was reading tonight.

REPORTER:
Joan’s books include The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife, Hyperboreal, The Straits, Milk Black Carbon, and Sublingual.

STORY #2 - Treasure Island Resort & Casino Hosts Native American Heritage Night with the Saint Paul Saints at CHS Field.

REPORTER: Next, Prairie Island Indian Community, Treasure Island Resort and Casino and Saint Paul Saints Baseball team up to host Native American Heritage Night at CHS Field in Saint Paul.

According to the Saint Paul Saints press release, Native American Heritage Night was held to honor all Native Americans and to particularly remember Louis Sockalexis, a member of the Penobscot Indian tribe of Maine, who was the first Native, and first recognized minority, to play baseball in the National League.

Artist Marlena Myles sits at a table with buffalo skull cutouts as people trace the edges onto a tablecloth and decorate with colorful designs and positive words. Marlena mentions several aspects to Native American Heritage Night at CHS Field.

MYLES: Well we have our art activity, which is Buffalo Nation, which is something Keith Braveheart started at Northern Spark. And then we're having the little art market of Native art from the Center School students plus some of my art. And then we put up a bunch of Dakota signage and I know that the dancers from Prairie Island and coming down to perform as well.

REPORTER: The Dakota language signage included words for mustard, ketchup, bathroom, water, and other words normally found around the stadium.

Included in the festivities was member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and citizen of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe, Peggy Flanagan, who sang the National Anthem.

For Minnesota Native News…. I’m Leah Lemm.

Minnesota Native News: Legislative Update

Headlines: This week on Minnesota Native News we look back at the legislative session and two proposals that will impact tribes and Native people in the state.

STORY #1 - RED LAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT IS APPROVED FOR $14M IN BONDING (1:30)

This is Melinda Crowley’s first year as Superintendent of the Red Lake School District. And this year, she and the district’s leadership team requested 14 and a 1/2 million dollars from the legislature.

CROWLEY: We have children that are getting classes in closets and other hallway facilities, etc.

This year 99.4 percent of Red Lake students are American Indian and the number of children entering elementary school is growing every year.

Willie Larson, the Red Lake School District Business Manager, says the cafeteria needs a huge redesign.

LARSON: When you have a cafeteria designed for 300 kids and you trying to put 600 kids through there for breakfast, it just doesn’t work. (:08)

So Crowley and Larson got to work when the legislative session began.

CROWLEY: Well, number one, we’ve been going for this for quite a few years. So lots of work has been done previously. I spent a fair amount of time this year down at the capital myself making sure this was in front of people. We had senators and representatives tour the facilities so they knew what was going on. (:17)

And they were successful! The Legislature and Governor passed a bonding bill that included 14 million dollars for the Red Lake School District construction.

Crowley and Larson say they expect to break ground next summer.

STORY #3 - Legislature fails to establish the MMIW Task Force (3:30)

Earlier this year Governor Dayton proclaimed May 5th as a day to call attention to missing and murdered indigenous women. But many of Minnesota’s indigenous women wanted more than that. Reporter Melissa Townsend has the story.

Representative Mary Kunesh Podein says the idea started with a BBC series she was watching on TV. It was about Canada’s inquiry into their missing and murdered indigenous women.

MKP: It was broadcasted in the evenings around 10 o’clock and was just really emotionally and socially affected by it. And then just about that time is when Savannah Greywind went missing. (:17)

Savannah Greywind was a Native woman living with her family in Fargo, North Dakota. Greywind was brutally murdered and her newborn baby was stolen.

MKP: It was awful. Absolutely. A lot of the indigenous people knew what was going on and it was not put into the general news or broadcasted until it came out that she was pregnant. (:22)

Law enforcement found Greywind’s killers. But that does not happen in a lot of cases where indigenous women go missing or are found murdered.
There is no good data on how many indigenous women are missing, but there does seem to be a remarkably high number of unsolved cases.

The U. S. Senator from North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp, proposed the Savannah Bill to improve the situation. And that got Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein thinking…

MKP: What the heck, I’m a state legislature - why aren’t I doing this? (:05)

So she called together more than 30 indigenous women and Native groups from across the state. She asked them what they thought of a statewide task force on missing and murdered indigenous women.

MKP: And everybody was just like yes, yes yes. And they gave me really, really good feedback. And it was great to see them literally and figuratively at the table. (:12)

They wanted the task force to engage public agencies to collect data on how many indigenous women are missing and murdered, and then make policies to reduce that number and solve the cold cases.

When the bill was first heard in the House, Native women gave testimony about their relatives who were murdered or missing and their own experiences of violence.

MKP: There was hardly a dry eye in the committee room. I get goosebumps every time I talk about it. Just the raw emotion and horror on people’s face. (:10)

Kunesh-Podein says many of the state representatives had no idea this is happening.

MKP: And you can’t blame a lot of people because they don’t know about it. But once they heard about it, they were filled with concern and compassion and pledged their support for the bill. (:11)

After two hearings, the bill landed in the supplemental budget bill for the Governor’s approval. But - Governor Dayton vetoed that bill.

MKP: We were so close and it just didn’t happen. But everybody is like next year, next year, next year. (:08)

Mary Kunesh-Podein says she will propose the bill again - next year.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.