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Native Lights | stories of people within Minnesota’s Native communities
This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about a big boost to a handful of organizations working with Native communities. We also hear about a new book from Cheryl Minnema [MIN-eh-muh] and a new exhibit featuring Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead.
HEADLINES: This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about a big boost to a handful of organizations working with Native communities. We also hear about a new book from Cheryl Minnema [MIN-eh-muh] and a new exhibit featuring Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead.
STORY #1 - BUSH PRIZE FOR COMMUNITY INNOVATION
The Minnesota Based Bush Foundation has announced the winners of its 2019 Bush Prize for Community Innovation.Three of the five winning organizations work specifically with Native people and tribes.
The Minnesota American Indian Women’s Resource Center has been awarded 500-thousand dollars for their work in Minneapolis.
408-thousand dollars went to the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance for its work building affordable renewable energy systems with tribal communities in the northland.
And South Dakota State University was awarded 500-thousand dollars for its initiatiave to transform the campus to be more welcoming and supportive of Native students.
Bush Foundation President Jennifer Ford Reedy says the Bush Prize winners exhibit remarkable creativity and tenacity in addressing issues that are most important to their communities.
STORY #2 NEW BOOK FROM CHERYL MINNEMA
Next… Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe member Cheryl Minnema [MIN-eh-muh] published her first childrens book in 2014. And her second children’s book is out now. Reporter Melissa Townsend talked with her about her new work.
Cheryl Minnema grew up around her Grandmother and her younger brother Johnny in northern Minnesota. And they are both the central characters in her books — Hungry Johnny and Johnny’s Pheasant.
MINNEMA: Yes, Grandma and Johnny are very impressionable people in my life. It’s easy to draw from those memories.
Her brother Johnny passed away a number of years ago but he comes to mind often.
CHERYL: Sometimes I set out to write a particular story that I have in my mind. And then I realize I hear Johnny’s voice in it. (:10)
Cheryl Minnema’s newest book - Johnny’s Pheasant - is an elegantly simple story. She purposefully doesn’t do a lot of explanation or offer a lot of backstory in the book.
MINNEMA: I set out to present situations that are very normal and very natural within the culture. Whether Grandma is visiting or Grandma lives with the nuclear family - it’s just very natural. (:14)
It all starts when Johnny and his Grandma see a pheasant laying motionless on the side of the road. Is he dead or sleeping? You don’t know until the end of the story.
Minnema also writes poetry and it comes through in her writing — like when she describes a feather “zigging and zagging and zigging and zagging ” to the ground.
The story’s Ojibwe Cultural references are clear but also subtle. The Grandmother tells Johnny - if the pheasant is dead - she can use the feathers in her craftwork. And I wonder if this is the only published children’s book where the last lines are “Howah!”
MINNEMA: It’s an expression within the Ojibwe language expression of like Wow, thank you. There is so much in that little word. (:14)
Just like there is so much in this short story. Johnny’s Pheasant is illustrated by Julie Flett who is Cree-Metis and published by the University of Minnesota Press. For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.
STORY #3 - NEW MIA EXHIBIT OF JULIE BUFFALOHEAD’S WORK
St Paul based artist Julie Buffalohead has a new exhibit opening at the Minneapolis Institute of Art later this month. Buffalohead is a citizen of the Ponca tribe in Oklahoma. This exhibit features 5 new pieces of art - but 3 of them are huge - 12 feet tall and 4 and 1/2 feet long!
YOHE: There is nobody out there doing what Julie does. (:03)
Jill Ahlberg Yohe [YO-hee] co-curated the exhibit with Josephine Lampone, who is Kiowa. Ahlberg says art is a language and Julie Buffalohead is using that language to tell stories about social, political, and personal experiences.
YOHE: Well this incredible work Cages is about being in cages and what that means historically and what that means in contemporary moments (:09)
The work is deep and layered. Animals are often central characters in her work and Buffalohead does not decipher each detail for the viewer.
YOHE: As you know many non-Native people have this urgency to decode it — what does it mean - what does it really mean? What does this symbol mean? [laughs] (:13)
Co-curator Josephine Lampone includes some descriptions of Native animal stories in the exhibit, but viewers are encouraged to do their own thinking. The exhibit opens at MIA in Minneapolis on November 23rd and runs through September 2020.
Co-curater Jill Ahlberg Yohe [YO-hee] says she expects Julie Buffalohead will soon be in high demand internationally.
This week on Minnesota Native News, we look forward to two very different grand openings. One is a permanent exhibit at the Minnesota History Center called Our Home; the other is brand new youth housing called Mino Oski Ain Dah Yung, “Our Good New Home.”
Red Lake Nation recently changed who can be a citizen. It used to require one-quarter Red Lake blood quantum. As Laurie Stern reports, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe may make changes too.
Headlines:
Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, we talk about enrollment, and what’s in a name.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 Enrollment]
Marie: Red Lake Nation recently changed who can be a citizen. It used to require one-quarter Red Lake blood quantum. But starting in January, anyone who was an enrolled member in 1958 will be considered full-blood. As Laurie Stern reports, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is thinking about making changes too.
Laurie: Red Lake Nation changed the enrollment rules to reverse what Secretary Sam Strong called intentional mathematical genocide. David Treuer from Leech Lake agrees.
DT: It was the general thinking of the United States government that if they institute blood quantum laws we would breed ourselves out of existence within a generation or two.
Treuer is a historian and author. His new book is called The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee. Treuer says blood quantum is a divisive and problematic way to decide who gets to be a tribal member. Blood matters, he says, but so do language, ceremony and culture.
DT: We understand ourselves in many ways beyond blood and our discussions are beginning to evolve to meet the ways in which I think we’ve always thought of ourselves. It’s exciting. It’s time in this age of gathered and growing strength we think about how we want to organize ourselves.
The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe – which includes Leech Lake and five other bands – is considering the enrollment question right now. A constitutional committee meets monthly to gather input on whether and how criteria should change.
GF: I’m Gary Frazer, Executive Director of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe here in Cass Lake. We set our own enrollment. We should decide who our members are and who aren’t our members. Bottom line that’s probably what we’re going to get out of it, similar to what Red Lake did.
Frazer says the MCT has lost about a thousand members over the past twenty years, and membership will continue to decline as people marry outside the tribe because their children and their children’s children will have less blood quantum. Frazer says there’s no consensus yet on how to reverse the trend but the enrollment committee has heard many ideas for how to make membership more inclusive. He says members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe will be getting a survey in the mail, and there will soon be a Facebook page for members to weigh in. Red Lake Nation is holding a special enrollment meeting the end of January. Enrollment reform is just one part of a movement across Indian Country to reform tribal constitutions. For MNN I’m Laurie Stern
[Story #2 Historic Ft. Snelling Name Change]
Marie: The state historical site at Ft. Snelling just closed for the season, but the discussion about what to call it is ramping up. The name of the 1820’s fort will remain Fort Snelling. But, what the 23-acre site around the Fort should be called… that’s up for discussion. The public has until mid-November to weigh in with ideas and suggestions. This is Kevin Maijala (MY-a-la), the deputy director of learning at the Minnesota Historical Society.
(KM History is about everybody’s story. We want to be sure the Native perspective is in there, we’ve been adding items about treaties and trade, about tragedies at Ft. Snelling, the concentration camp where Dakota were interred after the war of 1862. It’s a painful place but it’s also a place of origin for Dakota people. Maybe it’s time to change the name to reflect that broader story that we’re trying to tell.
Marie: Maijala says more than 5,000 people have so far contributed their thoughts through emails, public meetings and the survey. The History Center will summarize those views and likely recommend a name change to the legislature in 2020. You can find the survey through November 15 at m-n-h-s dot org slash naming.
This week… Women’s Handrumming groups gathered at the Cloquet Foresty Center to share songs and knowledge… to make drums, and celebrate community.
Marie: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
Headlines: This week… Women’s Handrumming groups gathered at the Cloquet Foresty Center to share songs and knowledge… to make drums, and celebrate community.
Here’s Reporter Leah Lemm with the story.
STORY #1 - WOMEN’S HAND-DRUM GATHERING
REPORTER: The Oshkii Gizhiik Singers Women’s Handrum Gathering is an annual event that includes individual hand drum participants and groups from around the state.
The participants at the gathering span generations and backgrounds. In attendance are the Strawberry Moon Singers, Ikidowin Youth, Oshkii Gizhik Singers… plus members of the Fond du Lac Sober Squad, and the group Helping Others With Addiction and Healing (HOWAH). All are here to connect, learn, and sing songs.
When I arrive at the gathering, the morning is grey. But inside the conference room at the Cloquet Forest History Center, it is bright with ribbon skirts and smiling faces. I’m invited to join the circle and sing along. I’m a bit nervous since I don’t know any songs, but I’m honored to add my voice and so I give it a try.
Across the circle sits Lyz Jaakola. She sings with the hosting drum group, Oshki Giizhik Singers.
LYZ JAAKOLA: [Anishinaabemowin] I'm from Fond du Lac reservation. [Anishinaabemowin] I teach at the Fond du Lac tribal and community college. I teach music there. I also do community organizing around singing around language initiatives around environmental issues. And we started this hand drum gathering over 10 years ago.
When we first started having the gathering, we were intentional about inviting elders from different communities to share the teachings because I think that is kind of sewing our communities back together, uh, with, with the women's teachings and women's, you know, community work.
REPORTER: And as I chat with the women, it really is apparent how connected they are through singing and drumming. Lyz learned how to make drums from Sharon Day, who is also in attendance.
SHARON DAY: my real name is [Anishinaabemowin] Singing Wolf from Boise Forte. I’m the executive director of the indigenous people's task force. And I lead Nibi walks along the rivers and I help with the Ikidowen youth theater ensemble and I do hand drumming.
I grew up singing and my family and my dad never had a drum, but he would take us outside and turn a can over of Arco coffee and he would do a teaching and then he would sing and we would, we would dance. So I grew up singing and learning songs. I'd say like in the 70s, my sisters and I, we started doing sweats and, going to ceremonies and so we learned songs.
And everybody liked it and we became the Neeconis Women Singers. Sometime in the 90s I asked, an Ojibwe man, William Wilson, if he would teach me how to make hand drum. And he did. and I made hand drums from by myself for a while, me and my grandson. Then I started, um, teaching women how to make hand drums.
REPORTER: As we sit in the circle singing, I notice a woman with bright red hair and a strong voice holding a lovely looking drum with deep purple swirls.
SARAH CURTISS:My name is Sarah Curtiss in English. My Anishinaabe name is [Anishinaabemowin]. I'm Eagle clan and I am the Co-executive director for an organization called Men As Peacemakers.
I actually was gifted that drum by a couple in Canada that make those kinds of drums. It's really special to me because I say the Creator made me a weird Indian on purpose, like the kind with different color hair that likes to be punk rock. I bead spiked bracelets that I wear all the time and I love the color and the uniqueness of that because I come from a family that was really impacted by relocation, by foster care system and these things.
REPORTER: Sarah first met Lyz at an art festival and Lyz encouraged her to join the hand drum group.
SARAH CURTISS: I remember drumming and being just pitiful and like just having it done and then leaving, walking out of the tribal college and having someone say to me wow, you have a good voice… being a survivor of violence and being a survivor of a lot of trauma, like that really did something for me. And so singing with this group really taught me how to find my voice and how to use it powerfully and use it together with other Indian people, Indian women.
REPORTER: And as we all sing together, repeating the musical lines again and again, I no longer feel nervous, but a sense of calm and belonging.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.
This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about what urban Native leaders in South Minneapolis are doing about public health problems connected to the great number of people who are homeless and using illicit opioids.
HOST: In South Minneapolis, urban Native leaders are focused on public safety concerns tied to people who are homeless and using opioids on the streets. Reporter Melissa Townsend tells us more.
MELISSA: At a recent community meeting I met Abel [geb-reh-hee-wut].
He works with the Indigenous People’s Task Force Needle Exchange. The program is on the ground in the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis. They offer many services for intravenous drug users, including handing out clean syringes in exchange for used ones.
[ambi sound]
Abel and his co-worker Mo Mike also do sweeps around the neighborhood - most mornings and most evenings. Today, I’m along with Abel.
ABEL: This right here is the first place we’re going to stop. Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center - they have a park for their kids and often times what we noticed is that any place there is somewhere to sit , if you can’t be seen from the street, that’s where people will use. (:20)
He has a silver bucket and what I’ll call a grabber, like a metal pole with a mechanical hand on the end. He doesn’t want to touch the needles on the ground.
[clink]
?
ABLE: I kind of keep my eye open for the orange caps. And if we find an orange cap then a syringe is probably near by. And there goes another one eyeing me down right there [clang in the bucket]. (:17)
Hepatitus C and H-I-V can be transmitted from sharing a needle or from being stuck by a used needle.
So collecting stray needles help stop the spread of the disease and keep people safe.
ABEL: We don’t want the kids to climb over people or even have to watch every step for syringes and that’s really a big part of why we started doing the sweeps. (:10)
We walk down the block behind All Nation’s Church. There are a handful of needles on the ground, lots of orange caps. And someone is laying under several blankets in the corner. Abel whispers:
ABEL: [whispers] We’ll probably just go around him.
We’ll probably just go around him. He says normally he would check to make sure the person was alive and then he would ask him to move.
ABLE: In a situation like that it kind of breaks my heart because you don’t want to shoo them away to nowhere.
Abel doesn’t feel good about telling people to move — because he knows there’s no. where. for them. to go. There is some frustration that these problems persist after all the attention that was given to the tent city that was in this area last year.
But urban Native leaders are meeting intensely to figure out what they can do now. And they are engaging city, county and state officials on how they can contribute to the solution.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.
Gerry Zink is 16 year old. He’s Mnicoujou [mini-CON—joo] Lakota from Cheyenne River. And he’s a comics aficionado. He has recently started posting his movie reviews on Facebook. And today he shares his review of a blockbuster film out in theaters now.
HOST: Gerry Zink is 16 year old. He’s Mnicoujou [mini-CON—joo] Lakota from Cheyenne River. And he’s a comics aficionado.
He has recently started posting his movie reviews on Facebook.
And today he shares his review of a blockbuster film out in theaters now.
GERRY: The movie “Joker” is a great, thought-provoking character study of Arthur Fleck, and his descent into the sociopathic Joker. If you are expecting Joker to be a superhero movie, then you are going to be surprised with how darkly character driven it is.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a working class clown performer who has dreams of becoming a comedian.
In the beginning, we see some of Arthur’s more disturbing sides, but he can still control them. As the movie progresses, however, we see what social isolation, backstabbing, and abuse can do to a person like Arthur. He becomes more disturbing. The movie wisely does not stylize, sanitize, or justify Arthur’s horrible deeds. The violence is genuinely unnerving and hard to watch.
Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in the movie. He embodies the loneliness, social isolation, and mental disorders that make Arthur such an interesting character. He is somewhat sympathetic, but Arthur is a sociopath and the movie doesn’t mask that. Because the story is told from Arthur’s perspective, it’s up to the viewer to interpret wheather different scenes are real or not. This gives the film an amazing ambiguity that will be discussed for a while.
The only problems with the movie have to do with the fact that it focuses so tightly on Arthur Fleck. There’s not much depth to the supporting characters. The motivations of many of the side characters are intentionally unexplained.
The movie is also a complete deviation from the version of the Joker from other media. If the movie wasn’t called “Joker”, there would be very few connections to the Batman franchise.
In conclusion, I think “Joker” is a game changer for comic book movies. It is an incredible, standalone character piece, that is still able to offer up a great critique of society. I give the movie 9 out of 10.
HOST: That was Gerry Zinc, the 16 year old Lakota comics enthusiast with his review of “Joker”.
This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about what urban Native leaders in South Minneapolis are doing about public health problems connected to people who are homeless and using illicit opioids, and Gerry Zink shares his movie review of “Joker”.
STORY #1 - MUID WORKING FOR SOLUTIONS FOR PEOPLE STRUGGLING WITH HOMELESSNESS AND ADDICTION
In South Minneapolis, urban Native leaders are focused on public safety concerns tied to people who are homeless and using opioids on the streets.
Reporter Melissa Townsend tells us more.
At a recent community meeting I met Abel [geb-reh-hee-wut]. He works with the Indigenous People’s Task Force Needle Exchange. The program is on the ground in the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis. They offer many services for intravenous drug users, including handing out clean syringes in exchange for used ones.
[ambi sound]
Abel and his co-worker Mo Mike also do sweeps around the neighborhood - most mornings and most evenings. Today, I’m along with Abel today.
ABEL: This right here is the first place we’re going to stop. Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center - they have a park for their kids and often times what we noticed is that any place there is somewhere to sit , if you can’t be seen from the street, that’s where people will use. (:20)
He has a silver bucket and what I’ll call a grabber, like a metal pole with a mechanical hand on the end. He doesn’t want to touch the needles on the ground.
[clink] ?
ABLE: I kind of keep my eye open for the orange caps. And if we find an orange cap then a syringe is probably near by. And there goes another one eyeing me down right there [clang in the bucket]. (:17)
Hepatitus C and H-I-V can be transmitted from sharing a needle or from being stuck by a used needle. So collecting stray needles help stop the spread of the disease and keep people safe.
ABEL: We don’t want the kids to climb over people or even have to watch every step for syringes and that’s really a big part of why we started doing the sweeps. (:10)
We walk down the block behind All Nation’s Church. There are a handful of needles on the ground, lots of orange caps. And someone is laying under several blankets in the corner. Abel whispers:
ABEL: [whispers] We’ll probably just go around him.
We’ll probably just go around him. He says normally he would check to make sure the person was alive and then he would ask him to move.
ABLE: In a situation like that it kind of breaks my heart because you don’t want to shoo them away to nowhere.
Abel doesn’t feel good about telling people to move — because he knows there’s no. where. for them. to go. There is some frustration that these problems persist after all the attention that was given to the tent city that was in this area last year. But urban Native leaders are meeting intensely to figure out what they can do now. And they are engaging city, county and state officials on how they can contribute to the solution.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.
STORY #2 - JOKER MOVIE REVIEW
Movies about superheroes and super villains are super popular.
MARIE: Gerry Zink is 16 year old. He’s Mnicoujou [mini-CON—joo] Lakota from Cheyenne River. And he’s a comics aficionado.He has recently started posting his movie reviews on Facebook. And today he shares his review of a blockbuster film out in theaters now.
The movie “Joker” is a great, thought-provoking character study of Arthur Fleck, and his descent into the sociopathic Joker. If you are expecting Joker to be a superhero movie, then you are going to be surprised with how darkly character driven it is.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a working class clown performer who has dreams of becoming a comedian.
In the beginning, we see some of Arthur’s more disturbing sides, but he can still control them. As the movie progresses, however, we see what social isolation, backstabbing, and abuse can do to a person like Arthur. He becomes more disturbing. The movie wisely does not stylize, sanitize, or justify Arthur’s horrible deeds. The violence is genuinely unnerving and hard to watch.
Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in the movie. He embodies the loneliness, social isolation, and mental disorders that make Arthur such an interesting character. He is somewhat sympathetic, but Arthur is a sociopath and the movie doesn’t mask that. Because the story is told from Arthur’s perspective, it’s up to the viewer to interpret wheather different scenes are real or not. This gives the film an amazing ambiguity that will be discussed for a while.
The only problems with the movie have to do with the fact that it focuses so tightly on Arthur Fleck. There’s not much depth to the supporting characters. The motivations of many of the side characters are intentionally unexplained.
The movie is also a complete deviation from the version of the Joker from other media. If the movie wasn’t called “Joker”, there would be very few connections to the Batman franchise.
In conclusion, I think “Joker” is a game changer for comic book movies. It is an incredible, standalone character piece, that is still able to offer up a great critique of society. I give the movie 9 out of 10.
MARIE: That was Gerry Zinc, the 16 year old Lakota comics enthusiast with his review of “Joker”.
This week on Minnesota Native News, we talk with a native artist who has been selected for a new commission at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Here’s reporter Cole Premo with Angela Two Stars, talking about the artwork she is creating for the Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden.
INTRO SOUND OF POW WOW GROUNDS
At the All My Relations Arts gallery off of Franklin Avenue, I meet with Angela Two Stars. Sharing the same building, the bustling Pow Wow Grounds shop is just a few feet away, smelling of fresh coffee and echoing with the conversations of locals.
FADE SOUNDS
I’m here with Two Stars, who is the Gallery Director here at All My Relations Arts, to chat about about her recent commission: a new artwork piece to be part of the iconic Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
But first, recently it’s been a whirlwind of experiences, relocation and job opportunities for Two Stars. Let’s start with that quick:
TWO STARS: (00:32) “Yeah, it's been, um, a busy two years. I actually graduated from Kendall college of art and design in may of 2017 and actually before that, um, I exhibited here at all my relations arts. It was my first exhibition, um, as a, as a professional artist. And that kind of just launched my career.”
Two Stars, who grew up on Lake Traverse Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was later selected to make art pieces around Bde Maka Ska … wildlife depictions paired with their Dakota name.
TWO STARS: (01:07) “I learned of the call for art for the Bde Maka Ska and as a descendant of I was really excited to apply for that opportunity. And I was selected and started coming back here to Minnesota to be part of that planning process.”
After numerous art opportunities and exhibitions, she was offered the role of gallery director at All My Relations Arts, a native art organization in Minneapolis, and Angela Two Stars officially moved to Minnesota, a place she felt at home.
TWO STARS: (18:59) “For me, it was like that connection to the land, you know, cause this is where my ancestors originated from. So I feel so like a blood memory to the land.”
And that brings us to back Angela Two Stars’ latest commission: a piece at the sculpture garden that emphasizes Dakota language. She says it’s inspired by her grandfather Orson Bernard, an elder who worked in the tribe’s language program for the last 15 years of his life.
TWO STARS: (09:47) “I just remember thinking like what a legacy he was leaving behind because because of him and his work and all other elders, um, their work, like with language revitalization like that was keeping that language alive for myself and for my children and my grandchildren. So I wanted to create something that would honor that essentially like ripple effect across generations. And that's what my idea like spirit from as like a, the way one drop of water can reach out across a whole pond. One language speaker doing work can reach out to generations of speakers.”
Her work is a sculptural seating of sorts, based on the ripple effect of water.. Intended for children to climb and engage with, as well as adults.
TWO STARS: (11:38) “what I'm doing is I'm inviting the audience to come on a language journey with me. So like this ripple effect that they're going to be, um, exposed to is going to be something they have to kind of meander through. And so it also speaks for me, it's about how people come to the language. Um, I want to have a variety of language incorporated into this piece of Dakota language. The outside, I want to have some like basic language and then it gets more advanced the closer and closer you get into the center. So it's like these layers that you're getting into of like your language growth.”’
There will also be medicinal plants and water involved. A place of healing, and a place to reconnect with a language spoken across these lands for ages.
TWO STARS: (24:50) “The more you become reconnected with your language and culture, the more you become healed from, you know, past trauma and intergenerational trauma become more of a whole Dakota, you know, person.”
Two Stars’ proposal was selected by the Indigenous Public Art Selection Committee and Walker Art Center curatorial staff. Two Stars will be working closely with the Walker Art Center and consultants to install the new piece, with the completion and installation expected by Fall 2020. I’m Cole Premo.
This week on Minnesota Native News, we hear about a new change at the Pipestone National Monument after years of concerns from tribes.
the Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota says it will stop selling pipes.
That’s following consultation from tribal nations, who for decades have been saying that the sales desecrate sacred grounds.
For hundreds of years, native people have quarried the red pipestone at the site.
Native craftspeople will continue to demonstrate pipestone carving and share cultural history with visitors at the national monument.
Additionally, a downtown location, away from the site, will be opened to sell pipestone pipes.
This week on Minnesota Native News, we talk with a native artist who has been selected for a new commission at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and we hear about a new change at the Pipestone National Monument after years of concerns from tribes.
First, here’s reporter Cole Premo with Angela Two Stars, talking about the artwork she is creating for the Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden.
This week on Minnesota Native News, we talk with a native artist who has been selected for a new commission at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and we hear about a new change at the Pipestone National Monument after years of concerns from tribes.
First, here’s reporter Cole Premo with Angela Two Stars, talking about the artwork she is creating for the Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden.
INTRO SOUND OF POW WOW GROUNDS
At the All My Relations Arts gallery off of Franklin Avenue, I meet with Angela Two Stars. Sharing the same building, the bustling Pow Wow Grounds shop is just a few feet away, smelling of fresh coffee and echoing with the conversations of locals.
FADE SOUNDS
I’m here with Two Stars, who is the Gallery Director here at All My Relations Arts, to chat about about her recent commission: a new artwork piece to be part of the iconic Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
But first, recently it’s been a whirlwind of experiences, relocation and job opportunities for Two Stars. Let’s start with that quick:
TWO STARS: (00:32) “Yeah, it's been, um, a busy two years. I actually graduated from Kendall college of art and design in may of 2017 and actually before that, um, I exhibited here at all my relations arts. It was my first exhibition, um, as a, as a professional artist. And that kind of just launched my career.”
Two Stars, who grew up on Lake Traverse Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was later selected to make art pieces around Bde Maka Ska … wildlife depictions paired with their Dakota name.
TWO STARS: (01:07) “I learned of the call for art for the Bde Maka Ska and as a descendant of I was really excited to apply for that opportunity. And I was selected and started coming back here to Minnesota to be part of that planning process.”
After numerous art opportunities and exhibitions, she was offered the role of gallery director at All My Relations Arts, a native art organization in Minneapolis, and Angela Two Stars officially moved to Minnesota, a place she felt at home.
TWO STARS: (18:59) “For me, it was like that connection to the land, you know, cause this is where my ancestors originated from. So I feel so like a blood memory to the land.”
And that brings us to back Angela Two Stars’ latest commission: a piece at the sculpture garden that emphasizes Dakota language. She says it’s inspired by her grandfather Orson Bernard, an elder who worked in the tribe’s language program for the last 15 years of his life.
TWO STARS: (09:47) “I just remember thinking like what a legacy he was leaving behind because because of him and his work and all other elders, um, their work, like with language revitalization like that was keeping that language alive for myself and for my children and my grandchildren. So I wanted to create something that would honor that essentially like ripple effect across generations. And that's what my idea like spirit from as like a, the way one drop of water can reach out across a whole pond. One language speaker doing work can reach out to generations of speakers.”
Her work is a sculptural seating of sorts, based on the ripple effect of water.. Intended for children to climb and engage with, as well as adults.
TWO STARS: (11:38) “what I'm doing is I'm inviting the audience to come on a language journey with me. So like this ripple effect that they're going to be, um, exposed to is going to be something they have to kind of meander through. And so it also speaks for me, it's about how people come to the language. Um, I want to have a variety of language incorporated into this piece of Dakota language. The outside, I want to have some like basic language and then it gets more advanced the closer and closer you get into the center. So it's like these layers that you're getting into of like your language growth.”’
There will also be medicinal plants and water involved. A place of healing, and a place to reconnect with a language spoken across these lands for ages.
TWO STARS: (24:50) “The more you become reconnected with your language and culture, the more you become healed from, you know, past trauma and intergenerational trauma become more of a whole Dakota, you know, person.”
Two Stars’ proposal was selected by the Indigenous Public Art Selection Committee and Walker Art Center curatorial staff. Two Stars will be working closely with the Walker Art Center and consultants to install the new piece, with the completion and installation expected by Fall 2020. I’m Cole Premo.
PIPESTONE PIECE
In other news, the Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota says it will stop selling pipes.
That’s following consultation from tribal nations, who for decades have been saying that the sales desecrate sacred grounds.
For hundreds of years, native people have quarried the red pipestone at the site.
Native craftspeople will continue to demonstrate pipestone carving and share cultural history with visitors at the national monument.
Additionally, a downtown location, away from the site, will be opened to sell pipestone pipes.
OUTRO
