Honoring Simone Senogles: A Voice for the Earth and Indigenous Communities

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.

ANCHOR: A Minnesotan was taken from us at an early age, leaving a lasting legacy. Then, Minnesota health officials make recommendations about COVID-19 vaccinations. And, the pardons board denies clemency for a Twin Cities professor.

I'm Chantel SinGs.

The Minnesota Department of Health, or MDH, is endorsing new COVID-19 vaccine recommendations from top medical groups. Health officials say the vaccines prevent severe illness and death, and they want to ensure broad access. The guidance recommends vaccination for everyone over six months old, with a strong emphasis on children under two, pregnant women, high-risk individuals, and older adults. More information is available at the MDH website

In today's main story, Katharine DeCelle remembers the extraordinary life and legacy of Simone Senogles, a dedicated Indigenous activist who passed away in Bemidji at the age of 54.

Katey DeCelle: The world has lost a compassionate protector, advocate and justice fighter, Simone Senogles, who recently passed away in September.

Simone Senogles: Boozhoo. [Introduces herself in Ojibwe-mowin.] My name is Simone Senogles. My family is from the Red Lake Nation here in Northern Minnesota.

Katey DeCelle: That's Simone speaking in Regaining Food Sovereignty, a documentary she wrote and directed with Lakeland PBS, a public TV station serving Northern Minnesota, and the Indigenous Environmental Network. The documentary was about the food systems in Northern Minnesota Native communities.

Simone Senogles: This is a story about food. It's about our relationship with food as Indigenous peoples and as all human beings.

Katey DeCelle: Simone worked with the Indigenous Environmental Network for more than 25 years, advocating for environmental justice and Indigenous rights.

Simone Senogles: Indigenous peoples suffer disproportionately from health problems. It's the result of a corporate-controlled global food system that values profit over human and ecological health.

Katey DeCelle: Simone was a lifelong activist whose journey began as a teenager at the Northland Poster Collective, a South Minneapolis organization known for printing activist-inspired art. Simone went on to be a founding member of MMIW218, an organization based in Bemidji, Minnesota, which is dedicated to raising awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women girls and Two Spirit relatives.

Simone Senogles: The National Crime Information database reports that there are 5,712 known incidents of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women as of 2016. There's so many that we don't know about.

Katey DeCelle: In 2017, Simone gave an interview on Ampers station KAXE radio in Grand Rapids to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Simone Senogles: There's a few things that go on that contribute to the lack of information and action around Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, racism and discrimination, the devaluing of Indigenous women. If you want to disempower a people, you attack the women.

Katey DeCelle: With the organization Grassroots Global Justice, Simone co-founded the feminist organizing schools designed to create a feminist economy that provides political education and leadership development.

Simone Senogles: We have to be brave, and we have to be willing to look hard at ourselves and see ourselves as part of a system that has been against us for many, many years. Also have strength to stand up against injustice.

Katey DeCelle: Simone Senogles was an artist, beekeeper, mother, wife, friend and member of the Eagle Clan, who left an everlasting impact on her community. Senogles's wake took place on September 25 and traditional services were held September 26 in Red Lake. For North Star Stories, I'm Katharine DeCelle.

ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons has denied a full pardon to Jason Sole, a formerly incarcerated abolitionist and Hamline University professor in St Paul. Sole served time for firearm and drug convictions in the 1990s and early 2000s. In a newsletter, he said that he was not included in hearings but remains hopeful for future consideration. The Board of Pardons, made up of the Governor, Attorney General, and Chief Justice, requires at least two votes to grant clemency.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.