Indigifit Kids Coaching Academy, and Watheca Records’ Music Archiving Project

Transcript

[Music: Minnesota Native News Theme]

Marie Rock [ANCHOR]: You're listening to Minnesota Native News. I'm Marie Rock. This week, we hear how the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's campaign to boost Native youth wellness is expanding its reach across Minnesota, and how an archival project is preserving Indigenous music for future generations. First, producer Dan Ninham talks with IndigeFit Kids organizers about their first coaching academy.

Dan Ninham: Last year, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community started IndigeFit Kids, a $6 million, three-year philanthropic campaign. The initiative aims to improve the physical fitness and mental wellness of Native youth in Minnesota. To grow the campaign statewide, IndigeFit Kids held a Coaching Academy for educators and community group leaders.

Ashley Cornforth: We really created this academy to empower the adults who work with our youth, and empower the adults who are interacting one-on-one, so that they can help understand some of the disparities that exist within our Native youth.

Dan Ninham: Ashley Cornforth is the Secretary/Treasurer for the Shakopee Mdewkanton Sioux Community.

Ashley Cornforth: This Coaching Academy was kind of a hands-on way to learn tools to really strengthen leadership skills and create more positive team cultures.

Dan Ninham: Nearly 50 coaches and community practitioners from across Minnesota attended the two-day academy in Shakopee in September 2025.

Ashley Cornforth: So we're, you know, working alongside NB3. They kind of have their expertise in that area, and it does become that train-the-trainer, right?

Dan Ninham: The Coaching Academy content was developed and presented by the Notah Begay III, or NB3 Foundation, based in New Mexico and founded by the golfing champion it's named after.

Clint Begay: We just kind of created a curriculum based on the stuff that we implement to the youth that we serve, and we work with. so we just utilized all of our things that we've learned throughout the years to put this together and to create this partnership with Indige Fit.

Dan Ninham: Clint Begay is Dine and the Director of the NB3 Foundation's NB3FIT coaching team that facilitated the coaching academies.

Clint Begay: We do all kinds of sports. We do golf, soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, cross country and track. So everything that we taught was based on all of those activities.

Dan Ninham: The next goal for Ashley and others involved with IndigiFit Kids is to expand programming statewide.

Ashley Cornforth: We're hoping that they can take the information and then, you know, implement it with their colleagues and other members of the community. We have great relationships with all 11 tribes in Minnesota, so we're always talking with them.

Dan Ninham: IndigiFit Kids plans to host another coaching academy this year.

Ashley Cornforth: We're targeting sometime either in the summer or fall of 2026 and really taking what we learned and expanding from it and keep that relationship with NB3 going strong.

Dan Ninham: For Minnesota Native News, I'm Dan Ninham.

Anchor Marie Rock: Next, producer Travis Zimmerman introduces us to an archivist from Sicangu Oyate who's collecting albums to protect and celebrate the legacy of Native musicians.

Travis Zimmerman: The needle drops onto a vintage record. A soft crackle emanates from the grooves of vinyl etched with Indigenous voices that have long been forgotten.

[Sound: Record needle drops onto an LP record]

Justin Brokenrope: So that history, you know, you treat those objects, you know, because they have their own story. And I think for me, I'm like a 50-year-old object still found its way to me, and it has this native music on it. So whatever life it lived, I want to hear that as well.

Travis Zimmerman: Just is Brokenrope is an educator, DJ, and archivist from the Sichangu Lakota reservation. He's the owner of Watheca Records, based in Minnesota since 2022 is a music archival project collecting albums created by Native musicians.

Justis Brokenrope: Some of these songs were, you know, heartbreak songs, love songs, but then a lot of them were coming out in the late 60s, early 70s. These are, yeah, boarding school survivors making music, and it's going on with concurrent civil rights movement and these red power movements and different things.

Travis Zimmerman: Justis has been collecting old records for a decade in hopes of revitalizing sounds to bring to the Native community of Minnesota.

Justis Brokenrope: Part of my work, and what I consider my job with this, is to find records that didn't really leave the reservation or didn't leave their communities and try and like, digitize them, platform them, so their natives can hear it.

Travis Zimmerman: Justis has been partnering with a musician to publish a visual book entitled "Watheca Records Sourcebook," documenting the album covers and profiles for each. The book release celebration takes place on Saturday, January 17th 2026, at 13 5th Street Northeast in Minneapolis. Learn more about the event at era editions dot art. To hear the records, visit Watcheca Records's YouTube channel, spelled @w-a-t-h-e-c-a-r-e-c-o-r-d-s. For Minnesota Native News, I'm Travis Zimmerman.

Marie Rock: That's all for this week's episode. Join us next time for more voices and stories that inform, uplift, and shape our communities, right here on Minnesota Native News.

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Marie Rock: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possibly by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.