This week on Minnesota Native News, a new team is in place to help tribal members heal from addictions and the Indigenous Students Association at Augsburg University host a pow wow how-to.
Transcript
HEADLINES: This week on Minnesota Native News, a new team is in place to help tribal members heal from addictions and the Indigenous Students Association at Augsburg University host a pow wow how-to.
STORY #1 - American Indian Resource and Resiliency Team (2:35)
The Mille Lacs and Boise Forte Bands have a new partner in helping tribal members heal from opioid addiction.
It’s called the American Indian Resource and Resiliency Team.
Reporter Melissa Townsend talked the leaders on the team about their unique work in Indian country.
Breanna Michels, Susan Beaulieu, and Jennifer Garbow are passionate about their work helping people heal from addiction.
Their job is to work with the Mille Lacs and Bois Forte Bands on programs that support healing from addiction - for individuals, families and whole communities.
Susan Beaulieu is from Red Lake. And she says it’s personal.
BEAULIEU: I’m not unusual. A lot of us in our communities who have relatives that struggle with addictions, trying to cope with hurt and pain and trauma. Seeing it first hand, it’s a really good reminder of the importance of this work and a good reminder that we can’t help others if we are coming from a place of emptiness ourselves or a bunch of hurt and pain ourselves. (:23)
They see addiction as a way of coping with unacknowledged loss, grief and incomplete relationships.
And they lead groups, trainings and classes to work through all of that.
Breanna Michels is from Mille Lacs. She leads a group called Mending Broken Hearts from the White Bison program.
BREANNA: I think at first people are like historical trauma doesn’t really affect me. I wasn’t put into boarding school therefore this doesn’t affect me. But when we look back at our ancestors - -how they were parented back in the day is how they know to parent. (:20)
Susan Beaulieu says it’s liberating to understand how generational trauma has impacted your life.
Susan: Because not only was the trauma passed down but so was the strength and we in this generation have the ability to create new experiences that will then shift the trajectory for the generations to come. So we really are in the place of empowerment. (:13)
Jennifer Garbow says they’ll be adding one more person to make this a powerful team of four based across Northern Minnesota’s Indian country.
Their work is funded by a federal grant shared by the University of Minnesota Extension and the College of Pharmacy.
The grant is scheduled to end in September 2020.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.
STORY #2 - AUGSBURG POW WOW (1:53)
The Augsburg Indigenous Students Association held its 11th annual spring pow wow on March 30th in Minneapolis.
The event is geared for Augsburg University students and the larger community.
Just a few days before the event, the Augsburg Indigenous Student Association held a Pow Wow Etiquette class for non-Natives.
Again, Melissa Townsend has the details.
This pow wow etiquette class was the first of its kind at Augsburg.
But student Arianna Antone -Remirez says that’s how they do it back home.
REMIREZ: I come from San Francisco and I help plan dancing for the youth pow wow. And this is something we always do for the broader community for those who may not know what goes on at a pow wow. (:13)
That decision to help non-Natives understand appropriate behavior was confirmed when the online news service patch.com published a story about an incident at the Denver March Pow wow in Colorado.
It featured a video of a white woman taking a bussle and dancing around with it. It wasn’t hers and she did not have permission. Someone took the bussle away from her. And she was escorted out of the pow wow.
Augsburg student Christopher Oquist-LeGarde says that video had an impact.
OQUIST-LEGARDE: The beginning of planning this event it definitely was about trying to tell people this is what you’ll be seeing, this is the kind of experiences you’ll be having. But then when we did see the video at Denver March it was click - No, we should make it more about a “do” and “don’t” situation. (:18)
Arianna Antone-Remirez says the Indigenous Students Association still wanted to be welcoming and encourage non-Natives to come to the pow wow.
ANTONE-REMIREZ: Having the pow wow on campus is one of the ways we share with the rest of the campus community and realizing that our traditions have value. Like we knew that; our people know that. We’ve known that forever but it’s kind of getting non-Natives to realize that and see that and understand that now. (:14)
The MC of Augsburg’s 11th traditional pow wow was Jerry Deerly and the host drum was the Stone Bridge Singers from Grand Portage.