Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
Special Editions | documentaries and special reports
Native Lights | stories of people within Minnesota’s Native communities
Nearly 8-thousand American Indians from over 40 different sovereign tribes live in Minneapolis. And since the 1960’s, the section of Franklin Avenue between 11th and Cedar streets has been a gathering place for many. The community was established by Native leaders who brought a sense of tribal sovereignty to their urban community. And that same sense of self-determination continues today.
Reporter Melissa Townsend takes us to Franklin Avenue in South Minneapolis where a new generation’s work is growing this sense of urban Native sovereignty.
After the ice melts on Nett Lake, it’s time for Saa Gi Ba Gaa. Britt Aamodt travels to the Bois Forte Reservation for the annual spring powwow, where jingle dresses and drum songs mix with stories about fry bread, dreams, homecomings, wise words and young love.
This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about a call for truth and reconciliation over former American Indian boarding school policies, an American Indian coalition partners with Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in South Minneapolis and the growing season begins with a traditional blessing of the Mashkiikii Gitigan [mush-KEE-kee GIT-ih-gone], Medicine Garden.
The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently released a report officially recording the inhumane practices of the Canadian Indian Boarding School system and the resulting historical trauma on indigenous people. The report calls for 92 different policy changes to address that historical trauma.
In the U.S., truth and reconciliation movements are emerging. Erma Vizenor, Chairwoman of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is working with the National Congress of American Indians calling for a National Commission on American Indian Boarding School Policy.
This presentation features Erma Vizenor and Michael McNally, Professor of Religion at Carlton College. The two talk about the Episcopal church’s previous support of the Doctrine of Discovery and U.S. Indian Boarding School policy. Vizenor discusses the movement to bring truth and reconciliation to the U.S. The event was held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis on May 30th, 2015.
On June 6th in Bemidji Minnesota a new statue of Chief Bemidji is being dedicated. He is the Native American namesake of the town. He will stand on the shores of Lake Bemidji right next to the 18 foot tall statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. These statues represent the two cultures present in this small community in Minnesota’s north woods. Bemidji is a predominantly white town that borders three of the largest and most populous American Indian reservations in Minnesota: the Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. To the coalition of Native Americans and non-Natives behind the new Chief Bemidji statue — this is more than a bronze monument — it’s an opportunity for truth telling and reconciliation in this Minnesota border town.
This week on Minnesota Native News we hear about the Fond du Lac Band’s work to protect moose in the ceded territories, an urban initiative to boost graduation rates in the Twin Cities and the MN recipient of a national award for philanthropy in Indian Country.
