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
In the U.S. there are more than 1400 unresolved American Indian and Alaska Native missing person cases… 136 of those cases are in Minnesota. That’s according to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center.
Several top federal officials were in Bloomington, on July 27th to announce the creation of a new office dedicated to solving these cold cases. Minnesota’s office will be the first of seven across the country.
But the announcement was a surprise to Native leaders in MN who have been working tirelessly for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives.
Families and school districts across Minnesota are thinking about what the next school year may look like for teachers, children and families. The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing districts to consider distance learning with kids doing lessons at home on computers. Reporter Melissa Townsend talked with Native educator Govinda Budrow about lessons learned from distance learning last school year and how it might change for Native students in September.
It’s been over three years since a group of Ball Club youth came together with the support of their community, to build a new park for area kids to play in and for the community to enjoy.
They’ve worked alongside the Ball Club Local Indian Council… an area group called the Circle of Healing… and a playground project manager.
The park they envisioned, designed, and planned, was set for a grand opening early July but, like many projects during this time, it’s been delayed.
However, the effort to build the park – that centers culture and inclusion – is still going as strong as ever.
Migizi Communications, a longstanding Native organization that supports and empowers Youth, lost its new building to fires that destroyed it and many others during the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
Here’s reporter Leah Lemm speaking to Kelly Drummer, the President of Migizi Communications, about what occurred after Memorial Day and what has happened in the month since.
Conversations about changing policing and public safety continue around the state. Today reporter Melissa Townsend talks with one of the people who took public safety into their own hands during the protests and violence in Minneapolis after George Floyd was killed by police there.
As Minneapolis moves to re-open during the pandemic, protests erupted in the streets following the death of George Floyd. A Minneapolis office has now been charged with his murder.
But as anger and frustrations took over demonstrations, hundreds of buildings in Minneapolis were set on fire and burned to the ground.
Among them was the new offices of a beloved Native non-profit, MIGIZI.
