Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine

On today’s show, Leah and Cole chat with Marisa Miakonda Cummings (Umonhon). She’s the President/CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. The MIWRC empowers Native women and families to exercise their cultural values and integrity, and to achieve sustainable lifeways, while advocating for justice and equity. Marisa shares about her journey to becoming the CEO/President of MIWRC, she tells how her family empowered her from a young age, and how she leads with traditional knowledge in her work.
[Read Transcript...]

On today’s show, we talk with Megan Lhotka, a descendant of the White Earth Nation. Megan is a Facilitator for the White Earth Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative (IPLI), a training program that guides parents to become leading advocates for children using a cultural lens. [Read Transcript...]

Today we talk with retired professor, former tribal attorney and lecturer Tadd Johnson (Bois Forte Band of Chippewa). Tadd was recently appointed to the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents, where he is serving the 8th Congressional District and as the first Native person to be a part of the school’s governing body. [Read Transcript...]

On today’s show, Cole shares his conversation with Juliet Rudie (Lower Sioux Indian Community). Juliet is the Director of Minnesota’s new Office of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR). She talks with us about how she is leading the new office, the report that guides the work she does, and how she became interested in public safety as a child. Juliet has been in public service for nearly 30 years, beginning as a patrol officer with St. Paul police in 1990. [Read Transcript...]