Today, new help for those spending time behind bars. Then, sacred items return to their Native tribes. And, officials say we’re facing an elevated risk of power outages this summer.
Transcript
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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: Today, new help for those spending time behind bars. Then, sacred items return to their native tribes. And, officials say we're facing an elevated risk of power outages this summer.
I'm Gracie J.
Minnesota is one of five states joining a new national initiative to expand college access for students who have been incarcerated, arrested, charged, or convicted. The one-year initiative aims to improve prison education programs by aligning them with workforce needs. The program also ensures that credentials students earn while incarcerated are recognized and valued in the job market. To make this happen, the state will build stronger partnerships between educational and correctional institutions. Other states included in the program are Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Virginia.
Up next: After a legacy of exploiting Native people to develop educational institutions' collections, reparations are slowly being made. Deanna StandingCloud has the story of sacred items returning to where they belong.
Deanna StandingCloud: The University of Minnesota Twin Cities Weisman Art Museum is currently in the process of returning sacred items to the Hopi people in eastern Arizona.
Misty Blue: For Native folks, we've always felt that in our bones and in our bodies, it's important for Native people to have their items returned for a lot of spiritual reasons.
Deanna StandingCloud: Misty Blue is a citizen of the White Earth nation of Ojibwe. She is a professional researcher for Grassroots Solutions in Minneapolis. Last year, the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, was revised to increase punishments to institutions holding human remains sacred objects or ceremonial items of Native people.
Juan Lucero: So a lot of museums necessarily have relationships with a lot of the communities that are reflected in their collections.
Deanna StandingCloud: Juan Lucero, who is Isleta Pueblo, is a guest curator at the Weisman Art Museum. In addition to returning sacred items, in accordance with NAGPRA, the Weisman launched an artist in residence program.
Juan Lucero: It was a way for the Weisman to kind of have more of a developing relationship with the communities in New Mexico, but then also developing community relationship with the tribes here in the Twin Cities.
Deanna StandingCloud; The artist in residence program selected Clifford Fragua from the Jemez Pueblo, a sculptor and stone carver for over 40 years,
Juan Lucero: He is constantly teaching community members from Jemez and from other pueblos and other Native community members.
Deanna StandingCloud: For Misty Blue, examining and rectifying the history of stolen objects is a part of a larger project to address the ways institutions have benefited at the expense of Indigenous Minnesotans.
Misty Blue: It's helpful to Native communities and tribes to have more understanding of how institutions operate.
Deanna StandingCloud: Misty is one of the key researchers of the TRUTH Project, a Native-led initiative that stands for "Toward recognition and university tribal healing." The TRUTH Project released a report revealing that the University of Minnesota benefited from the exploitation and erasure of Indigenous people since its inception.
Misty Blue: So the TRUTH Project really exposed the land expropriation process that our land grab universities undertook in order to establish themselves. We were able to show how that was a violent process.
Deanna StandingCloud: The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council is now using the TRUTH Project report to push the university to expand their current tuition waiver for Indigenous students.
Juan Lucero: Weisman is playing an essential role in supporting and creating safe space in places that are usually places of discomfort and discrimination for all of us as Native people.
Deanna StandingCloud: The sacred items in the Weisman Art Museum's possession are set to be returned to the Hopi people in October. This is Deanna StandingCloud for North Star Stories.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.
A new report warns Minnesota's power grid may fall short during heat waves this summer. The Minnesota Rural Electric Association, or M-R-E-A, says the region faces an elevated risk of energy shortfalls during extreme weather. The M-R-E-A says retiring coal and gas plants leave the state in an energy deficit that renewables can't always cover during peak demand periods. The agency is calling for an "all-tech-on-deck" approach to avoid outages, saying the state may need to lean on nuclear energy in the future.
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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.