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This episode is a brief wrap-up of Season 2, the Lake. It includes a poem and a slowing down as winter begins. Thanks for listening. 

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Moira Villiard is a multi-disciplinary artist, community organizer, and portable art teacher who spans the Twin Cities-Twin Ports-the Range. Moira (pronounced Miri) grew up on the Fond du Lac reservation and is a Fond du Lac direct descendant. On this episode of the podcast, she talks about art as never-complete and layered, encompassing that which happens around it. Much of her work has been about uplifting the energy of water. She came to love lakes and water in part through being a Minnesotan, but also from her love of dinosaurs, invertebrates, and fish. Tune in to hear her discuss the Chief Buffalo Memorial (located in Duluth), when she is moving back to Duluth, and what responsibilities we can choose to take on with and for the world around us. Thank you, Moira, for this engaging and fun discussion.

Links to explore:

Moira Villiard's website: https://www.artbymoira.com/

Her piece, the Waters of Tomorrow: https://www.womenspress.com/the-waters-of-tomorrow-moira-villiard/

Book/Ishkode, the story of fire: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517922719/ishkode/

Book/A dream for you: https://www.goodminds.com/products/a-dream-for-you

Chief Buffalo Memorial: https://www.artbymoira.com/chiefbuffalo

@tallmiri Instagram

Photo: B.Greenfield, June 9, 2023/Community mural led by Moira Villiard outside the downtown Duluth Public Library. 

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On this episode of home, I sit down with Ordean Foundation Executive Director and former Duluth mayor Don Ness for an interview. Don has spent no more than two months separated from Lake Superior. The waves are his friends and they have his healthy respect. He is in constant awe of the Lake in all its manifestations. Don presents a historical view of Duluth as a rustbelt city facing financial collapse and how it benefited from leaning firmly into its own identity, which is undergirded by the harshness and beauty of Lake Superior.  Don talks about what it means to make tough choices for things you believe in, and what vulnerable leadership looks like. His work on improvements to the Duluth sanitary system is an example of this. 

Show notes:

The 2014 designation by Outside magazine of Duluth as the Best Town Ever

Episode photo provided by Don Ness, photo with Lake Superior and his wife

Episode name provided by the host's child

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In Episode 10 of Season 2, the host (Brenna) talks about her photography exhibit at the Great Lakes Aquarium. She discusses what she's been learning this season through conversations with podcast guests. It being the end of the September, we're starting to get some bigger waves on Lake Superior now and then. 

Brenna's photography show & webpage:

https://glaquarium.org/exhibits/fine-arts/

www.brennagreenfield.com

Olivia Vagelos and the Design for Feelings Studio: 

https://www.designforfeelings.com/

Article about Art Review & Preview (ARP!) of two decades ago, started by Ariel Pate & Tiff Hockin

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This episode is a conversation with award-winning writer and University of Minnesota Duluth emeritus professor Dr. Linda LeGarde Grover. We spoke on Labor Day 2026, when she was busy finishing an essay for a deadline. She was gracious enough to share some time with me to discuss:

• The gifts that drew her ancestors to Lake Superior, the Great Ojibwe Sea.
• Creatures and beings in and near the Lake.
• Stories of her family, including herself, in this place.
• The fur trade, Madeleine Island, the Civil War, Chippewa City, deer, rabbits, Ojibwe migration, outhouses, boarding houses, Park Point and the Fond du Lac neighborhood, Oliver, boarding schools, glaciers, and Spirit Beings. 

Gratitude, honesty, and care are cross-cutting themes. 

Here is a link to the book Gichigami Hearts that Dr. LeGarde Grover recommended:

https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/gichigami-hearts

And, an interview from 2016: https://pshares.org/blog/exploring-native-american-literature-with-linda-legarde-grover/

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Welcome back for Part 2 of my conversation with Miskwaa anang (Dr. Erik Redix; Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe), the Ojibwe Language and Environmental Education Coordinator for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. We meander through: 

• More on fish names in Ojibwe and a bit about what different Lake Superior fish are like to catch and eat. 
• The project to find and understand Ojibwe names for rivers and streams that flow into Lake Superior along Highway 61.
• How tribal/federal/state collaborations happen.

Selected Resources:

Erik Redix's 2024 article, "Rivers of Lake Superior's North Shore: Historical Methodology and Ojibwe Dialects," in Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place, and Community:

https://openrivers.lib.umn.edu/article/rivers-north-shore-ojibwe-dialects/

Map with Lake Superior North Shore river names, Ojibwe and English: 

https://www.nps.gov/grpo/learn/historyculture/north-shore-place-names.htm

Fish of Grand Portage poster, Ojibwe and English, with audio: 

 https://www.nps.gov/grpo/learn/nature/fish.htm

How to say Lake Superior in Ojibwe: 

https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=9527C4FF-6B3F-4C99-B23B-BB766D370041

Listen to Erik Redix's radio show Anishinaabe Bizindamoo Makak on North Shore Community Radio WTIP 90.7 FM

Episode Photo: by E. Redix; at the Spring 2024 unveiling of the bilingual North Shore signs. 

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This is Part 1 of an interview with Miskwaa anang (Dr. Erik Redix; Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe), the Ojibwe Language and Environmental Education Coordinator for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. We discuss his experiences of: 

• Being a youngster and the lure of the Great Lake. 
• How living alongside Gichigami (Lake Superior) feels different than living other places in the region. 
• The pull of temperature on people & fish. 
• Lake Superior fishing and Ojibwe fish words.

Learn Ojibwe fish names and hear them said out loud; download a Fish of Grand Portage poster:  https://www.nps.gov/grpo/learn/nature/fish.htm

ojibwemowin = ojibwe language

miigwech = thank you

boozhoo = hello

Learn more in the Ojibwe's People Dictionary and through Erik Redix's radio show Anishinaabe Bizindamoo Makak on North Shore Community Radio WTIP 90.7 FM

Episode Photo: E. Redix

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview! 

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Aquatic ecologist Catherine O'Reilly is the guest on this episode. She lives in Duluth, MN and is the Director of the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth. One of her conference presentations was titled, "Is there a party in the stream tonight..." and she found that underwater sound varies depending on lunar timing. 

When we recorded this episode, it was very smoky outside as wildfires had started near Ely, MN.

The book Brenna read from is called Theory of Water by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 

Sound clip at the end provided by Dr. O'Reilly. You'll hear water striders rubbing their legs on their back, as she describes in the podcast episode. 

Learn more about deep water sculpin here and see a video of them. They are in the freeze category of flight or fight and they prefer to keep their bellies on rocks. 

Episode photo: Lake Superior/B Greenfield, 7/18/26

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I talk about some lake-related things. 

Check out this cool water bottle with lamprey on it: 

https://eighthgeneration.com/products/traveling-waters-water-bottle

Differences between lampreys and eels:

https://critfc.org/fish-and-watersheds/columbia-river-fish-species/lamprey/differences-between-a-lamprey-and-an-eel/

7/4/26 photo of the Poplar River, which is near Lutsen and feeds into Lake Superior/ B Greenfield

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In Episode 4, I converse with Cory Coffman. Cory Coffman is a 1st-generation Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe descendant. If you like music you can check out his music here or perhaps stumble upon him floating on a human-constructed lilypad in Lake Superior jamming out? (If you're lucky.) This episode is about the G-BOAT (greatest beach of all time...at least in an 100-mile perimeter) and what it's like to live on the G-BOAT and have historical roots there, too. 

Recommended reading:

Gichigami hearts

Linda LeGarde Grover

Buy it here: https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/gichigami-hearts

photo of park point by B Greenfield, 7/1/23

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