Minnesota Native News

Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, Ojibwe Tribes take a stand for wild rice and a sculpture takes shape at the Walker Art Center. I’m Marie Rock.
Story #1: In early June, Enbridge Energy applied for a new permit to displace 5 BILLION gallons of water as it makes way for its new pipeline. Laurie Stern reports on the reaction.
LS: The new permit says Enbridge can remove 10 times what the original permit allowed. Tribes say it was rushed through and that it’s unacceptable. This is Alan Roy, secretary-treasure of White Earth Nation.
I'm obligated and the tribal council is obligated to stand up for wild rice by tribal law.
LS: The tribes say pulling water as Enbridge installs new pipe threatens their mahnomen, especially in this year of heat and drought. Delegates to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Executive Council meeting last week urged tribal leadership to fight back.
LS: Rennee Keezer is an environmental scientist for White Earth.
RK: That whole water table is dropping. And it's affecting everything because all of our waters are connected. And we are going to see such a dramatic biodiversity loss with all the plants that trees are trees. We're losing our boreal forests because of the climate change. And this is just expediting.
We're losing our fish. Our lakes are drying up and we're losing our rice and the tribes were not properly consulted.
LS: Enbridge and the DNR say the water will go right back into the ground not far from where it’s removed. A DNR spokesperson says the dewatering “will not have any measurable impact on surface waters near the Line 3 construction sites. \
LS AR: And so so Enbridge and the DNR are saying that the measures they're taking, do not threaten wild rice or the lake levels. … my response and the administration's response to her was, well, we have scientists too. And we also have sovereignty. And so we're going to, we're going to work our way through this. And we're just going to keep pressing forward.
Story #2 Marie: A major sculpture by a Dakota artist will celebrate language, land and connection. Laurie Stern reports it will occupy an important place at the Walker sculpture garden.
LS: The installation is called Okcyiapi and will sit in the northwest part of the sculpture garden between the street and the iconic spoon and cherry. That’s the same spot where the infamous Scaffold sculpture stood before it was taken down . This is The Walker’s executive director, Mary Ceruti,
MC: After scaffold was dismantled, and we had many conversations over actually many months with Dakota elders, one of the things that the walker committed to doing was to commission a piece for the sculpture garden.

This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock. This week on Minnesota Native News, we hear from Karen Diver, who is the inaugural appointment of a new and unique senior-level tribal affairs role at the University of Minnesota. Plus, an update on the Line 3 pipeline replacement project that has sparked protest in northern Minnesota. Here’s reporter Cole Premo. 

In early May, University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel announced that Karen Diver will be the institution new Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs. Diver spoke with Minnesota Native News on the new role. 

DIVER: “It’s a cabinet-level position working directly with the president and senior level team. And this is to work on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, but specifically around Native American learners, communities and tribal governments.”

In the announcement, President Gabel called Diver an “accomplished leader with broad experience.” Diver most recently served as the Native American Advancement Initiative’s Business Development Director at the University of Arizona. Prior to that, she worked at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth as the inaugural Faculty Fellow for Inclusive Excellence for Native American Affairs. 

Additionally, Diver was appointed by President Barack Obama to be a Special Assistant to the President on Native American Affairs, a job she held from 2015 to 2017. Prior to that she served as Chairwoman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. 

Diver says she’s absolutely delighted to join the University of Minnesota as Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs.

DIVER: “Higher education is a big institution and tribal government and indigenous people are underrepresented at all levels, whether they are learners, faculty or needs of tribal governments around workforce development… so if I could be part of this system, I will consider that a great ability to be in public service.”

When asked about some immediate goals, here’s what Karen Diver had to say. 

DIVER: “I know that President Gabel has prioritized working with tribal governments and listening to their issues and/or concerns, so I’ll be assisting her with that. I’m particularly interested in seeing what the needs of tribal governments are, whether it’s health care, education or whatever disciplines that they need to build healthier communities.”

On May 28, Diver assumed the role at the University and says she’s hopeful President Gabel and her team can acknowledge the school’s past with tribes, while simultaneously meeting their current day research and workforce needs.

Next, an update on the Line 3 pipeline replacement project that has sparked protests in northern Minnesota. 

Recently, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed state regulators’ key approvals of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project. 

In a 2-1 ruling, the three-judge panel found that the state’s Public Utilities Commission correctly granted Enbridge a certificate of need and a route permit. Those approvals were needed for the canadian company to begin construction on the Minnesota segment of the pipeline, which spans over 300 miles. 

The judge who dissented said that the pipeline will not benefit Minnesota, and will have negative consequences on the rights of Red Lake and White Earth tribes. The two judges who voted in favor said the decision was needed considering the deteriorating state of the existing pipeline, but also acknowledged that it will have an impact on rights of indigenous people. 

Opponents to the pipeline, which include tribal and climate change groups, vow to continue resistance to the pipeline and are considering an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. They are also appealing to President Joe Biden to intervene and stop construction of the pipeline. 

I’m Cole Premo. 

This week on Minnesota Native News, we hear from water protectors continuing their work to stop Line 3 and a Red Lake elder speaks out on the impact of the illegal killing of a bear on the reservation.

After 2 years of legal proceedings, Brett Stimac was sentenced on June 9th for illegally killing a 700 pound bear on the Red Lake reservation. Stimac is not a Red Lake citizen. He’s from Brainard Minnesota and he was on the reservation illegally. He was fined $9500 and given a 15 month prison sentence. He is expected to report to prison on July 6th.

When Stimac was sentenced, Red Lake elder, Jody Beaulieu was in the courtroom. She was there to speak on behalf of the tribe. Reporter Melissa Townsend talked with her afterwards about what happened.

Jody was asked by the Red Lake Nation to give what’s called a Victim’s Impact Statement. She was in court to talk about the loss felt by tribal members because this bear was killed on the reservation.

"It’s not just about this one particular trespasser on our closed reservation, but it’s the idea of all these trophy hunters just taking needlessly just for their ego. To try to brag and have something on their wall.," said Beaulieu.

Jody’s daughter drove her to the federal courthouse in St Paul. She says she sat by herself in the courtroom for about 3 hours. And then she took the stand to speak to the entire courtroom.

"I introduced myself as we do nowadays in our Native tongue...My spiritual name is Black Standing Woman and I am Bear Clan," she said.

She wanted to communicate how important the bear is to the Red Lake people and many indigenous people in North America.

"I told him my youngest grandchild who is 4 years old, his name is Mawkwin - Bear Robe. That should give enough indication about how we deem and how we hold the bear up to be our family, our brother, our teacher," said Beaulieu.

At one point she says she turned directly to Stimac - the man who had killed the bear:

"I looked squarely at the guy and I said - just as we have a heart, that bear had a heart and had a life," said Beaulieu.

She said the bear is valuable - not in a materialistic way - but in terms of being part of the mystery of life.

"You know they always want to define the mystery. You accept it and you have respect for it. You don’t have to break it down, put it in compartments, put it in A-B-C-D order, you just have respect...Without question, you have respect," she said.

Jody Beaulieu says she’s encountered bears many times on the reservation. It’s just part of living there. 

"I said when bears come around our yard, the dogs have a different bark. I say oh, there’s a bear in the yard and we need to rally the dogs in so the bear can go about its business and go on its way. I mean even that - do you pay attention to the animal world when they’re telling you something?" she said.

Jody says many Red Lakers she knows are satisfied that Brett Stimas was charged. They’re pleased he will do do prison time for both trespassing on the closed reservation and for illegally killing the bear.

A couple days after she spoke in court — Jody drove home to the Red Lake reservation to be with family. She says it’s always good to come home. Being in nature on the reservation is healing.

IN other news —

Water protectors focused on the Mississippi River continue to call for a stop to the new Line 3 oil pipeline in northern Minnesota. Much of the action is lead by Native lead groups Honor the Earth, the Rise Coalition, the Indigenous Environmental Network. 

They want treaty rights enforced so the water and living beings in the area are protected from potential oil leaks and spills. Nancy Beaulieu is with this coalition: "We’re here as an encampment to protect the Mississippi and defend our treaty rights to be here and to exist. I just want the whole world to know those treaties are a two party agreement between our ancestors and the other ancestors - settlers who signed those treaty agreements with us." said Nancy Beaulieu.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have been protesting at pipeline construction sites on the Mississippi. Hundreds of people have been arrested and released.

According to Honor the Earth newsletter, actions are planned to continue in Shevlin and Palisade, Minnesota. In both places, the pipeline is planned to tunnel underneath the Mississippi River.

Melissa Townsend reporting for Minnesota Native News.

Host: This is Minnesota Native News. I'm Marie Rock. Coming up… Northern Spark, the annual art festival, opens June 12th. The theme this year is Alchemy, which has different meanings, one of which being the process of transformation, creation, or combination. One of the opening public art pieces is called Braiding Our Stories Together. Reporter Leah Lemm has more.

Reporter: Northern Spark is taking on a new form this year. Instead of the two night gathering, the art festival will take place in person over two weeks in St. Paul. There are also online aspects and outreach through the postal service. The opening weekend event includes a virtual and public art storytelling project called Braiding Our Stories Together on Sunday, June 13th.

Reyna Day: Boozhoo, my name is Reyna Day. So there's two main parts of the Braiding our Stories project.

Reporter: Reyna Day is Mexica and Anishinaabe from the Bois Forte Band. And is co-leading the interactive and intergenerational public art display with Ruti Mejia.

Reyna Day: And so we were pulled into this project specifically as youth organizers.

Reporter: Reyna Day and Ruti Mejia are both youth organizers of the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center. And they're on the International Indigenous Youth Council, Twin Cities Chapter. Reyna explains Braiding Our Stories Together takes on two forms.

Reyna Day: And so that's going to be the virtual aspect, which is going to be the revealing of the storytelling portion, which was led by the youth and kind of created by the youth. And then also the other aspect, which is going to be the public display. So the public display will be there throughout the end of the summer. And Ham Park is like, it's a free park. And so you can just go in there anytime.

Reporter: The art piece is a large 3D representation of stories, teachings, poems, and songs passed down through generations. It can be found at [inaudible 00:01:56] also known as Ham Park, which is along the Seventh Street cultural corridor on St. Paul's East side. Braiding Our Stories Together was created with artist and elder Gustavo Boada.

Gustavo Boada: My name is Gustavo Boada from Peru.

Reporter: Gustavo helped bring the artistic ideas into existence.
Gustavo Boada: And then I say, wow, we can work together and do this project that you have already in mind. And guess just tell me. I can help you to decide what to do and how to do it.

Reporter: Together, they thoughtfully went through ideas and landed on what ultimately was created.

Gustavo Boada: I usually do puppetry, but I make a big things and also three-dimensional murals and big sculptures. So I told her the options and they finally choose to make something three dimensional.

Reporter: And the sculpture of the person with braids is larger than life. Formed with natural objects, papier-mache and more, Reyna Day talks about how it's more than what meets the eye.

Reyna Day: And you’ll see a figure, and then you're going to see two braids. And each of these braids are 25 feet. And the reason that we chose braids was, in indigenous culture, like, we view hair to be very significant. And we view our hair to carry our stories, our essences, our spirits. And so as you go through the braid, you're going to be seeing just the beautiful decorations on the braid, but you're also going to be seeing QR codes. 

These QR codes are going to take you to a website. And these websites are going to be split. The website's going to be split into different portions, into three portions, which are going to be songs, stories, and poems.

Gustavo Boada: For me the braids are very important part of this project. And secondly, I think it has so much love put in this work. One I recall is that the braids are the weaving, the connection, the blending of all the roots. The braids are the roots from the ground, but become in a hair in the braid also. So that metaphor for me, it was so amazing.

Reporter: More details about Braiding Our Stories Together and Northern Spark can be found online at 2021.northernspark.org. 

If you miss the virtual event on June 13th, it can be found on the Facebook pages of Indigenous Roots and the International Indigenous Youth Council, Twin Cities chapter. 

For Minnesota Native News. I'm Leah Lemm.

MARIE: This week on Minnesota Native News, it’s spring and the end of the Covid lockdown. I’m Marie Rock. Producer  Laurie Stern has the story of two very different new productions.
Laurie: The first production is a podcast called Understand Native Minnesota with Rebecca Crooks Stratton. Rebecca Crooks Stratton is Secretary Treasurer of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, or SMSC.
I have to say, I never thought I would host a podcast, but and I think I speak for you know, most tribal leaders and probably all native people, when I say we spend a lot of time educating people about, you know, who we are, and why things are the way they are. And so I think this is just another way for Native people to express you know, themselves and, and be able to hear from modern native people.
On the podcast’s first episode, that “modern native person” is Wayne Ducheneux, executive director of the Native Governance Center in St. Paul. The Native Governance Center supports tribal governments by helping them become more and more responsive to needs in their community.
And, you know, one of the things I fundamentally believe, is, as we as indigenous people return and understand our values, and our wisdom, and we heal, we're going to build the systems that heal the country as all and eventually the world.
The podcast isn’t always about healing the world. But it is about bringing native stories to light.  It’s an outgrowth of SMSC’s ambitious Understand Native Minnesota campaign to include native stories in K12 curriculum statewide. Crooks-Stratton says the campaign will resume in-person convenings now that the pandemic lockdown is lifted. You can follow it on social media and listen to the monthly podcast at NativeMNFacts.
Another recent production is called The Missouri River Water Walk. It was directed by Dipankar Mukherjee of Pangea World Theater and written by Sharon Day. It documents the 53-day walk from Montana to Missouri; obstacles overcome and  relationships built among the five women who walked the whole way.
(play sound)
I do it really, you know, to speak to the spirit of the water. You know, that's who we're addressing. When we gather that water. We believe that the water is a living entity. And that, you know, we need to let the water know that they're still human beings who love and care for the water.
The play was performed outdoors at Hidden Falls regional park by professional actors and musicians, activists and members of the Ikidowin youth ensemble. For more information visit PangeaWorldTheater.org or – to learn about upcoming water walks, go to Nibiwalk.org.
For MNN, I’m Laurie Stern.

This week on Minnesota Native News, efforts are underway across the Americas to bring back native languages. Emma Needham has two stories of Ojibwe Language revitalization in Minnesota. 

Emma Needham  0:11  
Leslie Harper is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and has worked in language revitalization efforts on both a local and national level for the past 25 years.

Audio (Leslie Harper Ojibwe)  0:20  

Emma Needham  0:25  
Leslie helped to create an Ojibwe immersion school and the Leech Lake community in the early 2000s. Her community brainstormed and came up with an approach to bring back the language and culture together.

Leslie Harper  0:36  
We started planning what would a school look like in our community? What does education mean to us as Ojibwe people what we proposed was providing education through the medium of Ojibwe language, all subjects being taught in Ojibwe language instead of English.

Emma Needham  0:53  

Leslie Harper is now president of a volunteer organization called the National Coalition of Native American language schools and programs. When I took Ojibwe courses last year, mimic waset Sutherland was my teacher. He teaches Ojibwe language courses and leads language tables a few nights a week via zoom for the Minneapolis American Indian center.

(Audio- Minneapolis American Indian Center Language Table)

Memegwesi Sutherland 1:24  
How I Learned Ojibwe when I was a kid, I was a flute speaker  Back then, I had to learn English and French when I was a kid in schools. So slowly over time, because I grew up speaking Ojibwe, and living the old Ojibwe lifestyle. When I saw English speakers, I really envied them. So that's why I kind of like I kind of left behind by the Ojibwe language and the Ojibwe teachings and how we live how I grew up. I wanted to be like everybody else like English speaking.

Memegwesi Sutherland 1:57  
Mavin quesa was in his late teens, when he realized he could no longer reply back to his mother. That's when he went to college to relearn Ojibwe.

Memegwesi Sutherland  2:06  
So sometimes I kind of like, stay away from the body language, culture stuff once in a while. But that that's, that's there in me because of the racism I experienced growing up. So sometimes it's a battle to like to get past that.

Emma Needham  2:21  
Teaching Ojibwe language is not what Memegwesi set out to do. But he believes that his experience teachings and conversations with people around him led him to that path. Language and Culture teachings often come from elders, as elders pass on, it impairs a community's cultural and language capacity. This is Leslie Harper, again,

Leslie Harper  2:41  
we've been at a critical need. And we said this 20 years ago, right, that we have a critical need to revitalize our language. Because we have, you know, a few 100 people. For me here at least late 20 years ago, we were able to say we have, you know, a couple 100 speakers. And that was a feeling of critical need and critical loss to us.

Emma Needham  3:04  
Memegwesi Sutherland explained that his experience is that language revitalization is both getting better and worse at the same time,

Memegwesi  3:12  
'cause of Zoom, we can connect with elders know over long distances, because before in order, if you wanted to see an elder you have to go to their place. And nowadays, because zoom you can just like hit them up like this, and then just be in a meeting.

Emma Needham  3:46  
Memegwesi says that our ancestors and ceremonies are exactly the reason why people should speak Ojibwe, and that our ancestors are already ahea d of the

Memegwesi  3:55  
reason why it's important to speak to them because that's that's who you're talking to. You're talking to our ancestors. And some people were afraid of what's going to happen to their future when the elders pass on, you know, like everybody thinks all the culture is gonna die off. But then we were told that the original teachers are the spirits. And they said in the future, when the younger generation bring back the language, they're also going to bring back the spirits and the spirits are going to teach them again,

Emma Needham  3:57  
Both the US House and Senate are considering new bills that would  establish a national Native American language Resource Center to honor Congress's obligation to tribes and indigenous communities to protect and promote original languages. for Minnesota native News. I'm Emma Needham.

Funder Credit  4:41  
Minnesota native news is produced by hampers diverse radio for Minnesota's communities made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund in the citizens of Minnesota.

 This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock. Coming up...

The Mitchell Hamline School of Law seeks to address systemic racism in Minnesota’s criminal justice system… 

and...

A new scholarship program wants to help descendants of Indian Boarding Schools... 

plus… do you or someone you know have an Indigenous story of Strength to showcase?  Online nominations are open!

Reporter Leah Lemm has these stories…. 

STORY #1: TRUTH AND ACTION

The project is called Truth and Action: Addressing Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System in Minnesota. Its aim is to draw on Individual stories from people who have experienced disparate treatment while interacting with the criminal justice system in Minnesota... plus data... to show a fuller picture of the system’s current state.

Dr Jennifer Waltman highlights that after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the need to address systemic racism became apparent.

Dr Jennifer Waltman: The Dispute Resolution Institute at Mitchell-Hamline along with community partners collaborated to embark on a transitional justice project that combines a grassroots approach to recording the stories of victims and working with community leaders to have the outcome of implementing change throughout the criminal justice system. 

Reporter: Dr Waltman says the initiative needs to be community led and community driven. Open conversations in environments that are respectful and safe for telling these stories….  is critical to the foundation of the project.

Dr Jennifer Waltman:  We do know that there are patterns that exist across different communities. So what might happen to someone within our Indigenous community and a Native person’s interaction with law enforcement. They're very similar stories that we hear in the black community, in the Hmong community. So what are those patterns? But at the same time, there are unique experiences for each community. 

Reporter: The project will identify patterns of racial disparities and then seeks to take the necessary steps to create systemic change.

More information is on the Mitchell Hamline website: Mitchell Hamline DOT EDU and search for Truth and Action.

Next up....

STORY #2: INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL HEALING SCHOLARSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has announced the Indian Boarding School Healing Scholarship and Fellowship Program.

The program aligns with the organization’s mission to address the ongoing trauma caused by the U.S. Indian Boarding School policy and effects on Indian education.

Christine Diindiisi McCleave: is Chief Executive Officer.

Christine Diindiisi McCleave: : I think it's really exciting that we're able to offer this scholarship and fellowship program because it's around education and it was the boarding schools and how education was used as a weapon against us. Whereas now, a lot of Indian education programs promote language, promote culture, are all about resilience and revitalization. 

Reporter: The scholarship program is aimed at descendants of Indian Boarding School Survivors. Additionally, a 2 year fellowship opportunity supports American Indians and Alaska Natives graduate student research.

Christine Diindiisi McCleave: We need people with a connection to that history, to our culture, to our values, our worldview, to be the ones interpreting the data and doing the research it's imperative at this point. 

FInd out more details and eligibility online at boarding school healing DOT org.

And next...

STORY #3: INDIGENOUS STORIES OF STRENGTH
Reporter: Indigenous Stories of Strength is a virtual showcase of stories shared in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Melissa Walls is... the Director of the Great Lakes Hub for the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. 

It's called a virtual showcase where we are inviting anyone. Who's a member of an Indigenous community that could be urban, rural, on-Rez, off-Rez, to go to our website. So it's IndigenousStrengths.com by June 1st. And they can submit nominations to just have a platform to share these really positive, energizing stories of how we've led through this pandemic.

Reporter: Each finalist will receive a stipend and be premiered and showcased on the website, starting in the fall.

Melissa Walls: We've heard about all of these really horrific, sad stories of loss, and we acknowledge those. And there are some pretty cool stories of strength and survival and leadership happening, especially I think in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

Reporter: More information about the virtual story sharing initiative and story nomination can be found online at Indigenous Strengths DOT com.

For MN Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.

7 Generation Games has been creating educational games for students and schools across the country. The games blend math, language, and Indigenous history.

In November of 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the company a $1million COVID-19 Rapid Response grant to expand their reach and produce a new platform to help meet challenges in education during the pandemic.

The program is called Growing Math, and creates resources for teachers.

Here’s Leah Lemm with the story.

STORY #1: 7 Generation Games expands platform

Leah: Maria Burns Ortiz started 7 Generation Games with her mother in 2013 and has led its efforts to close the math gap for students from Indigenous, Latino, underserved, and rural communities. Now 7 Generation Games has 50 thousand users!

Here’s Maria Burns Ortiz with some background on 7 Generation Games:

Maria Burns Ortiz: My co-founder Dr. AnnMaria De Mars and Erich Longie, who is now the tribal historic preservation officer for Spirit Lake, but used to be school board president, were doing the data analysis for the National Indian Education study in DC. So it's the largest study in the country, looking at American Indian and Alaskan Native youth and multiple facets of education. And they saw that Indigenous youth were underperforming in math at a greater rate than other students.

But they also saw that the more time spent on culture, the more kids were engaged in the curriculum. But at the same time, the more time spent on culture, the worst kids were doing in some of these standardized subjects. So in math and language arts. And Erich saying, you know, it makes sense because if you take an hour out of class to study out of the day and you're working on Lakota culture or Dakota language, it's coming out of other times, so you have less time across the board.

Reporter: They weren’t willing to accept the binary, one or the other, math or culture learning. So they set on figuring it out.

And in thinking about what was relevant and exciting for students, Maria and her colleagues thought: Video Games.

Maria Burns Ortiz: And we thought, you know, kids will play a video game countless number of times, 50 times a day, incrementally further. And you don't see that when it comes to math worksheets. Right? But what could we do to leverage that? And then what do really good video games have? They have good stories and cultural history, even daily life in general is so full of incredible stories. And so we thought if we could combine those two aspects into something that teaches math, we'd be on to something. So that's how we ended up building out our first games. Our first game was Spirit Lake, which we built out on Spirit Lake. We ended up expanding from there.

Reporter: Combining culture and schooling through video games has gone from one game to many. And now they’ve expanded even more. Juliana Taken Alive leads the new Growing Math program, which comes from a $1 million COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant from the USDA.

Juliana Taken Alive: So what Growing Math is connecting, creating resources for teachers in terms of lessons, videos, and then connecting that with the games. And we show teachers how to use the games, how to use the reports, and then how to connect that connection with the lessons that are being created. It's already something that 7 Generation Games was doing - working with the math games online.

Reporter: Growing Math expanding on the strengths of 7 Generation Games to create resources for teachers during and beyond the pandemic.

Juliana Taken Alive: So when Growing Math started, it was to accommodate the distance learning and teachers that were teaching by, you know, Google Classroom, Zoom, you know, whatever. So it's easier for them to use something that already exists. And then once we start going back to face-to-face, they can keep using it. And the other thing is to produce something that our students, as Indigenous students can identify with.

Reporter: The program is no cost to schools. More info at 7 Generation Games DOT COM For MN Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.

HEADLINES: 
This week on Minnesota Native News, White Earth works to deal with homelessness, Flanagan addressed a grieving state and a new exhibit celebrates indigenous engineering. 

Story #1 - 
Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan says she is grieving after the death of Daunte Wright at the hands of a white police officer in a Minneapolis suburb. Melissa Townsend tells us more. 

In a radio address on April 16th, Flanagan said the killing of Wright, who is Black, is a trauma on top of the trauma of George Floyd’s death.

FLANAGAN: I know that Daunte Wright called his mom right before he died and George Floyd called out for his mother and as a mom, I’m holding a lot of this and I know that a lot of Minnesotans are devastated. 

Flanagan said Minnesota’s leaders need to do something about police killing of Black and Indigenous people and People of Color.

FLANAGAN: All Minnesotans, but especially our leaders should be deeply concerned that Minnesota is starting to developing a reputation as a place that is not a safe place for Black men or the Black community. And our top priority should be figuring out how to address that. 

The New York Times recently reported that nationally - 64 people were killed by police in the 3 and a half weeks during the Derek Chauvin trial. That’s 3 people a day killed by police. Half of them were Latino or Black. There were no stats on the number of Native people killed. 

In other news….

STORY #2 -
The White Earth Tribal Council is working to address the homelessness emergency on the reservation. In a resolution passed on March 19th, officials stated the White Earth Homeless Program has been assisting those without stable housing. But even with this help, tribal officials said the number of White Earth citizens without a stable place to live warranted a state of emergency. 

Later that day, on March 19th, the tribal council announced they some very good news. The White Earth Band had received more than 2-million dollars from the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development; 2 point 3 million to be exact. The money comes from the American Rescue Plan recently passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. 

In a statement, White Earth tribal Chairman Michael Fairbanks says the tribal government will begin the process of deciding how the money will be used in the best interest of tribal programs and the community. 

And finally … 

STORY #3 - 

A new exhibit on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus is all about canoes made by the indigenous communities in minnesota.  Jacob Bernier is one of the exhibit curators.He is a Red River Metis descendent. And he’s getting his Masters degree in Heritage Studies and Public History at the U. He says he has always been interested in canoes…

BERNIER: I’ve always been akin to water and my ancestors were canoe people so it’s just kind of engrained in me.  

Then at the U he took a class with Professor Vince Diaz where the students take a traditional Micronesian outrigger canoe out on the Mississippi River.

BERNIER: It really just kind of took my breath away. It made me feel so many different emotions all at the same time.  And I’ve been wanting to do things with canoes ever since. 

So as part of Bernier’s Masters project he helped curate this exhibit all about canoes built by Ojibwe and Dakota people indigenous to Minnesota and the Micronesian community who settled here.

BERNIER: These three communities have been pivotal in the Native canoe program at the University. 

The exhibit includes images and information and some small scale models of the traditional canoes — the Micronesian outrigger, the Ojibwe birch bark and the Dakota dug out canoes .

Breneir says his goal is to honor the indigenous knowledge of these communities.

BERNIER: Canoe practices have been around for thousands of years and they will continue To be. As long as there are people, there will be canoes. So our goal is to make sure things continue on in a good way. 

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday noon to 5 pm on the 4th floor of the Northrup Auditorium. It will be there through September. But co-curator Jacob Bernier is created an online 360 tour of the exhibit so anyone can see it even if they can’t get to the U of M Twin Cities Campus.

For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.