Today, we’re excited to present Victoria Marie, an enrolled tribal member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. She's the founder and owner of Indigenous Lotus, a wellness program that combines yoga classes, tribal dance, exercise and meditation with an emphasis on helping people cope with stress and trauma. Those stressors can include PTSD, homelessness, sexual exploitation and poverty. In addition to classes and workshops, Indigenous Lotus has a line of streetwear.

Victoria shares the story of how, at age seventeen, she dropped out of high school, became a new mom and found herself struggling with depression. Her quest for guidance led her to the local library. There she found a book on meditation. That formed the foundation of her healing journey. When her son got older, meditation also became a shared bedtime practice for mom and son.

Later, yoga came into her life. After getting certified, she taught yoga and movement to the youth at Little Earth of United Tribes. That became the origins of Indigenous Lotus, her yoga studio. Her business has evolved to include public speaking, workshops, art and apparel.

Victoria talks about how a recent health diagnosis gave her permission to slow down, step back and surrender.

Victoria lives in Shakopee with her partner, their children, two dogs, three cats, and a rabbit who loves to shred cardboard.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood 

Photo credit: Victoria Marie

-----

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio

instagram.com/mnnativenews

facebook.com/MNNativeNews

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

Today, we're excited to welcome Cole Redhorse Taylor to the Native Lights podcast. Cole is Mdewakanton Dakota and a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community. He's an artist, and has worked in many mediums: drawing, painting, beadwork, quill work, hockey helmets. He's created contemporary and traditional pieces heavily inspired by the artwork of his ancestors. And of course, if you're a sports fan, you may have seen his collaborations with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild.

Cole never thought of himself as an artist when he was growing up. Didn't he have to be able to draw a realistic portrait to be considered an artist? He couldn't do that. It was only later he realized he'd been making art all along, creating traditional beadwork, but not realizing it for the art it was.

He shares with us his evolving journey as an artist and how his art connects him to community. He also chats about books, travel, Disney World, the surprise controversy surrounding the hockey helmet designed for the Minnesota Wild goalie, and advice for up and coming artists.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

-----

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio

instagram.com/mnnativenews

facebook.com/MNNativeNews

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

Today, we welcome Carl Gawboy to the Native Lights podcast. Carl, born to a Finnish mother and an Ojibwe father, was raised in Ely and is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. Carl is an artist, whose primary medium is watercolors. But he turned to pen and ink for his recent graphic book Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History.

For a number of years, Carl taught in the Indian Studies departments at the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Minnesota – Duluth. He was given an opportunity to develop a course and that turned into a history of the fur trade.

His research revealed that every Ojibwe person, in one fashion or another, worked in the fur trade industry—as trappers, guides, interpreters, cooks, canoe makers, etc. 

He talks about the book that inspired him to turn his research into a series of black and white drawings. Those evolved into the 2024 book Fur Trade Nation and, more recently, Giclee prints and a calendar.

Carl and wife Cindy live in Two Harbors and enjoy spending time with their family and a special feline friend.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

-----

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio

instagram.com/mnnativenews

facebook.com/MNNativeNews

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/

Today, we are excited to welcome Janis A. Fairbanks to Native Lights. Janis is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She recently released a book called Sugar Bush Babies: Stories of My Ojibwe Grandmother, a memoir in lessons learned from her grandmother during the era of Indian Relocation.

Janis also has a doctorate in Ojibwe language, literature and history. She is currently the chair of the Language Advisory Board for the Fond du Lac Band.

Janis talks about a lifetime devoted to writing, a talent that she uncovered as a second grader trying to fit in. She wrote stories that enchanted her classmates, who called her "Ye Olde Storyteller." That recognition encouraged her to keep writing.

One of the most important and influential people in Janis's life was her grandmother. She always arrived with a bag, holding oranges and other goodies for the grandkids, and with stories. One was about her grandmother's birth at a sugarbush camp in a pit lined with cedar. Janis collected this and other stories in her memoir Sugar Bush Babies.

In our conversation, she also shares what it's like to be the mom of a five-month-old puppy, why some memories stick and other fades and her advice for aspiring writers.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

-----

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio

instagram.com/mnnativenews

facebook.com/MNNativeNews

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

Today, we're thrilled to speak with Wookiye Win. Wookiye Win, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, is an artist and educator. She teaches the Dakota language for the Dakota Language Nest Preschool program at the Institute of Child Development on the University of Minnesota campus. She's also the illustrator of Dakota language children's books.

Wookiye comes from an artistic family and has always been creating art. But she never thought of herself as an artist. But when the COVID pandemic hit, she started looking for something to do at home and turned to watercolors. 

Not only did she find a theme for her art in nature but also found the pigments for her watercolors. The idea of making her own paints started when she collected pipestone dust left from her father's pipestone making. Since then, she has expanded her homemade palette to include marigold, red ochre, yellow ochre, nettle, among others.

It's her passion to revitalize the Dakota language. She makes an effort to speak it at home and work and to always learn more. Together with her husband, also a language revitalizer, Wookiye Win shares five kids and a home in St. Paul.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio/

instagram.com/mnnativenews/ 

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

Today, we're excited to talk to Penny Kagigebi. Penny is a direct descendant of the White Earth Nation. She is a 2-Spirit queer community collaborator, artist, curator and teacher. She focuses on birch bark basketry and quill boxes and recently curated Queering Indigeneity for the Minnesota Museum of American Art, on exhibit from September 18, 2025 to August 16, 2026.

Penny turned to art after the death of her son in 2008. She spent a year making gifts to put in the bundle she was sending to him. This work opened her to the healing power of art and to the idea that she is an artist.

In her art, she intertwines traditional craft with her identity as 2-Spirit/Native queer, whether it's rainbow colors or a fresh take on design. She also works to help other 2-Spirt/Native queer artists find their gifts and their medicines and share them with the community.

That vision informs the Minnesota Museum of American Art exhibit Queering Indigeneity. As a first-time curator, Penny had the opportunity to reach out to 2-Spirit/Native queer artists from across the Upper Midwest and ask, “What's your wildest idea? What do you have in your back pocket that you haven't been able to put forward yet?”

Penny lives in Detroit Lakes with her husband Rick, who is also an artist.
-----
Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood 

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio/

instagram.com/mnnativenews/ 

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love.

ampers.org/fund

Today, we’re excited to chat with Heid E. Erdrich. Heid is an author, researcher, educator, curator and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. 

In 2024, she was the inaugural Minneapolis Poet Laureate and, in 2025, she served as the James and Lois Welch Distinguished Native American Visiting Writer at the University of Montana – Missoula. 

Her recent books are Boundless: Abundance in Native American Art and Literature, which she co-edited, and Verb Animate: Poems, Prose and Prompts from Collaborative Acts.

In our discussion, she examines her fascination with researching family history and with tracing the ancestral migrations that brought her to where she is now. A frequent collaborator, she talks about the power of working alongside literary and visual artists and how one of those partnerships inspired a unique synchronicity involving pink dolphins.

Heid also shares her “best bad habit” and her take on the greatest gift anyone can give a creative artist.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio/

instagram.com/mnnativenews/ 

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love.

ampers.org/fund

Today, we’re excited to speak with Alexandra Buffalohead. Alex is from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and is the Director of Communications and Partnerships at the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI). She’s also an artist, curator and musician.

Alex talks about what drives her work in the nonprofit world at NACDI and how she strives to find a good work/life balance to leave time for her many outside pursuits.

At 15, she was a disinterested piano student when her parents gave her the opportunity to join their blues-rock band Blue Dog. That’s when she caught the music bug and has been playing keys, performing and recording with them ever since.

As a visual artist, Alex has created works on canvas, paper and in sculpture. She is a curator and has put together shows for Twin Cities galleries that celebrate the voices of today’s young and established Native artists. She also talks to us about how important it is to have venues that consistently make space for Native artists to share and develop work.

-----

Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood 

Today, we are excited to welcome Sharon Day to the Native Lights Podcast. Sharon is enrolled with the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, and she serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. She's also a grandmother, an artist, a musician and writer, and she leads Water Walks, or Nibi Walks.

A deep reverence for all living things underpins the decades she has devoted to Nibi Walks. She and fellow walkers gather water at the source and carry it the length or perimeter of the body of water. This can last weeks. They undertake these journeys to show respect for the water and to support its health. And because humans are mostly made of water, she is reminded that its health is our health too.

Sharon makes her home on a farm, which is also a home and sanctuary for many kinds of wildlife. Spending so much time outdoors, she is attuned to the seasons and the impacts of climate change. Every morning, she wakes with gratitude for the land and a hope that she can be a little more kinder that day.

-----

Hosts: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. 

instagram.com/ampersradio/

instagram.com/mnnativenews/ 

Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ 

This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love.

ampers.org/fund

Today, we're excited to speak with Teresa Peterson. Teresa is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and a member of the Upper Sioux Community. She is a passionate gardener, gatherer, lover of the land and author of several books, most recently the award-winning Perennial Ceremony.

Teresa talks to us about her love of growing things. That includes tending a large garden, where she forages for tossed salads and asparagus on the grill, and taking care of her land. She chips her own mulch. She plants perennials to sequester carbon and prevent erosion. And she's working on getting a couple goats to eradicate invasive plants.

One of her mottos is: When you know who you are, no matter where you go, you belong. Writing has been part of that journey of self-knowledge. Her latest book, Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden (2024), is an invitation to readers to join her on a seasonal journey of stories, poetry and recipes.

The mother of three, Teresa lives with her husband Jay on just over seven acres overlooking the Mni Sota River Valley. 
-----
Hosts: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood