In this podcast episode, Rebecca sits down with Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, only the second Native American woman to be elected to statewide executive office in U.S. history. The conversation focuses on Native American representation, leadership – particularly among Native women – and the importance of understanding Minnesota’s history and historical trauma.

This episode features an interview with Sean Sherman, an award-winning Lakota chef and cookbook author based in the Twin Cities. Sean is the founder and CEO of The Sioux Chef, a company devoted to Indigenous foods, and co-founder of the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. In this conversation, Rebecca and Sean talk about Native American cuisine, making Native foods accessible, and Sean’s and his partner Dana Thompson’s new Minneapolis restaurant, Owamni by The Sioux Chef.

EPISODE RESOURCES

The Sioux Chef: https://sioux-chef.com/

Owamni restaurant: https://owamni.com/

The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen cookbook: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-sioux-chef

Celebrating Indigenous Women Chefs cooking demonstrations: https://hfhl.umn.edu/events/indigenouschefs

I-Collective: https://www.icollectiveinc.org/

Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance: https://nativefoodalliance.org/

UNDERSTAND NATIVE MINNESOTA

Learn more about the campaign: https://www.understandnativemn.org/

Follow the campaign on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/NativeMNFacts/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/NativeMNFacts

Song: Buffalo Moon by Brulé

We welcome Ramona Kitto Stately to the podcast for a conversation about Native American education here in Minnesota. Ramona is the project director of We Are Still Here Minnesota and the chair of the Minnesota Indian Education Association. In this episode, we talk about the “Minnesota paradox” when it comes to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and the powerful impact of teaching children to recognize, understand and celebrate different histories and cultures.

In this episode, Rebecca sits down with Tadd Johnson to cover his varied career in law, government and higher education. Tadd currently serves as the senior director of American Indian Tribal Nations Relations at the University of Minnesota, director of the Tribal Sovereignty Institute and director of graduate studies in the American Indian Studies Department. In this conversation, Rebecca and Tadd talk about his work in education, how universities are evolving in their work with Native peoples and what folks don’t understand about Native history.

The lack of Native representation - whether it's in government, movies or sport - has allowed false narratives about Native Americans to spread. In this episode, Rebecca speaks with Crystal Echo Hawk of IllumiNative about her research on Native representation and how her organization is fighting against misconceptions and stereotypes in pop culture and news media.

In this first episode, Rebecca speaks with Wayne Ducheneaux, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux nation in South Dakota and the executive director of the Native Governance Center. Wayne shares his background and how he was called to serving his tribe and Indian Country in his career. The conversation centers on the importance of Native American representation – whether its in the White House Cabinet or in pop culture – and how the current focus on racial inequities can serve Native communities. “In the wake of the George Floyd incident, there’s been a bright light shown on inequities. We as Native people have experienced these since the first treaty was broken… we have a chance to address them now.”