Acclaimed Native author and Minneapolis bookstore owner Louise Erdrich has been named the 2026 recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, adding another major honor to a literary career spanning more than four decades. Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, is known for a body of work that […]
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LATEST ISSUE · BACK-TO-SCHOOL & STATE FAIR SPECIAL EDITION
Native news, arts, education, culture, and community stories come together in this special edition of The Circle.
RICHFIELD, Minn. — Native elders from across Minnesota gathered at Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday, Sept. 16, for the third annual Native American Elder Day picnic hosted by Spirit Care Services. According to an event organizer, elders from 10 of Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations attended this year’s celebration. Tribes and Native organizations from outside the […]
A federal appeals court has handed two California tribes a significant victory in their challenge to Kalshi, ruling that the company’s online sports event contracts likely violate federal Indian gaming law when accessed from tribal lands. In a unanimous decision issued Sept. 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed part of […]
The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Bois Forte Band of Chippewa are calling on Minnesota to take a broader look at the cumulative effects of mining and other extraction across northeastern Minnesota’s 1854 Treaty Ceded Territory. The two Tribal Nations announced Sept. 23 that they will formally request the Minnesota Environmental Quality […]
The federal government has adopted temporary operating guidelines for the Colorado River after the seven basin states failed to agree on a long-term plan for the drought-stricken waterway. The agreements governing shortages and operations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead expire at the end of 2026. On Aug. 21, the U.S. Department of the Interior […]
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is facing multiple federal lawsuits that raise a larger question: How much authority does a tribal nation have to govern and protect its reservation and natural resources? In April 2026, Wisconsin sued the tribe after it passed resolutions restricting non-member fishing for walleye and muskellunge on 19 […]
Concerns are rising over a proposed reroute of a petroleum pipeline near Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota; here’s what we know. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is reviewing the Pipestone Pipeline Reroute Project (Docket IP-7109/PPL-23-109). The applicant is Magellan Pipeline Company, L.P., now part of ONEOK. The proposal would reroute approximately 0.74 miles of an existing eight-inch […]
Federal funding for Indian health increased for fiscal year 2026, including a significant boost for a program supporting diabetes prevention and treatment in Native communities. Congress provided approximately $5.86 billion for Indian Health Service services and facilities, a 1.3% increase over fiscal year 2025. The total includes approximately $5.05 billion for health services and $809.2 […]
Medicaid changes are raising concerns about long-term financial pressure on Tribal health organizations, even as Minnesota begins distributing millions of dollars through a new federal program to transform rural health care. The federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), created in 2025, will provide up to $50 billion to states over five years from 2026 through […]
MINNEAPOLIS — The Native American Community Clinic (NACC) will open its new health campus to patients Tuesday, September 15th, marking a major expansion of culturally grounded health care and community services for Native families in the Twin Cities. Located along the American Indian Cultural Corridor in south Minneapolis, the new clinic is part of an […]
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will host a public open house and hearing on Wednesday, August 12th, to gather public input on the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Tamarack Mining Project in east-central Minnesota. The Tamarack Mine, proposed by Talon Nickel (USA) LLC as part of a joint […]
On June 30th, 2026, the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled that Enbridge Energy is trespassing on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation in northern Wisconsin, affirming that the company must remove its Line 5 pipeline from Tribal lands. While the court gave Enbridge additional time to […]
By K.E. MacPhie Shashana SkippingDay is dreaming bigger than a building—she’s helping build a future where Indigenous birthing people receive care that is safe, supported, and sacred. As the planner for a developing Native-led birth center, she’s deep in the work of creating something our communities have long needed and deserved. The vision isn’t new. […]
By Lee Egerstrom The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) as started a $6 million campaign with partners to provide facilities and conduct research on ways to improve the physical fitness and mental wellness of Minnesota’s Native American youngsters. Don’t expect to see a lot of lab coats, test tubes, syringes or scales. The laboratories will be […]
By Arne Vainio MD The whole getting into medical school thing was not something I was aiming for. My parents owned the Good Luck Tavern in Sturgeon, Minnesota and my dad wasn’t a good businessman. He committed suicide with a gun when I was four years old. My mom kept the tavern going for a […]
By Arne Vainio M.D. (Editor’s note: this was originally published in 2021.) Tashia Hart is putting together a cookbook featuring manoomin (wild rice) and other wild foods of Minnesota. This was published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in the fall of 2021. I like to cook and she asked me for my manoomin recipe. At first […]
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By Winona LaDuke On the opening night of the Minnesota State Fair, I ate my approved amount of deep-fried goods and settled into my seat with a couple of friends to see my old friend Bonnie Raitt . As she carried a crowd of 12,000 or so through a wide-ranging set list, it was hard […]
By Winona LaDuke Napoleon LaDuke was my great uncle. I’ve always had a liking for that name. My great uncle was a brown man from the Northwoods who was in World War I and came back “shell shocked.” He wasn’t even a citizen of the US at the time but, nevertheless — like many Native […]
By Mordecai Specktor It’s murder in Minneapolis I stopped by the Pow Wow Grounds coffee shop on Sunday afternoon, January 25. It was the day after Border Patrol agents gunned down Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. Pretti was pumped full of US government bullets on Nicollet Avenue just […]
By Mordecai Specktor Manufacturing crimes, again “A federal grand jury today returned a six-count indictment against four members of a far-left, anti-capitalist, and anti-government group that allegedly plotted to set off bombs in Southern California on New Year’s Eve, charging them with additional, terrorism-related felonies,” boasted a Dec. 23 press release from the United States […]
By Mordecai Specktor Leonard Peltier in Minneapolis It was a surrealistic experience to enter the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Nov. 8 and see Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist who served nearly 50 years in federal prison until his release in February, greeting friends and posing for pictures in a reception room […]
Review by Deborah Locke Mitch Caddo, a tribal operations executive with a Wisconsin Ojibwe nation, is charged with ensuring that the tribal president, Mack Beck, wins his next election. The plot of “Big Chief” by Jon Hickey (Ojibwe) (Simon & Schuster 2025) evolves around that upcoming election and the corruption that ensues. Dirty politics reign, […]
Acclaimed Native author and Minneapolis bookstore owner Louise Erdrich has been named the 2026 recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, adding another major honor to a literary career spanning more than four decades. Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, is known for a body of work that […]
Efforts to preserve and strengthen Dakota and Ojibwe languages continue across Minnesota through schools, Tribal Nations, immersion programs, and community organizations. Minnesota is supporting that work through multiple language revitalization programs during the current biennium, including grants administered by the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and Minnesota Department of Education. The Minnesota Department of Education made […]
RICHFIELD, Minn. — Native elders from across Minnesota gathered at Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday, Sept. 16, for the third annual Native American Elder Day picnic hosted by Spirit Care Services. According to an event organizer, elders from 10 of Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations attended this year’s celebration. Tribes and Native organizations from outside the […]
Aaliyah Nye made history during her rookie season and is widely recognized as the first Indigenous player to win a WNBA championship. Now, the 23-year-old guard is continuing her professional career with the playoff-bound Atlanta Dream. Nye, a citizen of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, was selected by the Las Vegas Aces with the […]
By Ailene Bass DALLAS, TX. —This past week, Shiyazh Pete was one of the hopeful rookies who played for the Dallas Cowboys in their preseason as an offensive lineman. His agent, Brett Tessler, tweeted on Sunday that Shiyazh Pete had been released from the Cowboys. The disappointment quickly reached across football and Native fans alike […]
By Ailene Bass GLENDALE, AZ. — After a preseason Dallas Cowboys win over the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, August 22nd, team player Shiyazh Pete played six snaps against the Cardinals in the second half of the game, and was humbled to have an entire section of Navajo community members give him a standing ovation. The […]
LATEST ISSUE · BACK-TO-SCHOOL & STATE FAIR SPECIAL EDITION
Native news, arts, education, culture, and community stories come together in this special edition of The Circle.
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