By Leah Lemm/MPR News Jingle dress dancers gathered on February 1 to hold healing ceremonies at the locations where Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by federal immigration agents while observing their operations. Hundreds of people attended the ceremony in south Minneapolis, many in ribbon skirts and regalia. Star Downwind was […]
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By J. David Mcswane & Hannah Allam/ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June 2025, panicked calls flooded into the city’s emergency response system. Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked […]
By The Circle Minneapolis officials have advanced a proposal to strengthen the city’s two-decade-old separation ordinance, reaffirming limits on local involvement in federal immigration enforcement as residents express growing concern about intensified federal actions. The measure, approved in early December by a City Council committee, reinforces existing rules that prohibit city employees — including police […]
By Leah Lemm / MPR News Selena Jourdain started jingle dress dancing when she was 3 years old. The jingle dress is a century-old Ojibwe cultural tradition with beginnings in Minnesota. In late November, Jourdain shared that tradition with an audience of millions. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade drew a crowd of well over 3 […]
By Maryann Marino On a crisp November day, community leaders, partners, and residents came together to celebrate the grand opening of Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center’s Oshki-Gakeyaa, a 24-home permanent supportive housing community that represents hope and new beginnings for Native families in the East Phillips and Ventura Village neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The community room […]
By Winona LaDuke Darren Smedsmo ‘s plane was seized by Red Lake Nation police for trespassing on tribal airspace. That was October 15. I think we are all glad that he’s alive. But the story is being treated with some sensationalism by the media. The story deserves more discussion. Now, to be clear, I am […]
By Dan Ninham Bam’idizowigamig Creator’s Place was founded in 2021 in the tribal village of Pine Point, located a half mile north of Ponsford and both are on the southeastern corner of the White Earth Nation in northern Minnesota. Jean Kruft has a few hats on as the founder, board chair and daily volunteer with the […]
By Chandra Colvin/MPR News With the tap of a button or short phone call, community members living in the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe’s Ball Club community can request a free ride with the recently expanded transportation service, goMARTI. Minnesota’s Advanced Rural Transit Innovation, or goMARTI, launched its pilot program three years ago to test free, autonomous and on-demand transportation services in rural Minnesota’s “challenging winter conditions.” Until two months ago, the program primarily served the community of Grand Rapids, […]
By Winona LaDuke Giiwewag. They are coming home. Manoominikwewag — harvesting wild rice is a deep connection back to water and land. The Anishinaabe have harvested wild rice for a thousand years on the same lakes. That’s a land-based economy, not an economy based on profit margins of foreign corporations. It’s worth fighting for. I […]
By Winona LaDuke After recent political uncertainty regarding funding for solar energy projects nationwide, a northern Minnesota project on the White Earth Nation reservation called “The Resilience Hub” is finally getting installed. Construction began late this summer and will supply close to 700,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of solar, which can be stored in the batteries, for […]
By K.E. MacPhie On my first day as a volunteer at Leech Lake Legacy (let’s call it Legacy, for short), I pulled in past a long line of cars stretched out of the parking lot and down the road in Cass Lake filled with people patiently waiting with dogs on laps and cats bundled in […]
