By Winona LaDuke In celebration of this America’s President’s Day, I would like to offer a story of a great chief and leader of the Anishinaabe, Shagobay, who met U.S. presidents, negotiated treaties, and kept peace. Shagobay was considered a Manidoo (a spirit ), evidenced perhaps in part by his longevity. Born on the Knife River, he […]
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By Dan Gunderson/MPR A national organization based in Minnesota is kicking off a new 10-year plan to bring attention to a dark chapter in U.S. history – and it’s just gotten the funding to put the plan into action. Between 1869 and the 1960s, it’s estimated hundreds of thousands of Native American children across the […]
This year we will feature old articles, photos and pages from years gone by as we look back at 40 years of covering the Native community. Facts about The Circle: The Circle was originally an in-house newsletter of the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) The Circle was started in 1980 by the Minneapolis American Indian […]
By Winona LaDuke It’s Thanksgiving Morning. Everywhere in America. Thanksgiving needs to mean something to Native people. Something like justice and reparations. I’m not going to do long speech about the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims. It’s a brutal history which begins with the beheading of their leaders (those heads were displayed on spikes for decades […]
By Deborah Locke First, a question. Would you agree that in the years since European settlers occupied Minnesota land and shoved Natives to reservations or killed them outright, the primary narrative of what happened is the white perspective? If you accept that premise, you also realize that this partial narrative of history has shown itself […]
By Dan Gunderson/MPR News Denise Lajimodiere’s interest in the Indian boarding school experience began with the stories of her parents. “Mama was made to kneel on a broomstick for not speaking English, locked in closets for not speaking English,” she said. “They would pee their pants and then the nuns would take them out [of the closet] and beat […]
By Mark Steil/MPR NEWS Art Owen pored over pictures of the sacred pipe, knowing the last Native American to touch it had been forced to surrender it weeks before dying on the gallows. Made from Minnesota pipestone, decorated with lead inlay of animal figures, stars and other designs, the pipe had been taken from Chief White […]
By Deborah Locke Here is a reaction I can almost guarantee. Take your children to the new Bell Museum on Larpenteur Avenue, not far from the State Fair grounds, and watch their eyes when they see the 11-foot tall wooly mammoth and the smaller but impressive giant beaver. Their eyes will widen, and so will […]
By Deborah Locke Chantemaza (Neil McKay) is a new member of the Bell Museum Board of Directors and agreed to speak with The Circle about his new role and museums in general. McKay is a Dakota Language Specialist in the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Minnesota, where he has been a member […]
By Deborah Locke Starting Memorial Day weekend, two Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) tours focusing on Dakota history at the site of fort Snelling and Bdote will begin. Bdote is Dakota for the place where two waters (Mississippi and Minnesota rivers) come together. The Bdote/Dakota Homeland walking tour explores the landscape just outside the fort and the […]
BY WINONA LADUKE As I drive home from Fargo towards evening, there are end-less fields of farm equipment, sugar beets, potatoes and corn. The land is flat, the horizon endless. And then there is the mist. I drive into the mist. The mist is the remaining wetlands. Sparse they are. When I get towards Gaawaabaabaanikaag, or […]
