In an impressive fossil fuels travel day, I left the Standing Rock reservation and flew to Italy for the International Slow Food gathering known as Terra Madre. A world congress of harvesters, farmers, chefs and political leaders, this is basically the World Food Olympics. This is my fifth trip to Italy for Slow Food. I […]
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For many South Minneapolis area residents, the urban setting has done little to numb their taste buds or their cravings for foods they remember from back home on the prairies or from the north woods of Minnesota. Since mid-February, a steady stream of customers has come to Gatherings Café in the Minneapolis American Indian Center […]
Nonprofit organizations that deliver social services to Native Americans in Minnesota still struggle to quantify economic conditions for the Native population. They grapple for ways to measure social successes in economic terms and, at the same time, appeal for resources that haven’t fully recovered from the Great Recession of 2008-2009. It’s not that money from […]
“Our people blocked the road. When the troops arrive, we will face them.” – Ailton Krenak, Krenaki People, Brazil This eighteen months saw three of the largest mine tailings pond disasters in history. Although they have occurred far from northern Minnesota’s pristine waters, we may want to take heed as we look at a dozen […]
When the official UN climate negotiations took place in December in Paris, France, thousands of people took to the streets of Paris to protest. Holding red flowers, umbrellas and banners, they created red lines along the boulevard Avenue de la Grande Armée and other streets to state their opposition to climate-damaging fossil fuels. The red […]
The Indigenous Peoples Task Force (IPTF) has launched a $3.5 million capital campaign to build a new Center for Art and Wellness, to be called Mikwanedun Audisookon. The Ojibwe name, chosen with the help of elders in the Native community, translates as “remember our teachings”. Mikwanedun Audisookon will be located adjacent to IPTF’s existing offices […]
Tiwahe Foundation receives 1 Million grant from Northwest Area Foundation The Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) has awarded a $1 million Presidential Grant to the Tiwahe Foundation, an emerging Native community foundation that serves the Twin Cities area, for its “Investing in Indian Philanthropy” project. The grant is twofold: $300,000 is slated to provide operating support […]
When it comes to putting community development theory into practice, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska serve as useful models for Indian Country. Both federally recognized sovereign nations have invested in banks to meet citizens’ needs and to further their economic development. Both have diverse tribal enterprise holdings that produce […]
A series of legal actions and political events in August, stretching from Minnesota and South Dakota to Arizona and Washington State, keep defining and adding precedence to tribal sovereignty rights and their standing before the courts. At the time of this writing, the city of Duluth was still contemplating what additional, if any, further legal […]
Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1937, under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Italian lobbyists in America at the time wanted to honor Christopher Columbus as a heroic leader, claiming he “discovered a new world,” which would eventually become the most powerful nation on the planet. But as Indigenous people, that is not the […]
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis formally launched its Center for Indian Country Development (CIDC) in August, bringing together resources and stakeholders from tribal, federal and state governments with private sector efforts to promote economic development in Indian Country. The Federal Reserve System is uniquely structured to work with all interests and government programs to […]
