By Lee Egerstrom
In back to back ceremonies at the end of April, Minnesota’s Native and political leaders gathered to celebrate the state’s cultural heritage and Indigenous history and form new bonds of friendship strengthening the sense of community for future generations.
The first celebration was April 25 at a pre-opening gathering for political leaders and others at the newly remodeled and expanded Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC). Its official re-opening is May 1.
Amid public comments of awe and praise for the MAIC improvements, Executive Director Mary LaGarde encouraged the visitors to use a printed map of the property to visit all the center sites that house programs and facilities to serve the Native community and neighbors in the metro area.
How pleased is she with the completion of the two-year project? “It’s so great!” she said. “Now we need a map to see the building.”
A second large ceremony for the Native community in the Twin Cities metro area came a day later, on April 26. The Red Lake Nation held a pre-opening ceremony at its newly constructed Red Lake Nation College (RLNC) campus, 900 S. 3rd St., in Minneapolis.
President Dan King, a Red Lake member and one of its seven hereditary chiefs, explained that opening an off reservation campus in Minneapolis was a logical step for serving Red Lake people and others in the metro area who share their values.
Half the Red Lake population lives off the reservation, he said. Beyond them, he added, about 50,000 people in the Twin Cities metro area are identified as being Indigenous people from tribes scattered across the U.S.
To support both the Red Lake and diverse members of this large, loosely connected Native community, the Minneapolis campus will make the education programs of its home campus on the shores of Red Lake more available to urban dwellers.
Like at home at Red Lake, King said, the Minneapolis campus’ curricula will be anchored on the seven core Objiwe values (“humility, truth, courage, honesty, respect, love and wisdom”).
The fully accredited Red Lake Nation College offers two two-year associate of arts degrees and promotes itself as “a great place to start.” It currently has 330 graduates from the main campus and several are currently enrolled in Minnesota and colleges and universities elsewhere completing bachelor’s and graduate degrees.
The Minneapolis campus is the first Native owned and operated higher education site in an urban area anywhere in the entire country. In a beautiful atrium area connecting three previous but adjoining buildings, the president told visitors the college is a community college and its credits are transferable to all Minnesota state academic institutions.
King said this new campus is a Red Lake Nation commitment to both higher education and to service to community. He also said 75 percent of the Red Lake Nation College faculty and staff are Native Americans. And 43 percent of the vendors who completed the Minneapolis campus project are Native owned.
Both the MAIC and Red Lake ceremonies stressed service to community. Personal, and sometimes emotional stories from visiting public officials, revealed community ties aren’t just lofty words chosen for the occasion.
Consider these comments at the MAIC:
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a White Earth Nation member who grew up on the metro area, was both emotional and humorous in recalling her experiences at the center. She was introduced to her father there when she was a child, she said.
Other important dates she remembers at the center include launching campaigns for public office. Both of her statewide campaigns with Gov. Tim Walz were started there. And, she joked to great laughter, she had “many dates there” growing up around the center.
In a news briefing issued by the governor and lieutenant governor, Flanagan turned emotional again. “I was so overwhelmed celebrating the grand opening (of MAIC) – a powerful community space dedicated to improving the lives for Indigenous youth, families and elders,” she said.
Both Minnesota U.S. Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, attended the ceremony and area Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who had visited a day earlier, left behind a video complimenting LaGarde and all who worked to make the two-year remodeling and expansion project possible.
Klobuchar joked, “It’s so great to see no buckets of water.” It was a reference to a leaky roof that was a major driving force for getting the project underway.
Further noting her familiarity with the center, she spoke of improvements that will help MAIC serve the 10,000 people from Minneapolis and 35,000 metro area people annually with its programs.
“A lot of Peggy Flanagans will come out of this place,” she predicted, a point not lost of the ceremony’s guests. As a lieutenant governor, the White Earth member is diplomatically recognized as the highest ranking Native woman in America.
Senator Smith told stories of working with MAIC and of bringing a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing there before the construction project started. Smith is a member of that committee.
She and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey both stressed how important the center is in bringing people together as a community. Citing talks about Minneapolis city topics and projects, the mayor said, “Some of the most important conversations I’ve had have been right here.”
Several speakers said MAIC’s circle of community involvement extends far beyond Franklin Avenue and the American Indian Cultural Corridor in south Minneapolis.
State Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton and a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota in South Dakota, was one of them. She is a leader in bringing Native American legislation to the Minnesota Legislature and she serves as chair of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators that coordinates with contemporaries all across the nation.
The center is as a gathering place for community that in turn helps muster support for legislation supporting Native groups and causes, she said. With this community support, a caucus of Minnesota legislators are again promoting legislation to help both urban and reservation communities in the current session of the Legislature.
Among these are continuing efforts to restore reservation lands taken from tribes over the years. Accomplishments from the session a year ago has several repatriations underway, she said. More efforts are underway.
MAIC celebrants were given another reminder that community and family are interconnected. In the audience, cheering on Kunesh and her allies in the Legislature, was Patrice H. Kunesh, the commissioner of administration for Native Americans at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.
The Kunesh sisters were raised near St. Cloud without benefit of being on a reservation or with a nearby facility like the MAIC to promote community a sense of community, the legislator said.
