New radio station KRSM takes to the air in south Minneapolis
By Lee Egerstrom A low-powered FM radio station seven years in the making has taken to the air in south Minneapolis. While small in size compared with clear channel radio, it is bringing Native Americans and other ethnic group news, information and cultural entertainment to a potential market of 300,000 listeners. The station, KRSM (98.9 […]
Interview with artist Julie Buffalohead
BY DEBORAH LOCKE (To see the article in this issue about Julie’s exhibit see: https://thecirclenews.org/the-arts/julie-buffaloheads-art-gives-no-answers-to-the-viewer/ When did you know that you wanted to be an artist? I didn’t have a realization; I just did it. I took art classes in junior high and learned how to do art at the Minneapolis College of Art and […]
Native Youth lead the way toward environmental & economic sustainability
BY ELAINE SALINAS As a bitter cold February wind swept across the plains of North Dakota, and the Water Defenders at Standing Stone stood their ground, Indian youth participating in MIGIZI’s Green Jobs Pathway Project worked feverishly hundreds of miles away to complete a solar-powered water heater that would help to sustain the camp and the […]
From Santa to Super Bowl, holiday season looms large in Indian Country
BY LEE EGERSTROM While Native artists, retailers and food companies all try to hitch a ride with Santa Claus this time of year, an expanded St. Paul Winter Carnival and the National Football League’s Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis is extending the holiday entertainment and gift buying season well into the new year. Large tribal hotel […]
Peggy Flanagan could become the highest ranking Native woman to hold public office
BY CAMILLE ERICKSON “It matters that people see themselves reflected in the leaders that represent them, “said state Rep. Peggy Flanagan (DFL-St. Louis Park). Joining U.S. Rep. Tim Walz’s (DFL-Mankato) bid for governor of Minnesota, Flanagan, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe, will run for lieutenant governor in next year’s gubernatorial election. […]
Dr. Wyatt new Emergency Department Director at HCMC
BY LEE EGERSTROM Dr. Thomas E. Wyatt (Loyal Shawnee and Quapaw Tribes of Oklahoma) became director of the Emergency Department at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in July. This marks the first time a Native American has headed a department at the large Minneapolis medical complex and makes him one of the few, if not the first Native […]
Sioux Chef picked as restaurant for new Minneapolis riverfront park
The Sioux Chef, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and Minneapolis Parks Foundation will partner to open a riverfront restaurant and food service venue for the future public pavilion at Water Works. The Sioux Chef is a diverse, Indigenous-led team committed to revitalizing Native American Cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary tradition that has been long […]
A Native Homecare Business Booms
By LEE EGERSTROM The growing and unmet needs for Native health and home care weren’t going away. Patricia (Pat) Yager, who grew up at Bena on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and bounced back and forth between Cass Lake-Bena and as an urban dweller in the Twin Cities, knew she needed to become an entrepreneur in […]
Red Lake housing project in Mpls to house elders, wellness center
By LEE EGERSTROM The city of Minneapolis has approved more than $2.7 million from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund to assist the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe in launching its Mino-bimaadiziwin housing project on the edge of the American Indian Cultural Corridor in South Minneapolis. The Red Lake Band announced in July last year it had purchased […]
“Scaffold” at Walker Art Center to be dismantled and burned
By Cat Whipple Outrage from the Native community in Minneapolis has put the Walker Art Center in the hot seat. The Center’s installation of a two-story gallows structure entitled “Scaffold”, by artist Sam Durant, includes references to the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato in 1862 by the US government. “Scaffold” is a collection of […]
Am. Indian Cultural Corridor to be part of Minneapolis “Green Zone”
By Lee Egerstrom The city of Minneapolis has designated the Phillips Neighborhood, including the American Indian Cultural Corridor along Franklin Avenue, as one of two geographic areas to be “Green Zones” for future environmental and economic development. The city will be reaching out to Native and Indigenous organizations this month for participants to serve on […]
Urban farming in South Minneapolis: May 2017
By LEE EGERSTROM A collaborative of Minneapolis faith-based, cultural and health organizations will soon start a second year of serious urban farming in an effort to change how Native Americans live and eat and take their neighbors along on the same healthy journey. Weather permitting, volunteers and staff from involved groups will transplant crops May 12 […]