POLITICAL MATTERS: December 2017
By Mordecai Specktor Remembering Dennis Banks When I started writing about American Indian issues, about 40 years ago, I began hearing stories about Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the aftermath of the recent police killings of young, unarmed, people of color in the Twin Cities –Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, […]
Water Protectors, Monster Slayers and the Enbridge Hearings
BY LE BOYD AND WINONA LADUKE For the past four years Dawn Goodwin, of Rice Lake, Minn., has driven thousands of miles, and missed weeks of family time and work to challenge the rights of a Canadian oil pipeline company – Enbridge, which threatens Anishinaabe water. The past three weeks of November were no exception as […]
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 […]
Julie Buffalohead’s art gives no answers to the viewer
BY DEBORAH LOCKE The thing about Julie Buffalohead’s newest exhibit of art at the Bockley Gallery is this. You can second guess her till the cows come home on what raccoon is doing in the water pail or why duck stands on one leg at the kitchen table under a fond (or suspicious) gaze of fox. […]
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 […]
Black Snake Chronicles: KXL Returns and Wiindigo Economics
BY WINONA LADUKE As the plagued Keystone Pipeline spills 200,000 gallons of oil near the Sisseton Dakota reservation, the Nebraska Public Service Commission made a convoluted approval of a permit. In the meantime, the Dakota, Lakota and allies stand strong. “Nothing has changed at all in our defense of land, air and water of the Oceti […]
NEWS BRIEFS: Dec 2017
HENNEPIN COUNTY BOARD VOTES TO CHANGE LAKE CALHOUN NAME MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted Nov. 28th to remove the name of a controversial historical figure from Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. The board voted 4-3 to restore Lake Calhoun’s original Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska (White Earth Lake) back to the lake. […]
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 […]
PASSING ON: Roland Columbus
Roland “Trulo” Columbus April 22, 1933 – October 14, 2017 Roland “Trulo” Columbus (Anpetu-Tawa) age 84 of Redwood Falls, formerly of the Lower Sioux Community, entered the Spirit World on Saturday, October 14, 2017 at Sunwood Good Samaritan Care Center in Redwood Falls. Roland Columbus was born April 22, 1933 in Morton, MN to Thomas […]
IT AIN’T EASY BEING INDIAN: Nov 2017
BY RICEY WILD At this writing I woke to a Winter Wonderland. Yeah, the meteorologists did predict snow coming but somehow, even after a lifetime spent in Da Nort’land, it’s still a big deal. Just seven days ago I was sitting outside in shorts with my dear friend Lorri and our two little pooches Caesar and […]
Opinion: Justice For All
BY NEO BHAVSAR The over representation of Native Americans in the U.S. criminal justice system marks a systemic problem within our society. Even though there is no direct, linear relationship indicating that all Native Americans are targeted, racial disparities permeate every aspect of our criminal justice system. For instance, racial minorities and in this case, Native […]