Circle of Life Academy Graduates

The Circle of Life Academy held their 2016 graduation commencement on June 2 at the Circle of Life Academy in White Earth, Minn. Graduating seniors were Autumn Auginaush, Jordan Bower, Nathaniel Christianson, Precious Dominguez, Cassidy Fineday-Roy, Tristian Fox, Kathleen Heisler-Azure, Adrianna Smith, Chandler Smith, and Jarred Whitener.

Front row from left are pictured: Precious Dominguez, Cassidy Fineday-Roy, Tristian Fox, Adrianna Smith, and Autumn Auginaush. Back row from left: Nathaniel Christianson, Chandler Smith, Jordan Bower, and Jarred Whitener. Not pictured: Kathleen Heisler-Azure. Photo by Gary W. Padrta.

Fond du Lac elects new leadership

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has elected Kevin Dupuis Sr. to take over after a victory in the June general election, with 622 votes or 58.5 percent of the vote.

Kevin Dupuis Sr. will replace Karen Diver on the Reservation Business Committee, the governing body of the band. Diver, the longtime chairwoman, left in the fall to become special assistant to the president for Native American affairs D.C., in President Barack Obama’s administration .

Kevin Dupuis was previously the District III (Brookston) representative on the RBC.

Vanessa L. Northrup and Roger M. Smith Sr. also were elected to the RBC.

The band had narrowed the field of 10 chairperson candidates to two during its April primary election.

White Earth Nation elects Tibbetts chair

The White Earth Nation has voted in Terry Tibbetts Sr. as their new chair.

Tibbetts and Mindy Iverson led a field of 12 candidates in a primary earlier this spring. In that race, they each received roughly 20 percent of the vote, with Tibbetts squeezing out a lead of just eight primary votes.

Official results of the election put Tibbetts ahead of Iverson with nearly two-thirds of total votes.

Tibbetts will be sworn in in July. He’ll be the first elected chair since a power struggle over constitutional reform cost former chair Erma Vizenor her job late last year.

Eugene Tibbetts beat out Barbara Fabre for White Earth district three representative.

American Indian Family Empowerment Program June grantees

The American Indian Family Empowerment Program Fund has awarded ten grantees in the June round of funding Native individuals to help them pursue their vision and dreams. The grants were made in partnership with the Two Feathers Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation.  

The American Indian Family Empowerment Program Fund invests in human capital, skills and cultural strengths through three priority areas: cultural connections, educational achievement and economic self-sufficiency. 

During the June 2016 grant round, the following individuals received awards:

• The Preserve and Renew Native Cultural Connections category: Brian Heart, to support Native cultural education in the Little Earth community

• The Educational Achievement category: Cassandra Buffalohead, to support her education at Augsburg College; Frances Butler, to support her education at Anoka Technical College; Andrea Cornelius, to support her education at Augsburg College; Heather House, to support her education at Minneapolis Community and Technical College; and Lisa Lachner, to support her education at Minneapolis Community and Technical College

• The Economic Self-Sufficiency category: Korina Barry, to support completing a yoga teacher certification program; Patricia Columbus-Powers, for small business to purchase materials to create first product line of Native made fashion items; Brook LaFloe, to support living costs relating to education at the Montessori Institute of San Diego; Jacqueline Pearl, to support creating a family owned and operated window cleaning business.

The next deadline is September 6th. For information on how to apply, see: www.grottofoundation.org/aifep.