About Us

Minnesota Native News is a weekly radio segment covering ideas and events relevant to Minnesota’s Native American communities since 2014. MNN is produced and distributed by AMPERS and airs on tribal and community stations across Minnesota. MNN reaches more than 124,000 listeners each week. The team includes a majority of Native reporters/producers all sharing in the editorial and story-telling duties.

Executive Producer: Emma Needham

Producers: Chandra Colvin, Deanna StandingCloud, CJ Younger, Travis Zimmerman

Host: Marie Rock

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• Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge Faces Staffing Cuts; Headlines Affecting Indigenous Minnesotans
  ANCHOR Marie Rock: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.  This week, we hear about the impact of recent federal staffing cuts on Zimmerman, Minnesota’s Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.  …
• Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference & the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s Child Tax Credit
  ANCHOR Marie Rock: This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock. This week, we hear about the twenty-second annual Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference. Plus, important information for families about the Minnesota …

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Minnesota Native News also produces the weekly radio show and podcast Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine. Native Lights is a weekly, podcast and radio program hosted by Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. Native Lights is a space for people in Native communities around Mni Sota Mkoce — a.k.a. Minnesota — to tell their stories about finding their gifts and sharing them with the community.

• Korina Barry: Leading from abundance with NDN Collective
  In this episode we hear from Korina Barry on her work with NDN Collective and the campaign to free Leonard Peltier, in addition to reflections on her roles as mother, doula, and metal fabricator in training. A citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Korina Barry manages the organizing, policy and advocacy direct-action arm …
• Allison Herrera, Indigenous Affairs Journalist and author of Tribal Justice: The Struggle for Black Rights on Native Land
  In this episode, we talk with Indigenous Affairs journalist and author Allison Herrera. Allison’s indigenous ties are from her Xolon Salinan tribal heritage. Her family’s village is in the Toro Creek area of the Central California coast. She didn’t take the traditional route into journalism with a degree. She just decided she wanted to do …

Subscribe to Native Lights wherever you get your podcasts

Listen to MN Native News and Native Lights on your local station

If there’s someone you’d like to hear us catch up with or if you have comments about the show, please send us an email at nativelights@ampers.org

Native Lights and Minnesota Native News is produced by Ampers, diverse radio for Minnesota’s communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.