Native Lights is a weekly, half-hour 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.
Today Leah and Cole chat with Dani Pieratos of Harvest Nation, an indoor CSA aeroponic farm concept in northern Minnesota. She hails from Lake Vermillion on the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa reservation. Dani is also the co-founder of Bois Forte Sovereignty & Sustainable Agriculture Community Group.
Dani, and a community of people interested in food sovereignty, are planning to bring fresh food to the Bois Forte community year around using aeroponic indoor growing systems. Her passion for reclaiming Native food sovereignty leads her work and is driven by a care for community health and undoing the effects of historical trauma and colonization. Chi-Miigwech to Dani for being on the show!
More information about Harvest Nation can be found here: https://www.harvestnationinc.com/
Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.
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In this episode, we speak with Dan Ninham, PhD, a retired physical education teacher and coach, co-founder of the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame and prolific freelance writer. - BearPaw Shields: Leaving a Legacy for Future Generations
In this episode, we speak with BearPaw Shields from the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. She is a Saint Cloud State University alumna and is currently the Indigenous Learning Community Program Coordinator at the University’s American Indian Center. In her forties, she decided to go to college and get a degree so that she could make the change she wanted to see in the world. She does that now through her work at St. Cloud State’s American Indian Center, helping Native students to succeed in school and connect with their culture through language, field trips and other experiences. As a board member with the Friends of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, she had been instrumental in teaching park staff and visitors about the land’s Native history. Last year, that included the opening of an amphitheater with art provided by Indigenous artists and the names of park animals provided in Dakota and Ojibwemowin. BearPaw Shields lives in Zimmerman where she likes to go on hikes and find her serenity at the nearby Refuge.
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