This week, the use of federal buildings for immigration operations echoes past abuses on Indigenous lands in Minnesota, and the 7th Annual Ojibwe Language Symposium at Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College brings together hundreds of learners and speakers.
Producers: Deanna StandingCloud, Chaz Wagner
Editor: Deanna StandingCloud, Chaz Wagner
Anchor: Marie Rock
Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood
Editorial support: Emily Krumberger, Victor Palomino
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TRANSCRIPT
[Minnesota Native News theme]MARIE ROCK: This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock. This week, the use of federal buildings for immigration operations echoes past abuses of Indigenous lands, and the seventh annual Ojibwe Language Symposium brings together hundreds of learners and speakers. First, producer Deanna StandingCloud looks at how federal operations continue to affect Minnesota’s Indigenous communities.
DEANNA STANDINGCLOUD: The area where the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers meet is sacred Dakota land. The original people of Minnesota have told creation stories for millennia about the land where the Whipple Building currently sits.
TRAVIS BUSH: Our bloodline is deeply rooted through these sacred places, this land, this makoce of ours, the place of our genesis and also the place of our genocide. Right there.
DEANNA STANDINGCLOUD: Travis Bush is Mdewakanton Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, and serves as security at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. His family has been experiencing trauma and fear after federal immigration agents flooded Minneapolis, detaining community members inside the Whipple Building.
TRAVIS BUSH: They’re making it a lot more difficult than life has to be, and life is already difficult for us, especially being Dakota in our own homelands.
DEANNA STANDINGCLOUD: KSTP reports that detainees are claiming inhumane conditions and lack of due process. For many, this echoes memories of the violent imprisonment of Dakota families in the winter of 1862, just two miles from the Whipple Building.
VICTORIA JOHNSON: It’s terrifying. It’s horrific. It is the same situation as what they had done to our people, just a different era.
DEANNA STANDINGCLOUD: Owner and creator of Indigenous Lotus, a yoga and wellness organization, Victoria Johnson is Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, and has lived in Minneapolis all her life.
VICTORIA JOHNSON: My niece actually lives not too far from where Renee Good was murdered.
NAT SOUND: speakers at the Renee Good memorial site: “I’m here with you today because I am angry…”
VICTORIA JOHNSON: I think there is confusion about what politics actually means. For some of us, the word has been reduced to political parties and elections. But politics at its core is about power, decision making, shared resources, laws, values and how our lives are shaped within a community.
DEANNA STANDINGCLOUD: In response to federal action, Minneapolis residents have stepped up, through grassroots organizing, gathering together and collecting mutual aid support. Members of the Oceti Sakowin Nations have recently set up a camp at Coldwater Spring in sight of the Whipple Building. According to CBS News, this is to show support for those being detained inside the building. Community members also call for clarity on the whereabouts of four Oglala Lakota men, after their alleged attainment at the Whipple Building in January.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Deanna StandingCloud.
MARIE ROCK: Next, a celebration of culture and language keeps Indigenous language in the spotlight. producer Chaz Wagner has more.
CHAZ WAGNER: Chi-Apiitendaagwad Ojibwemowin. That phrase, meaning “the Ojibwe language is highly valued,” resonated across the Fond du Lac Tribal Community College campus earlier this month. The seventh annual Ojibwe Language Symposium welcomed hundreds of language learners, elders and educators for a two-day celebration of Anishinaabemowin.
GIMIWAN DUSTIN BURNETTE: The Fond du Lac tribal Community College Language Symposium is unique because it’s specific to Ojibwe language.
CHAZ WAGNER: Gimiwan Dustin Burnette is the Executive Director for the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network and the keynote speaker at the event.
GIMIWAN DUSTIN BURNETTE: So it really is a treat to see all your peers and meet new people who are all avid learners and practitioners of language. It’s a special treat this year to see so many youth at the conference.
CHAZ WAGNER: The organizers designed the symposium to be family oriented and accessible to all skill levels, with hundreds of people in attendance from across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada.
NAT SOUND: first language speakers
CHAZ WAGNER: This year’s symposium featured all Ojibwe language sessions, beginner workshops and a rare opportunity to hear first language speakers. The gathering highlighted the critical need for preservation. Educators emphasized that while fluent speakers are aging, there is hope with many children and young adults now learning the language.
GIMIWAN DUSTIN BURNETTE: Our language is such a critical aspect of our identity, we really need to do everything we can and dig deeper to not only preserve our language, but to re-normalize the use of it.
CHAZ WAGNER: For more information, visit FDLtcc.edu. For Minnesota Native News, I’m Chaz Wagner.
MARIE ROCK: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota’s communities, made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
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