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 Maggie Lorenz, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe and descendant of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation. She is the Director of the Wakan Tipi Center & Executive Director of the Lower Phalen Creek project, which is a Native-led environmental conservation nonprofit on the East Side of St. Paul.
Maggie tells us about the reclamation of a Dakota sacred area, Wakan Tipi, and the plans for a nearby community gathering and ceremony space. The Wakan Tipi cave is within the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, just east of downtown St. Paul. The project seeks to preserve the space and restore and honor the purpose of the sacred site for the future. Maggie has worked in education, environmental justice, cultural healing, and resiliency which lead her to become the Executive Director of the Lower Phalen Creek project.
Chi-Miigwech to Maggie for sharing her path to this important work!
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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More from Native Lights
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On this episode Leah and Cole speak with Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe citizen Bradley Harrington who recently penned an article in the Mille Lacs Band newspaper, Ojibwe Inaajimowin, about 250 years of US occupation as the country marks the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. - Dr. Samantha Majhor: The Story Collector
Today, we’re excited to welcome Dr. Samantha Majhor to Native Lights. Samantha is a direct descendant of Fort Peck. She’s Dakota and Assiniboine and is an assistant professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. She focuses on Native American literature, particularly literature by Dakota and Ojibwe writers around the Great Lakes region. - Aleyna Morales: Baking and Believing in Herself
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