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.
On today’s show, we talk with Reuben Kitto Stately (Red Lake Nation and Santee Sioux Nation) who is a fourth-year student at Augsburg University and Dakota language learner. He’s also a musician and recording artist, known as Kitto.
Reuben shares how he discovered his passion for learning Dakhóta language, how he has dedicated himself to being a life-long learner, as his gift to share. He believes language is the key to reclaiming Indigenous culture, art, and identity. Reuben also traces his love of music back to falling asleep to drums on the Pow Wow trail as a baby. And he explains how Indigenous musicians inspired him to pursue music, tell his own authentic stories, find his own creative voice.
We loved Reuban’s enthusiasm for finding his roots, and for his wonderful vision for helping people reconnect and bring alive their Indigenous language, as the pathway to thriving long into the future.
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
- Alexandera Houchin: Life on Two Wheels
Today, we’re very excited to Welcome Alexandera Houchin to the Native Lights podcast. Alexandera is a citizen of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). She resides in her reservation community in northern Minnesota. She’s an ultra racer, bike packer, mountain biker, outdoor adventurer, storyteller, and writer. And she is currently working on her memoir for Penguin Random House and is the subject of a documentary. - Bradley Harrington: The United States 250th Anniversary from an Anishinaabe Perspective
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.
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