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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band’s existing businesses. He is also an avid runner, basketball player, and Ojibwe language learner.
- Filmmaker Khayman Goodsky’s Gift for Visual Storytelling and CollaborationToday, a lively conversation with Khayman Goodsky (Bois Forte Band of Chippewa) a Duluth filmmaker. Khayman tells about how she first found her path, her love of comic books and cosplay, and how she enjoys the whole collaboration process.
- Great-Grandmother Mary Lyons’ Gift for Sharing Indigenous Traditions & Spiritual GuidanceOn today’s show, we talk with Great-Grandmother Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) a spiritual advisor, storyteller, activist, wisdom keeper, and revered elder. Mary Lyons is the founder of the Minnesota Coalition on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and serves as a counselor for the women’s sobriety group, which she also co-founded, called Women of Wellbriety International.
- Joe Rainey’s Gift for Pow Wow Singing and Collaborative Music MakingOn today’s show, we talk with Joe Rainey (Red Lake Nation), an Ojibwe Pow Wow singer, music archivist, and collaborative music maker. Joe grew up in south Minneapolis and now lives in Wisconsin with his wife and five children.
- Sequoia Hauck’s Gift for Decolonizing the Process of Art-MakingOn today’s show, we talk with Sequoia Hauck (they/them), a Native (Anishinaabe/Hupa) queer multidisciplinary artist based in the Twin Cities. Sequoia’s art-making includes theater, filmmaking, poetry, and performance art, with all of it centered on a decolonized creative process.
- Joseph Nayquonabe Jr.’s Gift for Strengthening Tribal Economiesband’s existing businesses. He is also an avid runner, basketball player, and Ojibwe language learner.
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