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.
Native Lights – Robert Rice’s Gift for Gathering Community around Coffee, Frybread, and Wild Ricing
On today’s show, we talk with Robert Rice (White Earth Nation) the owner and operator of the Pow Wow Grounds coffee shop on Franklin Avenue in South Minneapolis, a hub for gathering for conversation and art, over coffee, frybread, and tacos. Robert also has decades of experience harvesting wild rice and a passion for sharing the tradition with others.
Robert shares how Pow Wow Ground’s parking lot became the staging area for AIM patrols during the uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd, protecting businesses along Franklin Ave, with more than 300 people showing up to help. As food donations poured in, the space transitioned and became a food shelf, serving the needs of residents, as nearby grocery stores shut down amid the chaos and destruction.
We appreciate Robert’s good work creating a thriving business, centered on the values of collaboration and kindness, and for all the good coffee and delicious frybread! Chi Miigwech!
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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Today, we’re speaking with Ryan Dixon. Ryan is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe from Pine Ridge in South Dakota and has spent over two decades immersed in the Lower Sioux community in southern Minnesota. He trained under First Language Dakota speakers, and he now teaches Dakota. An educator and Indigenous language activist, he co-founded a Dakota Immersion Head Start programming and works to keep the language alive for future generations. - Michael Kurtz: Tales of a Wildlife Photographer
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On this episode, we speak with contemporary artist and White Earth Nation citizen Kent Estey. Kent paints at his home studio in Naytahwaush, in the heart of the White Earth Reservation. He’s known for really bold abstract landscapes, acrylic, oil, ink, and metal. He’s also an author. In 2025, he released the children’s book Picking Sweetgrass. His latest exhibit, “Mino-Bimaadiziwin: The Good Life” runs through Labor Day weekend in Detroit Lakes.
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