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PODCAST

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine

Minnesota Native News

In Native Lights, people in Native communities around Mni Sota Mkoce - a.k.a. Minnesota - tell their stories about finding their gifts and sharing them with the community. These are stories of joy, strength, history, and change from Native people who are shaping the future and honoring those who came before them. Native Lights is also 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

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

28:30

Wookiye Win: Digging for Artistic Inspiration (And...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/10/16

Today, we're thrilled to speak with Wookiye Win. Wookiye Win, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, is an artist and educator. She teaches the Dakota language for the Dakota Language Nest Preschool program at the Institute of Child Development on the University of Minnesota campus. She's also the illustrator of Dakota language children's books. Wookiye comes from an artistic family and has always been creating art. But she never thought of herself as an artist. But when the COVID pandemic hit, she

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28:31

Penny Kagigebi: Reclaiming 2-Spirit Culture Through Art

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/09/18

Today, we're excited to talk to Penny Kagigebi. Penny is a direct descendant of the White Earth Nation. She is a 2-Spirit queer community collaborator, artist, curator and teacher. She focuses on birch bark basketry and quill boxes and recently curated Queering Indigeneity for the Minnesota Museum of American Art, on exhibit from September 18, 2025 to August 16, 2026. Penny turned to art after the death of her son in 2008. She spent a year making gifts to put in the bundle she was sending

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28:29

Heid E. Erdrich: Finding Connections in Creativity...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/09/04

Today, we’re excited to chat with Heid E. Erdrich. Heid is an author, researcher, educator, curator and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. In 2024, she was the inaugural Minneapolis Poet Laureate and, in 2025, she served as the James and Lois Welch Distinguished Native American Visiting Writer at the University of Montana – Missoula. Her recent books are Boundless: Abundance in Native American Art and Literature, which she co-edited, and Verb Animate: Poems, Prose and Prompts

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28:30

Alexandra Buffalohead: Making Time for Work, Art, and...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/08/14

Today, we’re excited to speak with Alexandra Buffalohead. Alex is from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and is the Director of Communications and Partnerships at the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI). She’s also an artist, curator and musician. Alex talks about what drives her work in the nonprofit world at NACDI and how she strives to find a good work/life balance to leave time for her many outside pursuits. At 15, she was a disinterested piano student when her parents

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28:30

Sharon Day: Speaking for the Water

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/07/31

Today, we are excited to welcome Sharon Day to the Native Lights Podcast. Sharon is enrolled with the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, and she serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. She's also a grandmother, an artist, a musician and writer, and she leads Water Walks, or Nibi Walks. A deep reverence for all living things underpins the decades she has devoted to Nibi Walks. She and fellow walkers gather water at the source and carry it the length or perimeter of the

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28:30

Teresa Peterson: Loving the Land that Cares for Us All

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/07/17

Today, we're excited to speak with Teresa Peterson. Teresa is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and a member of the Upper Sioux Community. She is a passionate gardener, gatherer, lover of the land and author of several books, most recently the award-winning Perennial Ceremony. Teresa talks to us about her love of growing things. That includes tending a large garden, where she forages for tossed salads and asparagus on the grill, and taking care of her land. She chips her own mulch. She plants

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48:08

Great-Grandmother Mary Lyons' Gift for Sharing...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/07/09

On this week's show, we revisit our conversation from June 2022 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. Mary's inspiring book, Wisdom Lessons: Spirited Guidance from an Ojibwe

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28:27

Rick Haaland: Speaking for the Animals

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/06/19

Today, we’re excited to speak with Rick Haaland, an animal rescuer and advocate who is the Pets for Life community outreach manager for the Leech Lake Tribal Police. Rick shares the story of the most memorable dog of his childhood, a stray that showed up one day and never left. Even when Rick spent the summer with his grandparents, Drifter, unwilling to be left behind, walked two days to reunite with him. A lifelong animal lover, Rick only came to animal rescue after 40 years in various

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28:27

David Wise: Growing Good Medicine

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/06/12

Today, we're very excited to speak with David Wise, descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and founder of Native Wise, a farm which is focused on soil health, restorative farming and Indigenous agricultural practices. David started his bison herd after a dream with Chief Buffalo, who told him to bring back his namesake. Starting with twelve, he now has a herd that numbers close to sixty, including Renegade and Brutus, two bulls that have become best buddies. The ranch

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28:30

Wendy Roy: Beading as Healing

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/06/04

Today, we are excited to speak with Wendy Roy, a beader and entrepreneur from the White Earth Nation. She mentors other artists and also teaches at White Earth Tribal and Community College. Wendy learned beading from her grandmother, who shared the trick to knowing which bead colors go together. Her grandma would pour beads on a tray to see which beads grouped together and wanted to be friends with each other. She also taught her granddaughter that every bead you sew is a prayer for the

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28:25

Giizh Sarah Agaton Howes: Translating Ojibwe cultural...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/05/22

Today we are speaking with Giizh Sarah Agaton Howes. Howes is an award-winning Anishinaabe creator, artist and organizer from Fond Du Lac reservation and Muscogree Creek. She’s the CEO of Heart Berry, a contemporary Ojibwe Design brand that offers wool blankets, apparel, gifts and accessories rooted in Howes’s beadwork and Ojibwe floral designs. Giizh was raised by an artist mother but never thought about herself as one until she realized art wasn’t just paintings in a museum but the

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28:29

Jonathan Thunder: Finding Joy in Art and Life

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/05/15

In today’s episode, we welcome back Jonathan Thunder, who last appeared on Native Lights in 2021. Since then, the Red Lake Nation citizen and multidisciplinary artist has become a father and opened an art gallery. He talks about how fatherhood has changed his approach to art and why lately he’s shifted his creative focus from sociopolitical ideas to joy. Thunder also shares the experience of creating a special work of art with his son. The artist’s dreamy images have found their way onto

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28:23

Dan Ninham: Honoring Athletes and Indigenous Sports...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/05/01

In this episode, we speak with Dan Ninham, PhD, a retired physical education teacher and coach, co-founder of the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame and prolific freelance writer. Dan, Wolf Clan from the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, has had a lifelong interest in sports. This 6'10" college basketball player devoted his working life to coaching and teaching sports. Even though he's retired, he stays on the road much of the year, giving presentations at schools on Indigenous

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28:27

BearPaw Shields: Leaving a Legacy for Future Generations

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/04/24

In this episode, we speak with BearPaw Shields from the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. She is a Saint Cloud State University alumna and is currently the Indigenous Learning Community Program Coordinator at the University’s American Indian Center.In her forties, she decided to go to college and get a degree so that she could make the change she wanted to see in the world. She does that now through her work at St. Cloud State’s American Indian Center, helping Native students to

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28:28

Allison Waukau: Empowering Native Stories Through...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/04/17

In this episode, we speak with Allison Waukau (Menominee/Navajo), who serves as the Tribal Liaison and Native Relations Coordinator at the Metropolitan Council. She previously worked at the Hennepin County Library and the Roseville School District as American Indian Community Liaison. Last year, she started a new podcast with Odia Wood-Krueger. Through “Books Are Good Medicine,” the co-hosts explore Native literature with the aim of increasing the knowledge of educators and libraries about

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28:24

Dr. Amber Annis: Rebuilding Community with the Native...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/04/03

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Amber Annis about the joys and challenges of rebuilding community and finding your voice as a leader. Dr. Amber Annis is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Executive Director of Native Governance Center. Prior to taking on her role at NGC in December 2024, she worked at the Minnesota Historical Society as Associate Vice President of Tribal Nation Relations and Native American Initiatives. She was also a member of NGC's Native Nations

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28:25

Deven Current: Healing Through the Art of Tattooing

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/03/27

In this episode, we hear from Deven Current about tattooing, sports and the importance of sobriety, family and faith. Deven is an Ojibwe tattoo artist, who connected with his culture later in life. Deven grew up in the Twin Cities and, at a young age, fell into drug addiction. He ended up incarcerated, but his time in prison introduced him to an unrealized talent - tattoo art. He turned that talent into a career and recently into his business, LuckyDuck Ink and Art in Atwater. Through his

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28:24

Korina Barry: Leading from abundance with NDN Collective

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/03/20

In this episode we hear from Korina Barry on her work with NDN Collective and the campaign to free Leonard Peltier, in addition to reflections on her roles as mother, doula, and metal fabricator in training. A citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Korina Barry manages the organizing, policy and advocacy direct-action arm of NDN Collective, which, in January 2025, led the successful campaign to free Leonard Peltier from prison. She divides her creative energies between metal fabrication

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28:26

Allison Herrera, Indigenous Affairs Journalist and...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/03/13

In this episode, we talk with Indigenous Affairs journalist and author Allison Herrera. Allison’s indigenous ties are from her Xolon Salinan tribal heritage. Her family's village is in the Toro Creek area of the Central California coast. She didn’t take the traditional route into journalism with a degree. She just decided she wanted to do it and did it. Starting out at Minneapolis community station KFAI, she brought her talents and desire to report on indigenous stories to various media

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28:31

Mattie Harper DeCarlo on Making Change in Indian...

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine ·

2025/01/09

In this episode, we talk with grantmaking officer and former educator and historian Mattie Harper DeCarlo, PhD. Mattie, a Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe citizen who grew up on Leech Lake Reservation, works in philanthropy at the Bush Foundation, focusing on Indigenous communities. She speaks with us about the nuance of supporting 23 Native nations through philanthropy, how to provide context to non-Native donors on what investment can look like, and her affection for Ojibwe language

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