In this blog:
- Local First Nations People Stand with Mauna Kea protest, Sunday
- Kinship Flag Making, a free and fun family event, Monday
- Upcoming Dakota Sacred Site Tours Aug. 18 and Sept. 29
- Fond du Lac firewood fundraiser
Local First Nations people, allies, stand with Mauna Kea protest
Local First Nations people and allies are organizing a solidarity event in support of Native Hawaiians opposing the construction of a telescope atop their sacred mountain, Mauna Kea. The event is Sunday, July 28, 10 a.m.-noon, at the Wakan Tipi Center at the Bruce Vento Sanctuary, 265 Commercial Street, St. Paul.
According to the Facebook Event Page:
Indigenous relatives of all lineages living in the Twin Cities area are coming together to support the Kanaka Maoli Ohana who are protecting their sacred mountain, Mauna Kea. It’s been a week since construction of a massive telescope on Mauna Kea was scheduled to begin but protectors have joined together in their sovereign rights as the Kingdom of Hawaii to block construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Native Hawaiian’s have established a Pu’uhonua at the base of their sacred mountain which traditionally serves as a place of refuge and protection. Thousands of Kia’i have gathered up to this point.
We invite you to join us in prayer, solidarity and education of the current state of events. Our relatives from Da Frozen ‘Ohana will be joining us. You will receive literature and learn the steps of how you can help raise awareness in your communities as this historical event unfolds. This event is organized by First Nations People but all allies are welcome and invited to attend. Bring your families. We will have a children’s table for the kiddos.
We ask you to bring your signs, chairs, water, umbrellas and hats.
Kinship Flag Making
Join artists and mothers Graci Horne (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Hunkpapa Lakota/Dakota) and Shanai Matteson for a free and family-friendly art-making workshop exploring kinship with plants, water, and the places we come from. The event is Monday, July 29, 6-8 p.m. at the Water Bar, 2518 Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis.
According to the Facebook Event Page:
We will share stories about our present and familial/historic relationships with land and water, and will ask how we can repair those relationships that have been broken or degraded, starting with the stories we tell ourselves, our families, and our communities, about our responsibility to those who sustain us.
Together, we will create “kinship flags” to help us remember these kinship stories and relationships at home and in the wider world.
This is a free art-making workshop, open to all. Children are welcome. Feel free to bring something to share – food, material for art-making, or a donation in support of community art space at Water Bar & Public Studio.
Dakota Sacred Site Tours Aug. 18 and Sept. 29
Healing Minnesota Stories will have its next two open Dakota Sacred Site Tours on Sunday Aug. 18 and Sunday Sept. 29. Both start at 1 p.m. and end at 5 p.m. Groups meet at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 1405 Sibley Memorial Hwy, St Paul, and carpool from there.
Jim Bear Jacobs (Mohican) and Bob Klanderud (Dakota/Lakota) lead the tours, which have proven to be informative and transformational for participants. The tours offer an opportunity to learn about Minnesota history from a Native perspective through story-telling and experiencing the sites in silence/meditation/reflection. We visit sites located around confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, what the Dakota refer to as Bdote, or “meeting place of rivers,” including: Fort Snelling State Park; the Dakota Internment Camp following the The Dakota-U.S. War, and Pilot Knob Hill, a traditional burial ground.
There is no charge for registration. However, a collection will be taken at the conclusion of the tour, and participants are asked to consider a donation in the range of $40-$75 per person.
To register for one of these this transformative experiences, please contact Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, Director of Racial Justice for the Minnesota Council of Churches, at jimbear.jacobs@mnchurches.org
Firewood fundraiser for Fond du Lac
The group Camps A Rising has set up a GoFundMe Page to raise money for firewood for ceremonial fires on the Find du Lac Reservation.
According to the page and an earlier post:
The Canadian Corporation Enbridge is planning a pipeline right through Minnesota’s lake country. They’re preparing to dig the line through the Fond Du Lac Indian Reservation. Even though the route is not yet approved they are already cutting trees and selling the wood. Yet people living on the reservation are not allowed to harvest firewood. …
… rules have been put in place prohibiting people from gathering any down, dead and unneeded wood they might use. The timber is now left to rot in the big woods of Minnesota.
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