News and Events: Standing Rock Film Screening, Youth March for Fossil Free Future, and More

News and events in this post:

• Oct. 8: Augsburg Native American Film Series: The Eagle and The Condor–From Standing Rock with Love.
• Oct. 28 Our Right, Our Future: March with Minnesota Youth for a Fossil Free Future
• Construction on Keystone XL Begins Near Rosebud as Three Native Nations Sue to Stop It
• Minneapolis City Council Accepts the Red Lake Nation’s Help to Relocate Homeless Camp

Wednesday: Film, Q&A on Native American Conversations on Law Enforcement, Justice, and Redemption

Just a reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday, Augsburg’s Native American Film Series is featuring a series of short films and conversations around Native American experiences with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. The event is free and open to the public.

When: Wednesday, March 28
Where: Augsburg College, Sateren Auditorium, 715 22nd Ave. S., Minneapolis.
Time: 6:15 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. screenings.

Join hosts Shirley Sneve (Vision Maker Media) and John Gwinn, Binesi Means, and Tiana LaPointe (MIGIZI Communications) for a night of films focused on the Native American experience with the law enforcement, the legal system, racism and healing.

Upcoming Native American Documentaries, Storytelling, and Food Drives

There has been plenty of news coverage and fundraising appeals regarding Native-led efforts to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. However, there are any number of ways to learn about and support Native American communities. Opportunities include attending free upcoming Native American documentary screenings, an evening of traditional Native American story telling (also free), and supporting food drives to help Native American families.

Defending Treaty Fishing Rights (Again); Augsburg Native Film Series; Buy Native/Think Local Campaign

Treaties — and their implications for Native American hunting and fishing rights — are always a contentious topic. Many people are unaware of treaty language, or chose to ignore it when they clash with their business interests. The latest flare up centers on Ojibwe fishing rights on Lake Mille Lacs and its dwindling walleye population.

In spite of a U.S. Supreme Court decision which holds the Mille Lacs bands hunting and fishing rights, the state of Minnesota set up a process that guaranteed the band would have a weakened voice in the debate over fishing limits.

Last year, the state created a 17-member panel to advise the state on walleye fishing on Mille Lacs. There was a single tribal representative on that panel: Jamie Edwards, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s director of government affairs. Edwards just resigned by letter, according to a story in Minnesota Public Radio. He sited the committee’s disrespect for tribal sovereignty.

The Edwards resignation letter said that the Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee, “had devolved into anti-science, anti-treaty-rights forum subsidized by state resources.” It continued:

To say that I am a minority on this committee is an understatement. Rather than representing a diversity of interests and perspectives, the overwhelming majority of [committee] members are persons who own businesses dependent upon walleye fishing. [The committee] does not include conservationists, owners of businesses dependent on other species of fish, representatives of other types of businesses or any of the other myriad stakeholders of Mille Lacs fisheries.