The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community is holding its 20th annual Wacipi, or traditional Pow Wow, from Friday Sept. 13 to Sunday, Sept. 15 at the grounds of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 1405 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota. Here is a flyer with the details.
You are invited to come and learn about Dakota culture. Organizers also are looking for volunteer help.
The 19th Annual Mendota Mdewakanton Wacipi (Pow Wow) runs Friday, Sept. 7 to Sunday, September 9 and organizers are looking for 30 more volunteers as well as donations. (The Pow Wow is held on the grounds of St. Peter’s Church, 1405 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota.)
The three main volunteer needs are help with set up, kitchen help, and tear down/clean up. More details are available here, and below. For more information on volunteering and the Pow Wow, you also can call 651-452-4141.
Come for the volunteering and stay for the Pow Wow!
Joy Sorensen Navarre, long-time volunteer for the Mendota Mdewakaton Dakota Tribal Community Wacipi (Pow Wow), writes about her experience there and invites you to join and help.
Wacipi Means ‘We Dance’. It also means we work in the kitchen!
Every year I close my consulting business for three days to run the outdoor kitchen at the Mendota Mdewakaton Dakota Tribal Community traditional Wacipi or Pow Wow. My family laughs when they hear I’m running a kitchen, because at our house my husband cooks. I do it because the kitchen supports the Wacipi. The Wacipi is healing, resistance and love.
HMS blog readers know that state and federal law prohibited the Dakota from practicing religious ceremonies and cultural traditions for one hundred years, until 1978. Many Mendota Dakota grew up without the Wacipi—without dancing.
Eighteen years ago Bob Brown and other Mendota Dakota leaders re-started the Mendota Wacipi. For the first time in their life, Mendota Dakota elders danced. They danced with tears running down their faces. Tears of sorrow, of joy, of hope for their children. The Wacipi heals. If you come with an open heart, you will feel it, too. Continue reading
Check out Healing Minnesota Stories new website! It’s part of the Saint Paul Interfaith Network’s revamped website. The new site is streamlined and easier to navigate. Comments welcomed!
Survival School Exhibit Open House
On Tuesday May 31, the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center invites you to attend the Open House reception for its new exhibit, Survival Schools: Education, Resilience, Resistance. The event will run from 1-5 p.m. at the Center, 1113 East Franklin Avenue. Refreshments served.
Drawing on its photographic and archival collections, the Interpretive Center will tell the stories of the Red School House and the Heart of the Earth Survival School, and through them the history of Indian self-determination efforts in the Twin Cities. The exhibit will run through the summer, and the Center will host a number of programs and speakers associated with the schools.
Here is a link to the event’s Facebook page.
American Indian Magnet School’s Spring Pow Wow June 3
The American Indian Magnet School, 1075 Third St. East, St. Paul, will hold its 24th annual Pow Wow on Friday, June 3. Grand Entries starts at 1:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and the feast starts at 5:30 p.m.
Indian Mounds Regional Park Community Pow Wow June 15
Mounds Park United Methodist Church (St. Paul) and the Native American Community of St. Paul are hosting a Pow Wow and free community meal. Activities will include dancing, educational tables, crafts, and other vendors. The Pow Wow will be held at Indian Mounds Regional Park, 10 Mounds Blvd. St. Paul, from 5-8 p.m. Contact information here.
This is an opportunity to learn about the Native American culture of the Dayton Bluff area of St. Paul. Donations of toiletry items to Ain Dah Yung Center will be collected during the Pow Wow. Make sure to bring a blanket to sit on.
Northern Indigenous Games April 16-17
The inaugural event of the Northern Indigenous Games will be held this year on Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17, at South High, 3131 19th Ave. S., in Minneapolis. The event is free and open to the public, either to participate or be a spectator.
Events include: Lacrosse, running, shinny, Inuit games, double ball and arrows. There are participant categories for all ages: elementary school, middle school, high school and adult. The event needs donation and volunteers, too. For all the details, check out the HonorEarth website.
KFAI Launches “Indigeneity Now” Program
Check out the new show on KFAI Community Radio called “Indigeneity Now,” with “Contemporary Conversation on Indigenous, Aboriginal and Native Reality, Experience and Identity,” hosted by Roy Taylor. It will air Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Locally you can tune in at 90.3 FM in Minneapolis, 106.7 FM in St. Paul, and streaming everywhere at KFAI.org. Continue reading
An article in Indian Country Today tells an important story of Rosebud Reservation youth learning about historical trauma and becoming stronger from it. The story is headlined: ‘Bring Them Home’: Rosebud Sioux Seeking Return of Relatives Buried at Carlisle. It tells how youth are taking a leadership role to bring home the remains of their young relatives who died in a boarding school. According to the story:
… the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council of Rosebud, South Dakota, passed a resolution to bring home the remains of several Lakota children buried at Carlisle after hearing an impassioned presentation by the members of the Defending Childhood Initiative Youth Council …
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