Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine

Today, we're very excited to Welcome Alexandera Houchin to the Native Lights podcast. Alexandera is a citizen of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). She resides in her reservation community in northern Minnesota. She's an ultra racer, bike packer, mountain biker, outdoor adventurer, storyteller, and writer. And she is currently working on her memoir for Penguin Random House and is the subject of a documentary.

Alexandera shares her story of growing up apart from her Ojibwe roots. Her mother had been adopted and spent the first 19 years of Alexandera's life trying t...

On this episode Leah and Cole speak with Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe citizen Bradley Harrington who recently penned an article in the Mille Lacs Band newspaper, Ojibwe Inaajimowin, about 250 years of US occupation as the country marks the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  

Bradley delves into the politics that led to the European occupation of the continent, and how a belief that the land was theirs by divine right and Supreme Court lawmaking ignored thousands of years of Native history and stewardship. He shares what the country's 250th anniversary might lo...

Today, we're excited to welcome Dr. Samantha Majhor to Native Lights. Samantha is a direct descendant of Fort Peck. She's Dakota and Assiniboine and is an assistant professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. She focuses on Native American literature, particularly literature by Dakota and Ojibwe writers around the Great Lakes region. 

Samantha gives us an inside look at the creation of the Oceti Sakowin Story Map Project, which she is co-developing. It's a digital archive of oral narratives connecting Dakota and Lakota stories across the Oceti Sakowin diaspora. She also discusses th...

Today, we're speaking with Aleyna Morales. Aleyna grew up in the Twin Cities and Somerset, Wisconsin. Aleyna's heritage includes Ojibwe from the Fond du Lac Band community and Mexican. She is the creator and baker behind Baked to Bliss by Laney. You can catch her selling baked goods at the Carlton County Farmers Market.

Aleyna shares how a need to pull herself out of the lowest point in her life led to taking classes and an interest in sourdough bread. She posted videos on TikTok, never expecting people to reach out and to buy her b...

We're excited today to speak with Adam Savariego. He's a citizen of the Upper Sioux Community and is the Native American Affairs Advisor with the Minnesota Governor's Office. Prior to his current work, Adam served on the Upper Sioux Board of Trustees and as the community cultural liaison at Yellow Medicine East High School in Granite Falls Minnesota. He's also a traveler, a foodie and a cat lover.

When he was 20, Adam began asking questions. What did it mean to be Dakota? What did it mean to be part of community and a tribe? He w...

Today, we're excited to welcome Dr. Antony Stately to Native Lights. Antony Stately is a transformative leader dedicated to health equity in Indigenous communities. He's enrolled with the Oneida Nation, and he's a descendant of both the Red Lake and White Earth nations here in Minnesota, and he has two sons. He's currently the Executive Officer and President for the Native American Community Clinic in South Minneapolis, providing primary care, dental care and behavioral health services to the Native American community in the Twin Cities. 

Antony gives updates on the long-awaited new Native American Community Cl...

Today, we're excited to be joined by one of the most recognizable faces in Indigenous film. Gary Farmer is from the Cayuga Nation and has a long career in movies and TV, and he's a musician, performing with his group Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers. Among his screen credits are Smoke Signals, Dead Man, Powwow Highway and, of course, more recently, he played Uncle Brownie in Reservation Dogs. He's also a storyteller and a force for pushing for authentic Indigenous representation. So he joined us to talk about what's going on in his life, his music, his acting career and...

Today, Leah speaks with David Amitrano, the owner of Midwest All-Star Wrestling, a Minnesota-based, Native-owned independent wrestling organization in Woodbury.

He is originally from Ely, Minnesota and is a citizen of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. He and wife Brittney have four kids at home.

He got into wrestling as the CFO of Women of Nations, a women and children's domestic violence and sexual assault shelter. He's been there for over a decade. It's a 44-bed shelter for Native women and children but also women and children of all nations. It...

Today, we welcome Nikki Love Pieratos to Native Lights. An enrolled citizen of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, Nikki is the Executive Director of the Tiwahe Foundation, a community organization serving Native people around Minnesota. She’s also a part of the Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors group. 

Leah speaks with her about the impact of Operation Metro Surge on Twin Cities Indigenous residents and their neighbors. One impact has been an increase of Native individuals being stopped by federal agents. But, says Nikki, this has also been a time of the wider community coming together and put...

Today, we have a special edition of Native Lights to share with you. We’re talking with Robert Lilligren, CEO of the Native American Community Development Institute, which is based in Minneapolis. He is also a White Earth citizen. Robert discusses the unprecedented deployment of some 2,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis and how that has impacted the Native community, especially in the wake of the Renee Good shooting by an ICE agent. He shares what it’s like to be on the ground in Minneapolis right now, why whistles are important, and what Native
leaders and orga...

Today, we’re excited to present Victoria Marie, an enrolled tribal member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. She's the founder and owner of Indigenous Lotus, a wellness program that combines yoga classes, tribal dance, exercise and meditation with an emphasis on helping people cope with stress and trauma. Those stressors can include PTSD, homelessness, sexual exploitation and poverty. In addition to classes and workshops, Indigenous Lotus has a line of streetwear.

Victoria shares the story of how, at age seventeen, she dropped out of high school, became a new mom and found herself struggling with depression. Her...

Today, we're excited to welcome Cole Redhorse Taylor to the Native Lights podcast. Cole is Mdewakanton Dakota and a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community. He's an artist, and has worked in many mediums: drawing, painting, beadwork, quill work, hockey helmets. He's created contemporary and traditional pieces heavily inspired by the artwork of his ancestors. And of course, if you're a sports fan, you may have seen his collaborations with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild.

Cole never thought of himself as an artist when he was growing up. Didn't he have to b...

Today, we welcome Carl Gawboy to the Native Lights podcast. Carl, born to a Finnish mother and an Ojibwe father, was raised in Ely and is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. Carl is an artist, whose primary medium is watercolors. But he turned to pen and ink for his recent graphic book Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History.

For a number of years, Carl taught in the Indian Studies departments at the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Minnesota – Duluth. He was given an opportunity to develop a cou...

Today, we are excited to welcome Janis A. Fairbanks to Native Lights. Janis is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She recently released a book called Sugar Bush Babies: Stories of My Ojibwe Grandmother, a memoir in lessons learned from her grandmother during the era of Indian Relocation.

Janis also has a doctorate in Ojibwe language, literature and history. She is currently the chair of the Language Advisory Board for the Fond du Lac Band.

Janis talks about a lifetime devoted to writing, a talent th...

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 started looking for something to do at home and turned to watercolors. 

Not...

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 to him. This work opened her to the healing power of art and to t...

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 from Collaborative Acts.

In our discussion, she examines her fascination with rese...

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 gave her the opportunity to join their blues-rock band Blue D...

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 body of water. This can last weeks. T...

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 perennials to sequester carbon and prevent erosion. And she's working on getting a c...

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 Great-Grandmother, was published in 2018, and delivers love and advice through stories and perspectives grounded in traditional Indigenous values. Find Mary Lyons' book here: https://b...

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 jobs and as a small...

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 is also home to three Ojibwe Spirit Horses.

...

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 person who will wear the object.

...

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 cultural traditions from her Ojibwe community. She started with beading and moccasin making. That le...

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 canvases and murals and into animated films. N...

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 sports and foods and filing freelance stories for multiple outlets. 

With wife Susa...

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 succeed in school and connect with their culture through language, field trip...

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 Native American books and materials.

Allison Waukau lives in Minneapolis with her family, including a young son, and had a drea...

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 Rebuilder Program for Cohort 11. 

In her position at NGC, she...

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 business and tattoo career, Deven honors a friend w...

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 and sewing. It is her role as mother to a young daughter tha...

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 outlets. With Association for Independents in Radio (AIR), she had the opportunity to colla...

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 revitalization. 

Mattie also shares how journey of learning about herself and the history her people, and how it helped her fo...

In this episode, we talk with artist, public speaker, and community organizer Moira Villiard.

Moira, a Twin Cities-based visual artist and Fond Du Lac direct descendent, is a 2023 McKnight Foundation Community-Engaged Practice fellow and a 2024-2026 Bush Fellow. We chat with her about her current projects, Waiting for Beds, a traveling exhibition that explores the experience of waiting while in crisis, and a soon-to-be-released children’s book about the Ojibwe practice of prescribed fires that she illustrated.

Moira shares about her study of human rights, creating work for her inner child, and her rum...

In this episode, we chat with author and retired school counselor Colleen Baldrica.

Colleen, a White Earth Nation citizen, authored the book Tree Spirited Woman in 2006. During the pandemic, she recorded the audio version, so that her grandchildren could have an archive of her voice when they’re older.

Colleen shares the experience - central to her story - of being directed towards a life of writing as a young single mother. She describes how this spiritual experience shaped her personal framework and inspired her book. She also talks about her current joy of...

In this episode, we chat with human rights advocate, singer, storyteller, and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities American Studies doctoral student Wakinyan LaPointe.

Wakinyan, a Sicangu (Burnt Thigh) Lakota citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, focuses his studies on Indigenous rights, human rights, and youth organizing. He describes how his work with Indigenous young people, Indigenous people across the globe, and water scholars has informed his understanding of how to generate a sustainable future. One strategy he shares is the deepening of Indigenous youth’s relationship with their ancestral waterways, which has shown to improve water and...

In this episode, we sit down with Minneapolis-based actor, writer, and director Ajuawak Kapashesit. Ajuawak, who is Ojibwe, Cree, and Jewish, grew up in Ontario and on the White Earth Reservation. His acting credits include Indian Horse (2017), Once Upon a River (2019), Indian Road Trip (2020), Bad Blood (CityTV/Netflix), and Outlander (Starz/Sony). Ajuawak’s short story, “A Fresh Start,” was published in the anthology Before the Usual Time by Latitude 46. He was a story editor and contributing writer for the second and third seasons of the sketch comedy show, Tallboyz (CBC).

He delves into his writing...

In this episode, we’re joined by Talia Miracle, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Tribe of Winnebago and Program Manager at the Little Free Library. Talia opens up about her impactful work leading the Indigenous Library Program, which increases access to Indigenous literature and fosters stronger, more inspired communities across the U.S. and Canada.

She shares how her own experiences with limited representation in literature helped shape her passion for addressing literacy disparities in Indigenous communities. Talia also lets us in on some personal updates, including the newest addition to her expanding family—a pla...

In this episode, we sit down with Jackson Ripley, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, enrolled at the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jackson shares the inspiring story behind MiigWitches Brew, a cozy gourmet coffee kiosk he recently opened with his wife. Operating from an 8x10 ft. building, MiigWitches Brew is more than just a coffee spot—it’s a community hub. 

Jackson talks with us about the surprising story behind how they purchased the coffee kiosk, to the grand opening celebration where a gesture from the Chairman set off a beautiful chain of commun...