- [Rita] On this Native Report, we hear the first indigenous person elected to executive office in Minnesota on efforts to combat the missing and murdered indigenous women or MMIW epidemic.

- [Ernie] We then talk to a US senator about efforts to repeal outdated and racist federal laws still on the books aimed towards Native Americans.

- [Rita] We also hear from an Ojibwe musician who wrote a song of healing for Native women impacted by harm, such as sexual assault.

(soft piano music) - So I'm gonna sing this song for healing for anyone out there who's carrying shame all by yourself.

- We also learn what we can do to lead healthier lives, and hear from our elders.

- [Narrator] Production for Native Report is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund, and Alexandra Smith Fund, in support of Native American treaty rights, administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Native Report, and thanks for tuning in.

I'm Rita Karppinen.

- Thanks, Rita.

And I'm Ernie Stevens.

In this episode, we're exploring political polices impacting Indian country, such as outdated laws and the MMIW epidemic, and we're introduced to a song of healing for Native women impacted by sexual assault.

- We'll start with a story on the establishment of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office space in Minnesota, and how a lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan of the White Earth Nation, hopes her state serves as a model for the rest of the country.

(soft guitar strumming) - [Peggy] When this job gets really hard, and it does, every day when I walk into this building, I take two breaths.

The first breath is just a breath of acknowledging the responsibility that I have to the people of Minnesota.

But the second breath is a breath of protection, walking into a system that wasn't created by us or for us, but honestly, was created in many ways to eliminate us.

And so when we're able to break through those systems to get things done that are good for our people, I know that it matters that I'm here, and that there are other indigenous women who are in leadership, even when it gets hard.

I'm lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan.

I am the lieutenant governor of the great state of Minnesota.

I'm a member of White Earth, and I'm the highest ranking Native woman in executive office in the country.

And we are here today at the state capital, talking about the new Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office that was created last year at the legislative session, and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz.

We got here because of the incredible work of advocates, of survivors, of families who lost a loved one, who was killed or is missing.

Their stories and their emotional testimony is what got us here.

The taskforce really was to study this problem because we knew that there was so much data that was missing.

We knew how pervasive this issue was, but really needed that data and research to back it up.

And when you think about it, it was in 2019 when the taskforce was passed, folks got to work, and by December of 2020, we had a full comprehensive report just filled with recommendations on what we need to do to ensure that Native women, girls, our two spirit relatives are seen, heard, valued, protected, and believed.

And it is because of that taskforce that we're here.

Every single Native woman that I know has been impacted in some way by this issue.

Every single Native woman I know has experienced violence, myself included.

I am a survivor, and a child witness.

And so I think a lot of the findings of the report simply reiterated the lived experience of indigenous women all across Minnesota, but really all across North America.

One of the things that we know in Minnesota is that between 2012 and 2020, anywhere, in any given month, there was 24 to 57 Native women missing at any time every single month.

So that gives you an idea, especially when we don't have all the data, on just how pervasive this issue really is.

So I think those are the findings.

And the recommendations shouldn't surprise anyone.

It's that there should be more coordination with local law enforcement, that advocacy organizations should be more deeply engaged and involved in the work we do, that cultural competency and culturally relevant programming and outreach is critically important, and that non Natives learn more about the people who have been part of Minnesota before Minnesota was Minnesota, and will continue to be here, and that there's a responsibility that folks have to protect our people.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office, I think is a place where this work will get done.

They have been tasked on finding solutions, on working with tribes, with the urban Native community, with advocates, with survivors, and I think we need that one place of, of coordination.

The taskforce work is complete, and the funding for the MMIW office last in perpetuity.

This office is a permanent structure in Minnesota state government.

That's how it was funded, and I think that also just speaks to the importance of this work going forward.

I want my daughter to be her full beautiful indigenous self wherever she goes, and not worry about being harmed because of who she is.

That is the power of this office, but it's also the power of the women who got this done.

I am so excited to see what is possible for her, and for other Native girls like her to just say, this is what I can do.

I can do anything, and I am worthy of dignity and respect and being protected.

I'm looking forward to the work of this office, and I'm looking forward to a time when this office doesn't even need to exist because we'll all be safe and protected, no matter who we are.

- A startling findings of MMIW taskforce is that American Indian women and girls represent 1% of the state's population, but make up 8% of murdered women and girls in Minnesota.

- Plus, US senator Tina Smith is working on the Bipartisan Respect Act, which would revoke many unjust laws still on the books today.

Some allow for the forced removal of Native children from their homes to be sent to boarding schools, and consequences for families for nonattendance.

(soft guitar strumming) - I'm working with Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota, a republican.

This is a bipartisan bill on the Respect Act.

And the Respect Act would repeal these old historic racist laws that contributed so much trauma, and were really the laws behind the subjugation of Native people that are still on the books.

Senator Rounds and I believe that if these laws are repealed in a public and direct way, that that will be an important part, though not the only part, an important part of the process of reconciliation that we need to go through.

There are many other laws that we want to also, we want to clean the books, to go through, to find all of the examples of it.

And I think that in that process, not only get them out of federal statute in the United States, but to attempt, again, to use that as a learning experience to fully understand our history, and then move down the path of reconciliation and change.

'Cause it's important, of course, to understand the history.

But then you need to look to see how is that history affecting the opportunities, the freedom, the sovereignty of Native people today, and then what we need to do to repair that.

The boarding school laws that started in the end of the 19th century basically created a system of federal boarding schools, and Native children were, in some cases, forcibly removed from their families, and they were sent to these schools as a legal way of erasing their culture, and their language, and their connection to their land.

And it was a, I believe, an overt effort to erase Native people and Native culture.

The impact of boarding schools on indigenous communities and in indigenous families in Minnesota is still very real.

It's very hard to talk to any Dakota or Ojibwe person in Minnesota who doesn't have a direct family story to tell about grandparents, in many cases, disappearing to go off to boarding school.

It is not something that has just gone away.

It continues to be transferred from generation to generation to generation, and I learned this when I was talking at Fond Du Lac about the fear that people of my generation have as Native people to...

It's a combination of fear about speaking your language, but also a sense of shame that you can't speak your language.

And that is a traumatic thing to have to go through, and I think that that is one example of, of how the impact of the boarding school movement continues to have implications for people, for people today in their communities.

I think also trying to bring together that trauma that you know was experienced with the reality on the other hand that the dominant culture doesn't even seem to acknowledge, or admit, or even seem to know that this happened.

And I challenge anyone to imagine what it would be like if your grandparents had been whisked away, and then often put into labor themselves, forced labor themselves, farmed out to work as domestic workers or agricultural workers, that it happened to you and your family, but then no one talked about it.

Nobody knew about it.

Our bill, the Respect Act, we started before this tragic uncovering of graves at boarding schools in Canada.

This has been a painful, painful moment for Native people in Minnesota and around the country, and has called up this need to understand better what happened to American Native children in boarding schools, both at the federal boarding schools, but also, of course, many children were sent off to Catholic schools or other religious schools.

Brenda Childs, at the University of Minnesota, has written beautifully about the complex nature of boarding schools, and how it was not one circumstance, but it was a multitude of circumstances.

The fundamental value though is that it is wrong, it is immoral to forcibly remove children from their family, particularly with the over goal of stripping them of their language and their culture and their sense of connection to the land that is their homeland.

- Later, in season 17, we'll hear from families of those who attended Vermilion Lake Indian School in Tower, Minnesota.

They share about intergenerational trauma and the importance of recognizing the history of boarding schools in the US.

(soft music) - The children now, many of them that have gone through the tribal school have grown up seeing Oneida as Oneida.

It's a place where the language is spoken.

It's a place where the traditions exist.

It's a place that the community values include the tribe, and that is a very different environment than the generation that I come from.

We were definitely outside of that environment.

Our children were sent to five different school districts.

We were jury meandered every way that a community could be, and we were kept apart from one another.

Now, it's... We understand who we are, and we have community places for the people to all come together, and we have a lot that builds us as community.

So we've come a long way.

When Nixon, in 1970, came up with the so-called Nixon Message, and the discussion of self determination of tribes, the whole concept was totally unique for much of Indian country because not only did they not have the resources, they didn't have the experience in dealing with federal programs and the evolution of these policies, and so on.

So tribes had to suddenly come together and figure out what they were gonna be when they grew up.

I think the concept that exists now is that we have programs, we have social service programs, we have education programs, we have a library, a museum, a health center, a nursing home.

We have law enforcement.

The problem with what was being done to Indian people through the Indian boarding school experience was that they were being stripped of all of those things about themselves.

And so they came back home, and they couldn't speak their language, and they didn't know their traditions.

So if you don't know who you are, if you can't value who you are, if you don't have something to hold it up to, you're in a state of (speaking in foreign language).

You're normalness-less.

You don't know who you are, so you just exist.

That's not how our people should be.

I recall when there was...

It was 1972.

There was passage of the Indian Education Act, and people started going to school.

In '72 Native Americans were 500% behind the national average in post-secondary education.

People weren't getting through high school, let alone going to college.

There wasn't the formal training and access to information.

But starting that process in '72, there were kids that were going to school, and some of them began to research how it was that their treaty rights had gone away.

So what was the... How did they get to be where they were?

Why didn't we have the rights that we were supposed to have?

And suddenly it... (chuckles) Jerry Danforth used to say it was like lightning across the res.

The word, (chuckles) the word got out very quickly that something was very wrong here.

In order for you to be affective, you need to be able to represent something.

And to do that, you need to know who you are and what you believe and what you value.

And if you know that, then you can teach others.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - Gout is a painful condition that happens when high levels of uric acid cause crystals to form around a joint.

Uric acid is produced when your body breaks down compounds called purines, and it's filtered out by your kidneys.

Recurring gout attacks can damage joints, and a gout diet can help lower uric acid levels.

Those who need to follow a gout diet will likely still need medication to manage pain, and to control blood levels of uric acid.

A good general rule of thumb is always to eat healthy foods in moderate portions.

A gout diet will help you avoid some, but probably not all foods with purines.

Some foods can actually help control uric acid levels, and keeping a healthy weight also has benefits.

Eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates is a part of a gout diet.

Wild rice, or Manoomin, is a complex carbohydrate, and is one of our primary traditional foods.

Picking and eating berries, and growing and eating your own garden vegetables in the summer is rewarding in multiple ways.

Staying hydrated by drinking water and avoiding sugary foods and beverages will help keep uric acid levels down.

Red meat and organ meats, such as liver, kidney, and others, are high in purines, and can increase uric acid levels.

Some sea foods can cause problems, but moderate amounts of fish are part of a good diet.

Caffeinated coffee and cherries, or cherry juice in moderation may help lower uric acid levels.

Alcohol contains purines, and also slows uric acid excretion by your kidneys.

Alcohol has plenty of other downsides, and hasn't done any of us any favors.

Getting rid of alcohol use now will help you become the person you were meant to be.

Chronic kidney disease increases the risk of gout attacks.

Diabetes is a common cause of chronic kidney disease.

Keeping your diabetes in control will help maintain good kidney function.

As always, remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arne Vainio, and this is Health Matters.

(soft music) - Native Report invites you to get to know musician Annie Humphrey.

She grew up on the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota.

- Annie shares how she uses her voice to send strong messages to Indian country.

We caught up with her at a musical performance in Duluth.

(soft guitar strumming) (soft piano music) - [Annie] My name's Annie Humphrey, and we are by Lake Superior in the city of Duluth.

We're gathering here for a musical event.

I'm a singer.

I'm a lot of other things, but I'm here to be a singer today.

As far as writing songs, I was probably in my early 20s.

I mean, I was playing music as a child, but writing songs, and then actually supplementing my income a little bit came along when I was in my early 30s, and I had two little kids by then.

And we were just on the road, man.

It was awesome.

Me and my kids were on welfare and food stamps, and I was playing coffee houses for like 40 bucks for like two hours of music or for tips.

And one day I said a prayer.

I said, "Creator, if I can make more than my $395 monthly check, I will close my case, and I will just go wherever you send me."

Well, the next month I got a gig at the Ordway for 400 bucks.

So there went my...

I had to keep my promise, so I went and got off.

And there were some hard times, but when you jump off something, you got to sink or swim.

So I was like hustling trying to get gigs.

And shortly after that, this record label called, said, "We heard some stuff you're working on.

Would you want to come?"

And I made two records with them, and then I went on this tour with Jackson Browne, and the Indigo Girls, and then I just...

I was in the middle of my heyday.

It was cool.

♪ Remain on a home wind ♪ ♪ It holds all that you need ♪ ♪ The way is in ♪ ♪ Our stories ♪ ♪ Dance them back to life ♪ - [Annie] We were on the road like five or six years, and one day, they said, "Mom, we want, we want regular friends, and we want to go to school.

We want to ride a bus."

And I thought, well, maybe I owe it to them 'cause they had bounced around in my truck for all those years.

Just really slowly, the music kinda just stopped.

(people chattering) As a kid, the bigger you get, the more work you get to do.

My grandson, Zane, I tell him, "You're getting really big.

The bigger you get, the more work you'll do for grandma."

And so we do Sugar Bush together as a family.

We net fish together as a family.

We do everything in the woods together, and the woods didn't even know there was a pandemic.

As the Sugar Bush, we have a big, big, huge ancient maple, silver maple.

And she's...

When we start the season, she's the one we take tobacco to.

We have one place to take tobacco.

And she's so big, and she gives the sweetest sap.

She's beautiful.

And the other beautiful thing is my grandson, the youngest boy, every day when we walk into the camp, we boil on site out in the bush, he'll say, "Good morning, sweetest grandmother."

And then he'll go and take a sip of her sap.

We put one tap in her, just so we can... She makes her offering.

We just do one.

She's big enough to put like five cans on, I'm sure.

And then when we leave for the evening, he'll say, he'll say, "Goodbye, sweetest grandmother."

To me, that's honoring earth, isn't it?

To the fullest.

I just think that's... Yeah, my grandsons love being in the woods.

♪ We buried my dad in the fall ♪ - [Annie] I started making a record, and that's "Eat What You Kill."

It came out right when COVID hit, so I did two shows.

Then COVID hit, and I couldn't promote it at all.

So I kinda treat it like it's still new.

It was a song about sexual assault, and the shame women carry.

It's invisible.

They walk through life carrying shame because you can't tell anyone what happened to you.

It was your fault.

That's what the thought is.

So I wrote a song about...

It's kind of a healing song.

So I'm gonna sing this song for healing for anyone out there who's carrying shame all by yourself.

♪ She prayed to the moon ♪ ♪ In all her phases ♪ ♪ She walked on sunlight ♪ ♪ No day was wasted ♪ - There are undoubtedly a lot of women who are walking around carrying shame 'cause it's invisible.

And a lot of times women, when they've been assaulted, something...

There's a voice saying it's probably your fault.

And it's not, it's not.

The song is about the damage, and how, man, it's so hurtful.

Can it be fixed?

I don't know.

But the healing has to happen.

So at the end of the song, it's about she waits for healing out in the distance.

She dances.

She dances, and she's coming back.

I can feel her.

She's back now.

- Annie's dad taught her Ojibwe traditions like skinning a deer, making maple syrup, and harvesting wild rice, while her mom focused on different aspects, such as sewing, painting, and forgiveness.

If you missed a show, or want to catch up online, find us at nativereport.org, and follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for behind the scene updates.

And drop a comment on social media, if you enjoyed the show.

- Thanks for spending time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian country.

I'm Ernie Stevens.

- And I'm Rite Karppinen.

We'll see you next time on Native Report.

(soft music)