- Boozhoo, I'm Rita Karppinen your host for "Native Report."

Thanks for tuning in for the 19th season.

In this episode of "Native Report," we take you through Minnesota all the way to Michigan to give you a deeper look at how some Indigenous peoples are sharing their culture and heritage in modern-day settings.

Plus, we hear what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders.

- [Announcer] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, the Generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, and viewers like you.

(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) - With new technology emerging every day and social media being at the forefront of media consumptions these days, a renaissance of Indigenous culture, heritage, and knowledge is beginning to reemerge from Indigenous youth.

The "Native Report" team had the chance to meet with a popular influencer known as Giiwedin in Ball Club, Minnesota to learn how he's using his platform to spread awareness and share Anishinaabe knowledge.

(relaxing music) - Aniin, hi, it's Giiwedin, and I want to show you the floating leaf stage of Manoomin.

This, this is just your reminder that the lands on which the United States of America is on have always been LGBTQ+ friendly.

Boozhoo, hi, it's Giiwedin, and I'm here wading in the water at Ball Club Lake, and I wanted to talk about the lake a little bit.

I make TikTok videos and Instagram videos, cross-posted, so same videos posted to both platforms.

And over the course of three years, I've amassed about 500,000 followers, half a million.

And I mainly create content that's just educating people on Indigenous issues, on what it means to be two-spirit, and also having fun along the way.

I'm two-spirit, and that is a contemporary term, but just because it's contemporary does not mean that the idea behind it or the concept of two-spirit is new.

It's existed since Indigenous peoples have been here in the Americas, and we have historical evidence of that.

A person that I point to who is Anishinaabe and frankly is a Minnesota icon is Ozaawindib from the headwaters of the Mississippi, and I make a lot of videos about that, sharing that history about how she, in contemporary terms, in modern understanding, we would label her as a trans woman, but in our culture, Ojibwe culture, she was agokwe and eyekwe.

And in Anishinaabe culture specifically, we have many ways of being, whether that's different gender identities or different orientations of people.

So I am specifically ikwewaadizi, which is just someone who is a guy who is feminine, and that's the term that I most closely identify with, and I use that with people.

But I will use the contemporary umbrella term of two-spirit because most people know what that is.

My mom is just someone who was deep into activism, but that is also something that's very formative to the work that I do because my mom is just a strong Indigenous woman, and I try to follow in her footsteps.

Even though my voice is not very big in person, online, I'm able to sort of step away from that and have a big voice, which I'm very thankful for.

The first viral video that I had was on TikTok, and it was right at the start of the pandemic.

So that was when a lot of people were rushing to TikTok because it was not a new app but an app that a lot of people were joining because we're all holed up inside.

And inside and also outside.

Out here, I was filming videos.

So I would say it's half and half, whether I plan out posts or I just do it, like, on a whim, whether that's talking about my two-spiritedness or about, like, Indigenous rights issues with, like, the past fight against Line 3 in Northern Minnesota.

That was something that I dedicated my whole platform to, talking about and urging people to keep eyes on Northern Minnesota with the construction of that tar sands pipeline that did ultimately go through and is operating.

But to answer that question, it is, like, 50/50.

Of course, for, like, Pride Month, I did pride-specific content in terms of raising awareness about how there was and is acceptance in a lot of Native communities.

I will definitely say that being a two-spirit influencer or educator has been difficult in the sense that it opens me up to a lot of speculation and hate.

During Pride Month, I filmed a few videos that did go really viral, and I was strategic in that, that I knew that I would post these videos and they would do really well, upwards of one to two million views.

And these were posted to Instagram.

So I also posted to TikTok, but they went viral on Instagram, and that was mainly because of people who were homophobic or transphobic and decided to leave hundreds of unsavory comments.

But amongst those hundreds of unsavory comments, there were also hundreds of lovely comments that were reaffirming and were accepting and showing that respect for the sacredness that it is being two-spirit and being able to see the world in different ways and have that agency that not a lot of people have access to or can do.

Because living in a world as someone who is two-spirit, you kind of have to do things on your own terms, because the world is a little bit cruel to people who are outside of heteronormativity.

And I found that within my life, outside of my family, because my family has been nothing but accepting, and I am very thankful for that.

But going to a school where there was some racism, add on homophobia, it definitely gave me the tools to not pay any attention to those comments that I received being an Indigenous two-spirit influencer.

And just ignoring them, essentially reading them but not letting that get me is something that I've had to really fortify within myself and work on.

And I am there.

If I see comments, I'm just like, oh, I'll scroll past that.

Oh, there's another one there that is very loving and is affirming and shows that I am a human being, because we're all human and we are worthy of respect.

- Giiwedin is but one example of how influencers can use their platforms to share a wealth of knowledge.

If you'd like to stay up to date on where Giiwedin is traveling, sharing, or teaching this week, make sure to like and follow him on Instagram and TikTok.

(lighthearted music) - Becoming an elder is a long process, and not everyone makes it that far.

Many elders are revered and looked up to.

They guide us in our ceremonies and our daily lives.

Unfortunately, some elders face poverty and loneliness, and their experience is not appreciated.

This is valuable information, and once it's gone, it's gone.

We have a responsibility to our elders.

They took care of us when we were babies and taught us when we were young.

Aging and isolation and loss of ability to do things has caused them to suffer in silence.

They've been through hard times and had to sacrifice to provide for their families and communities.

For us, a global pandemic made this worse.

Aki is the earth.

Akiwenzii is an old man, one who comes from the earth and one who returns to the earth.

He carries the lessons of many years.

His physical strength is waning, and he will look up to us for help even as he helps us.

He should be able to count on that help.

Mindimooyenh is an old woman.

In non-Native society, calling someone an old woman is an insult.

In Ojibwe culture, this is a sign of respect.

An elderly woman is beyond having children, and her physical strength is also waning.

This is when her spiritual strength is the greatest.

Mindimooyenh literally means the one who holds society together.

Many elders have seen military service and have seen things the rest of us can't even imagine.

They have seen most of what we are up against and will have insights on how to proceed.

They have seen our ceremonies.

Elders are often raising grandchildren.

In the big scheme of things, we are here for a very short time.

We have a responsibility to all of nature, and we have a responsibility to each other.

We need to be aware of where we fit into society.

We need to become the elders our children and grandchildren look up to.

We can learn that from our elders.

Spending time with them now will put their essence into us.

That time spent will make others remember them long after they're gone, and they'll put nothing but their best into us.

Often they are beyond collecting material things, and time is the most valuable gift for them to give and to receive.

They need to pass their teachings on.

Accept and learn those teachings.

Love your children.

Love and support your families and your communities.

Build on your strengths.

And remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

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

(lighthearted music) - Next, we travel to Houghton, Michigan, where the Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company, a group comprised of several Indigenous tribes, partnered with the Michigan Grand Rapids Ballet for a very special production.

The "Native Report" team will break down how two dance forms rooted deeply in tradition came together to share their work.

(relaxing music) - Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you, Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company.

(audience applauding) (energetic music) (performers vocalizing) (energetic music continues) (performers vocalizing) - Our core group, there's like, I'd say 8 to 10 dancers.

Sometimes depending on where we go, there could be 12 dancers.

My name is Shane Mitchell.

I'm a co-founder of Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company, and we are in Houghton, Michigan.

If we get a show somewhere, maybe anywhere in a state, like, let's say Ohio or Florida or Michigan, wherever, South Dakota, we always try to use a dancer from the area.

So we're always involving other tribes as well to dance with us.

(gentle music) - We started this group about 10 years ago, and our goal was to tell the stories of the dances in a different way.

I've grown up dancing at powwows and traveling and teaching artwork and things with my family, but one thing that a lot of people had said to me was that when they go to a powwow especially, they're not really understanding what's going on, they don't understand the dances, and they've never really heard the stories of the dances.

So our goal is to tell the story in a way that hasn't been told before.

And something that's really memorable, especially for our youth, to really get a good handle on what these stories are all about, - Came floating in.

(gentle music) Dancing from flower to flower.

And she said, "Grandson, those are our shawl dancers."

(energetic music) (performers vocalizing) - So we're very happy to be sharing the stage with Woodland Sky.

And when we started discussing ways that we could collaborate, I was very happy that they were inviting us to be a part of their circle dance.

And, of course, dance is universal.

Dance is a language that everybody can understand, and there are so many different forms of dance.

Ballet is just one of them.

And I love that we fit into a broader picture of what dance can be and how movement can speak to an individual out there.

Everyone has preferences and likes and dislikes, and there's probably a form of dance for everybody.

And I love that dance has such a long history and tradition in culture, a long history in ballet technique that has evolved over years and years.

And so it's fun to see these two concurrent techniques and traditions of dance coming together and being represented on the same stage.

- The Rozsa Center is the Upper Peninsula's largest performing arts center, and to that end, we do feel like we have a responsibility to champion all sorts of performing arts experiences here.

We see ourselves as a gathering place for the community, and we want our space to be and feel accessible to all kinds of artists as well.

We're really excited about this weekend's performances of "DANCER" featuring Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company and Grand Rapids Ballet, two internationally-known Michigan-based dance companies.

Looking at the work that this company has done is really phenomenal.

They've been all over the country, all over the world performing, and so it just makes sense to be bringing them here onto our stage.

We're really thankful for their willingness to collaborate in this unique performance program with Grand Rapids Ballet.

The two companies tonight are both showcasing dance that's athletic, that's artistic, and that is rooted in tradition.

And make no mistake, it is not a historic practice.

These are art forms very much alive and thriving into the future, and I think that that's an important thing for audiences to remember as they're watching both companies on stage tonight.

(energetic music) (performers vocalizing) (graceful music) (graceful music continues) (graceful music continues) - [Michelle] So our co-founder is also Lac du Flambeau Band of Ojibwe, Shane, but he's also Menominee.

We also have our storyteller, Ronnie Preston, and he's Apache from the San Carlos Band.

And then we have Michael Charette, who's our flute player, and he is from the Redcliff Band of Ojibwe.

A new addition to our group is Lisa Bernal.

She is from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, so that's another tribe represented here.

But our main focus is on the Woodland people.

From Lac du Flambeau, Dr. Brian Jackson and his two sons, Grayson and Alton.

So to bring those two together, those two different worlds together in one place is very exciting.

- [Shane] For years I had struggled with addiction and alcoholism, and I took a break from dancing.

So then I come back to the circle and changed my ways, and I was gifted some, you know, feathers to be able to dance that style in order to be able to keep dancing that style and carry them.

So when I dance, I dance to heal, and it's all about healing and balance.

(calm music) - [James] So we each get to show a little bit of what we can do one by one, and then we do a nice circle collaborative community.

Not a very hard dance, but something that shows the bonding between people and bonding through movement, which is really important, I do think connects us all.

(performer vocalizes) (performers clapping) (audience applauding) - Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company travels all over sharing traditional dances of the Great Lakes region.

If you'd like to learn more about their formats or would like to attend one of their shows, you can check out their Facebook page or reach out to Michelle Reed.

Follow us to the urban streets of South Minneapolis, where the Iktomi Tattoo Parlor is located.

This shop is Indigenous-owned and is dedicated to creating an eco-friendly, minimal-waste work environment.

The "Native Report" team had the chance to see how this work is being received by the community.

(relaxing music) - Right now we're in South Minneapolis off of the intersection of 35th and Hennepin in Uptown.

We're at the tattoo shop Iktomi Tattoo.

(chill music) My dad was a Lakota language and Dakota history teacher at Four Winds High School.

Living with him and being exposed to culture here and kinda re-identifying myself as, like, an artist and a skateboarder, kinda, like, built up some connections in that industry, where it's like, you know, through skateboarding I got introduced to, like, sort of, like, urban art and graffiti and stuff, and then that kind of morphed into tattoo culture.

It was a very, like, passionate sort of emotional moment for me 'cause it was like the lightning strike where I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm in love with this.

The unfortunate truth about that was is that I had never had that sort of attention before, and it definitely went to my head.

And I definitely got exposed to, like, drug culture in the side of, like, Minneapolis that I hadn't been exposed to before.

And it actually ended up being, you know, the biggest crack in myself at the time.

(chill music) Indigenous culture and tradition really wasn't a part of my life when I was using.

And I would say the first, you know, 10, 13 years of me tattooing and being an artist, using and drugs and criminality was my culture.

You know, and I left little to no room for anything else besides a very vague family connection.

I ended up sorta, like, surrendering my passion for creativity for some broken self-promises that I had given myself based off criminality and chase an invisible dream (chuckles) and ended up in prison.

And when I was incarcerated this last time, I made a commitment to sobriety and the commitment to culture.

You know, as anyone that has made a similar commitment, it's kinda, you feel like that black sheep trying to, like, approach the flock, and, you know, I was always afraid of, like, maybe not, like, cultural gatekeeping, but, you know, it was hard to approach.

And what ended up being the hurdles was myself.

And once I kinda, like, let that down and just showed up as, you know, transparent, real me and just represented myself, I was accepted into, you know, culture, and it really wasn't as scary as I thought.

I was working for one of my best friends at his shop in Maple Grove, and I was essentially provided with an opportunity from some of my other close friends in recovery, as I am also in recovery.

And, you know, they are business owners and entrepreneurs, and they sorta gave me a chance to start my own business and essentially offered to sponsor me to become a business owner.

My dad, who passed away right after I was released from incarceration, he had always identified with the spider spirit.

And spider, and, you know, it kind of told me a little bit about, you know, the Iktomi story and, you know, creation story when it came time to naming it.

That was, like, the first idea, and, you know, it was super cool to sort of represent that in the industry and in the community.

It was also cool to bring some of, like, the Lakota vocabulary to the business world.

So the tattoo shop opened in September.

I also own a pay-what-you-can community art center, which is next door, that opened in the beginning of July.

We have a pretty stellar team.

There's another Indigenous person named Coleman, there's Donnie Chapman.

I have another apprentice named Henry.

Gary Gaulke, SaraEmma, Dani Prince.

And that's the team so far.

And, you know, we all vibe pretty good, and it's just very honored to work with those awesome people.

I like to provide a good creative atmosphere for people to be stoked to come to work at, not just trying to, like, toot the horn or anything, but it's been just exquisite feedback both from, like, the neighbors, the Indigenous community.

You know, when we started, there wasn't another sort of Indigenous-based tattoo shop or Indigenous-owned or even, like, a really pro-Indigenous culture tattoo shop in the area.

I absolutely love creating all forms of tattoos.

And it's not like, you know, a skateboard trick belongs to one particular person, you know what I mean?

So it's like in tattooing, it's not like one style belongs to anybody.

If you're the type of artist that just enjoys, you know, having range, like myself, then I think, like, you know, it's cool to be able to step outside of comfortability and admit to yourself that I have some room to learn here.

I do a lot of, like, recovery-based tattoos.

So it's cool because it gives someone a platform to share their experience and sort of, like, have a connection with a tattoo artist more than just being like, I want this here, boom, product made, you know, have a good day.

We actually hold some recovery meetings here in the tattoo shop and in the art center.

A lot of the artists here in this space are also in recovery and are involved in the program.

What keeps me going is making sure that, you know, I'm a part of that story that people can look at and be like, I used to do crime with him, and now he's not.

And maybe that has an effect on their choices and their imagination on where they could bring themselves.

I think that being in recovery, if handled correctly and looked at right, is empowering.

Living with a purpose, finding passion in everything.

I've adopted sort of this, like, zen philosophy on the importance of every moment, and, you know, there isn't a finite number of moments left.

The more people that can just open their eyes and shake their neighbor's hands and share space with each other in a positive way and just challenge themselves by allowing people that they aren't, you know, initially comfortable with into their lives can just really change the world.

- The "Native Report" team had so much fun learning more about Willard Malebear and the Iktomi Tattoo Shop.

Tattooing isn't all Malebear is up to.

He also recently created his dream space, which provides free and accessible art materials for his community.

This is called Unified Theory Collective.

If you'd like to learn more about Iktomi Tattoo or Malebear, follow him on social media.

If you missed a show or wanna catch up online, find us at nativereport.org.

And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for behind-the-scene updates.

Drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show.

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

I'm Rita Karppinen, we'll see you next time on "Native Report."

(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) (gentle music) (air whooshes)