In recognition of 2024 Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the MPR Archive Portal presents a curated sampling of varied stories, documentaries, arts, interviews, and reports on Native people, their culture, and history.
Please note: Most content related to this topic that is contemporary or created after 2005 can be found on our main content pages of MPR News, YourClassical MPR, The Current, APM Reports, and Marketplace.
April 3, 2012 - David Treuer, an Ojibwe author from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, speaks at the Minneapolis Central Library as part of the Hennepin County Library's Talk of the Stacks series. His book is titled, "Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life."
May 4, 2012 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Ojibwe author Anton Truer about his book "Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask."
September 7, 2012 - MPR’s Marianne Combs sat down with author and fiber artist Gwen Westerman, painter and sculptor Jim Denomie, actor and spoken word artist R. Vincent Moniz, Jr., and poet Heid Erdrich. The discussion included what it means to be a contemporary Native artist working in a world that still has stereotypical notions of what it means to be an American Indian.
November 20, 2013 - In this episode of Appetites, MPR’s Tom Crann talks with Minnesota poet and writer Heid Erdrich about the local food movement. Though seen as a relatively recent phenomenon, Erdrich argues in a book that the local food movement goes back to the indigenous populations of our region.
January 30, 2015 - Anton Treuer grew up on the Leech Lake reservation with a deep interest in history and language. He writes in the introduction to one of his books on Native history: "The borderland I grew up in was more than an awkward physical nexus of races and communities." Today-a conversation about how that "nexus" still influences his work and writing.
May 19, 2015 - On this episode of Minnesota Sounds and Voices, MPR’s Dan Olson profiles Native American activist and White Earth band member Clyde Bellecourt.
October 23, 2015 - MPR’s Doualy Xaykaothao has a conversation with two Native-American artists, playwright Rhiana Yazzie and writer R. Vincent Moniz Jr.
July 19, 2016 - MPR’s Euen Kerr talks with Ojibwe author, poet, playwright Jim Northrup. Northrup is dying, but he's OK with it. The author of the popular Fond du Lac Follies, several books, plays and TV shows, says he's helped by his traditional life style on the Fond du Lac Reservation - and his sense of humor.
August 2, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Crann reports on the death of Ojibwe author, poet, playwright Jim Northrup. Report includes audio clip of Northrup reading from his poem “Grandma’s Hair.”
August 4, 2016 - Ojibwe author, poet, playwright Jim Northrup died at 73, due to complications from cancer. As part of a wake, a traditional fire is being started at his residence in Sawyer. Matthew Northrup, joins MPR’s Tom Crann to talk about his father, and what it was like being raised by Jim, who was known and quoted as being a tough man.