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.
May 17, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger takes a walking audio tour of The Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. Enger talks with Joyce Wedll, the museum manager about the purposes of museum for both tribal members and tourists.
November 19, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports on new children’s comic book which highlights the history of the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Band. The book, "A Hero's Voice," looks at broken treaties, important figures in Ojibwe history, and the spiritual tie between the tribe and the lake.
December 26, 1996 - MPR’s Mary Losure created this report for National Public Radio detailing the efforts to save Native American language by teaching it to next generation. Losure interviews both language teachers and students at Nay Ah Shing school in Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
May 20, 1997 - Public and private landholders are challenging Chippewa Indian's plans to take fish and other game in eastern Minnesota, under terms of an 1837 treaty. But miles north of the region under contention, Chippewa Indians have been harvesting fish and wild rice and hunting moose and deer on public lands with little fanfare, and no public protests.
March 2, 1998 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger profiles the Red Lake Warriors, who after a tragedy, are regrouping and preparing for another run at the state title.
April 16, 1998 - Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger speaks with Mille Lacs Band member Vince Merrill about gillnetting, the warrior society, and whether tradition can survive as written law.
April 17, 1998 - As part of Mainstreet Radio’s Treaty Rights and Tribal Sovereignty series, Catherine Winter presents report on the concept called tribal sovereignty, and a look at the where this complex set of rules comes from, and how it affects Indian people today. Report includes various interviews with tribe members.
April 21, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Mille Lacs Indian Museum, highlighting Indian treaty rights and Native American sovereignty. Rachel Reabe interviews Don Wedll, Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mill Lacs Band of Ojibwe; Doug Sam, tribal elder; and Henry Van Offelen, treaty biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Group discussion includes spearfishing topic and answering audience/listener questions.
April 21, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Mille Lacs Indian Museum, highlighting Indian treaty rights and Native American sovereignty. Rachel Reabe interviews Henry Buffalo, a Minneapolis attorney, sovereignty expert, and member Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe; Chief Tribal Judge Mary Jo Brooks Hunter, of Ho chunk Tribe; and Jim Genia, solicitor general for the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe. Discussion topic is tribal sovereignty and how the rules are different on the reservation.
May 19, 1998 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Native American blues band, Indigenous.