MPR Archive presents a collection of varied Native topics in and around Minnesota. Stories include interviews, commentary, events, speeches, documentaries, and reports.
July 21, 2022 - Over decades, thousands of Native American children in Minnesota have been separated from relatives, adopted by white families, often growing up with no knowledge of their identity and culture. As part of our North Star Journey series, MPR’s Dan Gunderson shares the path one family is traveling to discover and understand a new identity.
July 29, 2022 - On this segment of North Star Journey, MPR’s Dan Kraker profiles individuals that identify as both of Native American and Scandinavian descent. They share how they are finding connections and surprising parallels between the cultures.
August 23, 2022 - MPR’s Dan Kraker reports on a rare breed that has adapted to the forests along the Minnesota-Canadian border. It's called the Lac la Croix Pony, or the Ojibwe horse. A few decades ago there were only four of them left. Kraker interviews those dedicated to reviving the population and help Ojibwe people to reconnect with the horses.
October 5, 2022 - MPR’s Matthew Holding Eagle III reports on items related to tribal life in North Dakota being returned digitally. Thousands of culturally significant photographs, wax cylinder recordings and journals recently returned to the place where they were created over a century ago among the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes in North Dakota.
December 23, 2022 - MPR’s Hannah Yang profiles the Dakota 38+2 riders, as they make trip honoring ancestors. The group travel hundreds of miles on horseback to honor 38 men hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The ride also remembers the many others who died as a result of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
July 27, 2023 - MPR’s Mathew Holding Eagle III reports on Beltrami County Historical Society push to return sacred Indigenous artifacts to communities. A court granted the Beltrami Historical Society’s museum permission to break up arguably its most important collection, The John Morrison collection. The court action will allow culturally sensitive artifacts to be repatriated to the Indigenous communities where they originated.
August 28, 2023 - MPR’s Alex V. Cipolle presents a profile of Jim Denomie, an Ojibwe painter who died in 2022. Cipolle visits Minneapolis Institute of Art to view “The Lyrical Artwork of Jim Denomie,” which has transformed into a posthumous survey of the latter half of the famous colorist’s career; one that skewered mainstream histories and purveyors of injustice, from Fort Snelling to Standing Rock, while championing the joy and resilience of Native communities.
September 7, 2023 - MPR’s Melissa Olson reports on Lower Sioux Community exploring reconciliation through an 'honor tax.' The Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax was created as another way Minnesotans and Dakota people could build relationships.
November 3, 2023 - MPR’s Melissa Olson reports that conservators and artists have worked nearly a year to restore a work of art created by artist George Morrison half a century ago. Morrison’s vision is felt by the people who helped to restore his work, and by those redesigning the building where the mural lives.
December 15, 2023 - MPR’s Gracie Stockton reports that the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced that its plow-naming event will return for a fourth year. The contest offers people the chance to submit ideas and vote to pick eight winners, with the winning names going on plows in each of MnDOT's eight districts around the state. Some plow drivers are hoping more Indigenous names make the cut.