MPR Archive presents a collection of varied Native topics in and around Minnesota. Stories include interviews, commentary, events, speeches, documentaries, and reports.
August 28, 1985 - Jerry Cassidy examines issues of Indian hunting and fishing rights in his documentary "American Indians in the 1980s: New Struggles for Old Rights." Program includes numerous interviews and commentary on treaty rights.
January 8, 1986 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on members of White Earth tribe that held press conference protesting current legislative action regarding land disputes between tribes, private land owners, and the government.
June 16, 1986 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on graduation of Minnesota police candidates. Of the group, one is a Native American woman; another, the first Hmong police officer.
December 8, 1986 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on Neighborhood Housing, AIM, and Guardian Angel patrols in Minneapolis neighborhoods. Report includes comments from Louise James, president of Northside Neighborhood Residents Council; Tony Bouza, Minneapolis police chief; and Bill Means, International Indian Treaty Council member.
October 1, 1987 - MPR’s John Biewen produced the very first report of Mainstreet Radio. Biewen visits the southern Minnesota town of Good Thunder, where artist Ta-coumba Aiken was commissioned to create a massive mural along the grain elevator in town. The hope is it will help in keeping Good Thunder on the map.
October 28, 1987 - Mainstreet Radio-Brainerd’s Rachel Reabe profiles Four Winds Lodge Treatment Center, a culturally based Native American chemical dependency treat program. Reabe highlights the annual sobriety powwow through various sounds and interviews.
July 28, 1988 - MPR’s Tom Meersman looks at the 20th anniversary of American Indian Movement (AIM). Report looks at the history, actions, and controversies of organization.
August 20, 1988 - MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews author Thomas Vennum about his book "Wild Rice and the Ojibway People." Vennum discusses the experience of harvesting wild rice and its importance to the Ojibwe People.
February 1, 1989 - MPR’s Chris Tetlin reports on a proposal to start an Indian public school district in the Twin Cities. There is debate on if it would offer a better education opportunity and experience for Native students or simply a form of segregation.
September 8, 1989 - Mainstreet Radio’s John Biewen presents the documentary “Dancing on Beat: Portrait of a Reservation Family,” which follows the daily life of an Ojibwe family on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.