Why We Need to Center Racial Equity in the Climate Movement
​By Aimee Witteman

Note: Last month, we announced that Aimee Witteman, Midwest Climate & Energy program director, will step down from her position on July 30, 2020. After 10 years with McKnight, Aimee is pivoting to new adventures. Following are Aimee’s parting reflections on the climate movement and climate philanthropy, including her thoughts on McKnight’s newly expanded climate grantmaking. 

As I wind down my time at the McKnight Foundation and engage in reflection and planning for what’s next, I’m deeply moved by the transformation happening across our country. The Covid-19 pandemic and the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Aubrey—among countless others—have laid bare the painful inequities and structural racism that have persisted for centuries, including right here in Minnesota. At the same time, thanks to creative young organizers and the Movement for Black Lives, who have nurtured underlying social movement conditions for years, we also find ourselves in a time of deep possibility. We are living in what Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza and others have called a moment of “uprising, reckoning, and change.”


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Our Annual Winter Market was a huge success, despite having to schedule around the winter storm of the decade! Miigwech to all who supported the over 30 artists who participated and who celebrated with us as we expanded Indigenous First Art & Gifts!

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In the United States, there are 573 distinct federally recognized tribal nations, so the communities covered by the phrase “Indian Country” are many and varied. So too are the innovations that are emerging from these communities. This webinar, recorded on November 21, 2019, shows how Native American activists are building food hubs, creating marketplaces that feature indigenous foods, and restructuring markets so that Native artisans and producers achieve far greater benefit from their labor.
Following the interview, NPQ Senior Editor Steve Dubb facilitates a panel with three expert speakers: Nick Hernandez, Lakota, Director of Makoce Agriculture Development (Pine Ridge, South Dakota); LeAnn Littlewolf, Ojibwe, Economic Development Director of the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) in Duluth, Minnesota; and Hayes Lewis, Zuni Pueblo, Executive Director of A:shiwi College and Career Readiness Center (near Gallup, New Mexico).
This webinar explores:

• Strategies for rebuilding food sovereignty and rediscovering pre-contact indigenous foods.
• Ways to build urban-rural links in the food system, including food hubs and urban markets where food that is produced can be sold at a fair price.
• How to use a training center to restructure markets (using co-ops and other structures) to help Native practitioners earn the true value of their labor.
• The importance of linking economic development and cultural strategies.
• Methods to address trauma and the legacy of genocide and colonialism.
• Areas where the experiences in Indian Country might inform broader efforts to build community wealth and address inequality in the US economy as a whole.

Follow-up Reading Materials and Links:
Martin Jennings, Northwest Area Foundation, Native CDFI program: https://www.nwaf.org/portfolio/nativecdfi-2
https://www.nwaf.org/native-led-organizations/
http://bit.ly/2D09KEi
LeAnn Littlewolf, American Indian Community Housing Organization
(Niiwin Indigenous Food Market)
https://www.aicho.org/niiwin-indigenous-foods-market.html
http://bit.ly/359FpiO
http://bit.ly/343bEA4
Nick Hernandez, Makoce Agriculture Development
https://www.facebook.com/makoceag
Hayes Lewis, A:shiwi College & Career Readiness Center
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ashiwicollegecareerreadinesscenter
http://bit.ly/359FpiO
Additional resource recommended by LeAnn Littlewolf:
A Guide to Tribal Co-operative Development (published by the Minnesota Indigenous Business Alliance)
http://bit.ly/37letOZ
Watch all the previous webinars of NPQ’s Remaking the Economy series here.

​We are so grateful for your contributions during #GTM2019 - thanks to you, we are $2,079 closer to developing the Niiwin Indigenous Foods Market. You can continue to follow our Facebook page and the Niiwin Market page on GiveMN (link below) for updates on the progress we're making.
We launched this campaign in an effort to give the public an opportunity to participate in fundraising for the market. This project is huge and there's much work to be done, but we're excited that you all decided to take part in the journey with us.

You can still join us in fundraising by following this link or sharing it with your friends: https://www.givemn.org/story/Niiwinmarket
​
Chi miigwech!

An Indigenous poetry reading featuring Linda LeGarde Grover, Kimberly Blaeser, Babette Sandman, and Rocky Makes Room for Them was hosted at AICHO this October, with music by Lyz Jaakola. 

Organized by Duluth Poet Laureate Gary Boelhower, the event included an invitation for other Indigenous people to share a poem or two as part of the open mic portion of the event. For further information, please contact Gary Boelhower, gboelhower@msn.com

The Duluth Poet Laureate Project was co-sponsored by the Friends of the Duluth Public Library, Lake Superior Writers, the English departments at UMD and CSS, and Lake Superior College. Please visit www.duluthpoetlaureate.org

​Check out this video clip: https://www.facebook.com/wdse.wrpt.pbs/videos/529720714241696/

Powwow Highway is a 1989 comedy-drama road movie directed by Jonathan Wacks. Based on the novel Powwow Highway by David Seals, it features A Martinez, Gary Farmer, Joanelle Romero and Amanda Wyss. Wes Studi and Graham Greene, who were relatively unknown actors at the time, have small supporting roles. ​AICHO was happy to host actor Gary Farmer for a screening of the film and a meet-and-greet session with the community!