It's National American Indian Heritage Month. AICHO asked some questions to our Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin: Together We Grow Youth Program participants to share their perspectives of what it means for them to be American Indian and what they would want to share with others about their Indigenous experience. Miigwech to these youth for their leadership, bravery and knowledge in sharing their Indigenous worldview with all of us. Let's listen to their Nibwaakaawin - their wisdom.
Date: October 1, 2022
Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: Gichi Ode' Akiing Park on 214 East Superior Street, Duluth, MN Dr. Robert Powless (Oneida Nation tribal member) was one of AICHO’s biggest supporters. He strongly advocated and even gave his own money to make sure Gimajii Mino Bimaadizimin would be a reality. His family is having a Celebration of Life Ceremony on Oct. 1 at noon at Gichi Ode Akiing Park. The last two years of his life, he would sit at the table in the Gimaajii Lobby and visit with children, family members and staff a couple days week. Our arts gallery/events center is named after him, and about 5 years ago we held an honoring ceremony for him in the Gimaajii Gym. Hundreds of people attended. Join AICHO and our community partners Mashkawisen and St. Louis County, Minnesota Public Health for a session with Sharyl Whitehawk recovery programs with culturally based teachings, ceremonies, and curriculum help Native American struggling with addiction.
Date: October 5, 2022 Time: 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. CT Virtually on Zoom Register by Friday, September 30, 2022 at 5pm. Registrants will receive the Zoom link on Oct. 3 Whitehawk is a Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe tribal member and is a Level III Addictions Counselor & LADC at the Khunsi Onikan Native Women’s Treatment Program at the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul, MN. This webinar/zoom is part 1 of a 3 part Indigenous Health Series that AICHO is putting together in partnership with St. Louis County Public Health. Free and open to the public, but know that this will center on the American Indian/First Nations experience. Sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Division via our Waaseyaa Healing Grant and St. Louis County Public Health. Flyer: Moira Villiard Our Giinawiind and Gimaajii kids participated in the Fond du Lac Band Gitigaan’s Gitigaan Wiikondiyag Garden Feast today. We played traditional lacrosse for a couple hours, went swimming at Kiwenz Campground, then toured the Gitigaan garden and ate food from the Feast. It was a full eventful day. Miigwech to Giinawiind and Gimaajii Youth program staff Kayla Jackson for bringing these youth to this event where they got to learn about and reconnect with culture, traditions, Indigenous food and to the land. The youth also volunteered and helped at the event as well. Photos by Ivy Vainio AICHO held our first Tenant Dinner last night since the pandemic started. Tenant dinners are fun gatherings for AICHO housing families and AICHO staff to join together and share a meal at the same table and socialize. We held it on the Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin rooftop gardens. Miigwech to AICHO Property Management, Children’s Program staff and Case Managers for this uplifting and beautiful gathering. Gathering funded in part by St. Louis County, Minnesota. Photo by Ivy Vainio AICHO youth participants learn how food is medicine by making vegan kimchi with food sovereignty activists Luke and Linda Black Elk. Both Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin: Together We Grow and Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin youth participants came together at AICHO’s rooftop garden to learn about the traditional and popular Korean fermented food called kimchi and the nutritious values associated with fermentation. They chopped up cabbage, ginger
AICHO says miigwech to Luke and Linda Black Elk for teaching us to look at food as medicine and for the plant walk in downtown Duluth. We learned to value the medicine growing in the concrete jungle of Duluth all around us.
Miigwech to AICHO Staff Ivy Vainio, Kayla Jackson, Cheryl Stone and Mia Menendez for organizing this cultural experience for our program youth. Miigwech Avery Makes Room For Them for making us such a delicious meal. This activity was funded in part by Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Division, Northland Foundation, Ordean Foundation, United Way of Northeastern Minnesota, and Sheltering Arms Early Education & Family Centers. Artist Shaun Chosa led art class with Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin: Together We Grow program youth and Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin youth. Shaun Chosa is a Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe tribal member. Photos by Ivy Vainio. On a hot Wednesday evening, a team made up of AICHO staff and Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin families came together to collectively run and walk 20 miles. Each step they took was a prayer to heal themselves as Indigenous people and stand in solidarity against racism and hatred directed towards Ojibwe people throughout Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Their steps contributed towards the solidarity relay called The Healing Circle Run organized by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission The Healing Circle Run began in 1989 as a response to the escalated animosity towards Ojibwe people brought on by protests against tribes reasserting hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in the Ojibwe ceded territories of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The seven-day relay is a collective prayer to bring healing to participants, their families, reservations, the communities they pass through, the nation and the earth. Runners endure the long journey under the summer sun and heat, persevering through exhaustion. It is a sacrifice runners make to heal their loved ones and communities suffering from addiction, violence and untreated intergenerational, historical trauma. The relay route connects 10 Ojibwe nations including Lac Du Flambeau, Mole Lake, Lac Vieux Desert, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Bad River, Red Cliff, Fond du Lac, Mille Lacs, St. Croix, and Lac Courte Oreilles, covering 600 miles. AICHO pledged and completed 20 miles on July 13, 2022, the fifth day of the relay in South Superior. The Native Americans into Medicine summer program took a tour at AICHO to learn more about AICHO’s missions, priorities and community initiatives to address and advocate for health justice and access in our communities on July 13, 2022
The Native Americans into Medicine summer program is a six-week summer enrichment program for undergraduate students pursing careers in health and medicine through the University of Minnesota. The students learned about AICHO programming from Co-Executive Director LeAnn Littlewolf, the Indigenous First Gift Shop from Khayman Goodsky, and AICHO Galleries and Cultural Arts programming from Ivy Vainio. Miigwech NAM for visiting AICHO! Youth learned to make traditional Anishinaabe wild rice poles through AICHO’s Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin: Together We Grow Youth Program. Through this hands-on workshop, guided by Michaa Aubid (East Lake Anishinaabe) and Veronica Skinaway (Sandy Lake Anishinaabe), program participants learned the importance of treaty rights, how to operate power tools and how to knock rice with rice knockers. This knowledge is important when participating in the wild rice harvest, called manoominike in Anishinaabemowin. If we are to preserve culture, we must continue to create it.” - Johan Huizing, historian Last year, the program youth learned how to make wild rice knockers in a workshop taught by 1854 Treaty Authority, passing harvesting knowledge to the youth. In September, the Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin program will participate in the annual manoominike with Ron Willis, under the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College CYFAR Grant activity. AICHO says miigwech to Michaa Aubid and Veronica Skinaway for teaching our program youth and staff about manoominike, the Anishinaabe words connected to harvesting rice and for allowing our youth to make ricing poles.
Miigwech to AICHO staff Ivy Vainio for coordinating this cultural activity with assistance from Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin program coordinator Kayla Jackson, Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin Children’s Program coordinator Mia Menendez and Cheryl Stone and AICHO’s property caretaker Scott Thompson. This event was funded in part by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Division. |
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