This MPR audio collection highlights five important contemporary Native Americans voices of this region. Each has had a unique and profound impact on the land and its people.
· Winona LaDuke on the environment, politics, and health
· Jim Northrup on writing, war, and Indian rights
· Clyde Bellecourt on Indian rights, social justice, and AIM
· Louise Erdrich on bringing Native American characters to the forefront in literature
· Peggy Flanagan on social issues, poverty, and politics
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.
April 28, 2008 - One of Minnesota's best-known novelists, Louise Erdrich, discusses her book “A Plague of Doves,” a story that weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living around the dying town of Pluto, North Dakota.
May 6, 2009 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on some Indian activists that will fight a planned oil pipeline that would cross the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. Segment includes clip of commentary from Native American environmentalist Winonna LaDuke.
September 21, 2009 - The inaugural formal meeting of The Kerri Miller Book Club presents an interview with Louise Erdrich, twenty-five years after Erdrich's novel "Love Medicine" was published and became a bestseller. Program recorded before an audience in Minneapolis.
January 15, 2010 - MPR’s Tom Robertson reports on DFL candidates for Minnesota governor participating in Bemidji forum on Native American issues. Report includes comments from Peggy Flanagan, director of Wellstone Action’s Native American Leadership program.
September 16, 2010 - MPR’s Kerri Miller interviews Minnesota writer Louise Erdrich about The Guthrie Theater production of Erdrich's novel "The Master Butchers Singing Club." Francesca Zambello, internationally renowned opera and theater director, is also interviewed.
March 14, 2011 - MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with Ojibwe writer Jim Northrup. For almost 22 years, Northrup has entertained and chastened readers of his syndicated “Fond Du Lacs Follies” newspaper column. He's covered everything from the rise of casinos and treaty rights, to his love of tapping trees for syrup, and harvesting wild rice…and he always included lots of jokes.
October 4, 2011 - MPR’s Julie Siple reports on the fight against hunger on the White Earth Reservation. Tribal officials estimate up to 50 percent of American Indians on the reservation live below the poverty line. For some, ensuring there is enough healthy food to feed themselves and their families is a problem. There is a growing effort to return to traditional foods to help alleviate hunger and improve the health of people on the reservation while reconnecting them with a diet that served their ancestors.
November 8, 2011 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on creation of four Native American radio stations in Callaway, Nett Lake, Cloquet and Cass Lake. Gunderson interviews tribe members behind the efforts to provide service to American Indian audiences in the northern Minnesota area.
November 8, 2011 - Native American activist Winona LaDuke speaks about the importance of Native American radio stations. LaDuke is one of the individuals behind starting station for White Earth reservation.
October 2, 2012 - On this Daily Circuit program, MPR’s Kerri Miller talks with Native American author Louise Erdrich about her book “The Round House.” Erdrich describes the writing decisions and background to book.