Native Radio Frequencies

- On this "Native Report", we hear from Bois Forte Tribal Community Radio who hosted an outdoor concert, featuring artist War Bonnet and Sihasin and we talk with Leah Lemm, whose podcast is helping spread Native voices.

We also learn what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders.

- [Announcer] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund and Alexandra Smith Fund, in support of Native American treaty rights, administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, (gentle music) DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades out) - Welcome to "Native Report" and thanks for tuning in.

I'm Rita Karppinen.

In this episode, we talk with the Bois Forte Tribal Community Radio station, KPFT, who held an outdoor concert featuring Native American musicians Sihasin and War Bonnet.

We sat down with War Bonnet and the radio station to hear how indigenous community radio stations are important to promoting indigenous music.

(gentle guitar music) (intense rock music) - Hello, my name is George Strong, and I'm general manager at KBFT.

It's a very small station.

It's only like 1,000 watts and what we try to do is we try to flavor it to what the community wants.

So, we try to get feedback from them on a regular basis and just see once we bring in an act and whether or not they like it or not and primarily, what we try to do is program it, so we give these underrepresented bands a chance to come through the area and usually, like when they're doing this thing here, they're traveling through on their way to other venues, and so, that's kinda what we feature on the KBFT airwaves and we got a lot of strong feedback from our neighbors, that they really do enjoy the music, our style of music, and then, of course, the sounds of Sihasin and the sounds of War Bonnet.

They're like, "Wow, I didn't know about these bands," and they're just amazed at the quality of the music and that we even, our Native people even do this style of music.

So, yeah, that's what we're about.

(slow rock music) (speaking in Native language) - War Bonnet is an incarnation of my ancestors and it's kind of like a blend of the old tribal sounds, but done with more of the rock and modern instruments of today, such as guitars, keyboards, but then, we also kinda go into the more of like a western sound.

We kinda experiment a lot and there's a lot of learning, there's a lot of history.

We sing about true things.

We don't sing about any fiction.

Everything is about history.

Everything is about us as a people and me, being an indigenous anishinaabe, a Native American man, this is my life and my life is gonna bleed into my art.

It's gonna bleed into my everyday living, my everyday being, 'cause this is who I am and my music, that's how I express myself.

I'm still part of our ceremonies today and I kind of incorporate all that mixture into War Bonnet.

- Children of Mother Earth, pray for those with no guardian, that together, we may stand vigilant against those who seek to harm them.

(gentle music) We pray for courage.

Our spirits are enraged.

- The reason why we're here today is to reacquaint ourselves or at least, engage with our band member, our band members that are here in this community.

So, there's a lot of Bois Forte band members.

I think the number I heard was like 180.

So, that's substantial, considering back home, the population is at about 384, I believe, and so, and that includes kids and I'm sure the adult population is what's represented here in the number that I gave.

So, it's real important that we reach out and engage with our band members that were...

I don't know, removed, I guess from our home area.

- Pray for the sisters... - (speaks in Native language) I mean, our language is beautiful.

Gichigami is Lake Superior.

We had names for all these places before the Europeans came, which are beautiful names and I'm proud to speak our language.

I love speaking our language.

Theres so much love that comes with it.

Gichigami.

It means the Great Sea and if you look out here, it looks like a sea and this is just such a powerful place and this is the place where the Ojibwes migrated.

When they came up to the northern regions of Minnesota, they came through here and a lot of the people stayed here, because they loved it.

The Gichioni people, the reservation in Cloquet.

People stayed here.

My tribe went further North and up to Bois Forte, up to Nett Lake and we utilize the resources that were there, the wild rice, the food that grows on the water, but all these places have power.

All these places are magical and I could feel that right here at, just as we're talking.

It's a powerful place.

(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) - We recently worked with another band and we'll probably start working with others also and what we're looking for is like some of these up and coming artists.

Of course, we've got Keith Secola from our home territory Bois Forte.

He's a Bois Forte descendant and so, he's kinda like an icon in Native American music and so, what we're trying to do is just inspire up and coming artists, especially in this area.

There's not a lot of, I would probably say notoriety or pathways to get to where they wanna go and so, that's one of the things that we wanna provide is these opportunities.

Maybe Sihasin will share a story or maybe they'll meet somebody on the side and they'll get to ask the question like, "How did you guys do that?

Or How do you do this?"

You know?

I mean, and, "How do you do it?"

And that's what I want for any up and comer to be able to come here, see Jeneda, see Clayson, see Chaz.

Chaz is right from our reservation.

I mean, we grew up with him.

He was just a little guy when I was in high school and to see him doing what he's doing is just that's what it's about, is create these opportunities, create these pathways, and create this network.

(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) - Everything about Minnesota, everything about our culture, everything about our life is inspiring.

Like, even the stories, songs that we write about, these chiefs, these historic chiefs, such as Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Red Cloud.

These are all stories where we draw inspiration from.

We draw inspiration from the shape of our state.

We have a song called "Arrowhead" and that's kind of talks about where we're from, which is the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, you know?

We're very proud of who we are and we're very proud of where we come from.

♪ Paradise once was here not quite that long ago ♪ ♪ Indigenous peoples inhabited from Maine to Mexico ♪ ♪ They had love for the land for it was sacred and pure ♪ ♪ But their world turned upside down that day ♪ ♪ When Columbus had become lost ♪ - War Bonnet was nominated in 2022 for a Native music award for Best Rock Recording and Best Rock Video.

(cheerful music) - In Ojibwe, miigwechiwendam means she or he is thankful or grateful and means to perceive it by thought.

Miigwech has come to mean thanks and is a good word for everyone to know.

What miigwech really means is enough.

When Ojibwe people were trading with fur buyers a long time ago, there would come a point when the Ojibwe would stop the trade by saying, "Miigwech."

Enough.

How many people do you know who know when they have enough?

We live in a world where it's expected everyone wants more.

There are those who have so much money, they can't possibly spend it all and still, they want more.

Gratitude is to be thankful for what you have.

Many don't have enough to meet their basic needs.

The media all around us tell us we need the newest and shiniest thing and makes us unhappy with what we have.

There's no shortage of stressors in our daily lives and it's easy to focus on them.

A negative interaction with someone can color our entire day.

At the same time, it's easy to take for granted the good things that happen to us.

We tend to overlook the beauty and kindness of the people around us.

Three Good Things is a project created by psychologist Martin Seligman.

It's designed to help us remember the good things and rewire our way of thinking.

It goes like this.

Every night for a week, just before bedtime, write down three good things that happened that day.

Be specific and don't worry about grammar or spelling.

This can be a compliment at work, someone giving you a small gift, or even holding a door open for you.

Write down when it happened and how it made you feel.

Include why you think it happened and who was involved and how it made you feel later.

Don't focus on negative feelings.

Concentrating on the good things can take some practice.

Do this for at least a week and keep track in the same document, so you can review it later.

The Three Good Things exercise has been studied and has been shown to be effective.

You deserve to be happy and to have a positive outlook on life.

You have nothing to lose and much to gain by trying this for a week.

Miigwechiwendam.

She or he is thankful.

Look up and call your favorite teacher and tell them they were your favorite teacher and why.

You'll both be better for it and remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arne Vainio and this is "Health Matters".

(upbeat music) - During Leah Lemm's time working in the radio industry, she found that there wasn't a variety of voices being heard on the airwaves.

So, she stepped outside of her comfort zone and created her own podcast.

She truly believes that everyone has a story to share and her list of people to interview keeps growing.

(cheerful music) - Boozhoo, aaniin, and welcome to "Native Lights", where Indigenous voices shine.

I'm your host Cole Premo.

- And I'm your other host, Leah Lemm.

Miigwech for joining us!

"Native Lights" is a place for Native folks to tell their stories.

Every week we have great conversations with wonderful guests from a whole bunch of different backgrounds and we talk with them about their gifts and how they share those gifts with their communities.

It's been really exciting to see the evolution of technology in radio and podcasting.

It's really opened up and invited in more people to be able to contribute their voices.

It moved from needing to be in the studio, sitting with another person, an engineer, to being able to engineer your own program virtually at home.

Yeah.

I'm Leah Lemm.

I'm a citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

I'm a mother, a spouse, and a community story sharer and I've been working in radio and podcasting for a long time now, nearly 15 years.

I started out behind the scenes as an engineer and then, eventually, started reporting and hosting down the line and it's been really fun.

- [Cole] Today, we're speaking with Jada Brown, a Twin Cities-based singer and spoken word poet who is affiliated with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe.

- Yeah.

So, you write, correct?

- [Jada] Yeah, I do write.

I've written all my own songs, so I guess I'm a songwriter.

I guess I, that marks me as a songwriter.

(Leah laughs) - I am a musician and so, I got my start in audio recording from doing that, from recording myself, from recording others.

I studied at the Berklee College of Music in music production and engineering.

I also had this love for radio, public radio.

I grew up on it.

It was always on in the car and so, I took what I learned from music production and engineering and applied it to radio.

So, that's how I got into radio.

From there, while being behind the scenes, it was part of my job to monitor and listen to all the stations that we were in charge of where I was working and I noticed that there were some voices that weren't being highlighted a lot.

So, I remember my dad saying that if I could do something about it, I wasn't allowed to complain.

So, I started in interviewing Native folks.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I'm an introvert.

I'm shy and I just started talking to people and though it was very painful for a shy, introverted person, I sort of stuck with it and made the transition from engineering to putting the mic in front of my face.

WTIP asked John how racial inequality affects the community and what inspires his work as a trainer with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond.

- [John] People are dying.

People are dying, because of racism.

- So, at any time, I'm working on multiple projects simultaneously, but one of the consistent projects that I work on throughout the year and year over year has been "Native lights", where indigenous voices shine.

That's through Ampers and Minnesota Native News and we interview folks every week from around Minnesota or connected to Minnesota about their gifts and how they share those gifts with their communities and it's really fun and it's like meeting new friends every week.

So, I really enjoy that program.

I also work on Minnesota Native News as a reporter from time to time and I do, it happens here with WTIP and I also work with the Minnesota Humanity Center.

That work is popping up now with the We Are Water exhibits and I interview folks for that.

I'm also starting in on a project with Arts Midwest, another podcast.

I'm joining Marianne Combs as a co-host for "Filling The Well".

That's a really fun project and I also have a passion project called "Wisdom Continuum" that I host with my husband, Daniel Lemm.

Hey!

- Hey, Jeremy.

- [Terry] Oh, wow.

It's so great to see you, Dan.

Hi, Leah.

- [Daniel] You, too, Terry.

- Hi.

Nice to see you - [Daniel] Terry, I don't think you've met Leah before and vice versa.

So, Terry, my wife, Leah.

Leah, longtime great person friend Terry Peterson.

- It's nice to meet you and Daniel and I are in the same house.

We are just in different rooms.

So, I truly believe that everybody has a story to share and if I hear that somebody's doing great work, yes, of course, I'll want to check them out and see if they wanna chat and oftentimes, it's the folks who aren't in the limelight already that particularly interest me.

So, it's sort of this balance of making sure that we're amplifying Native voices that aren't always out in the main conversation and then, also, having the folks who are getting more of the coverage or the limelight.

So, I have a running list of folks that I wanna talk to and I'm pretty sure I'm never gonna run out.

First, let's take a short trip down memory lane.

- [Guest Speaker] I come from a family that pretty much of us are all artists and if they're not doing artwork, they're doing maple syrup, wild racing, or fixing cars.

- These interviews are more than making a piece and then, sending it out to radio stations.

It's more than recording and then, chopping it up and packaging it and delivering it.

It's building a relationship.

It's being invited into somebody's home.

It's sharing coffee.

It's sharing food, which I mean, I don't know if it gets better than that.

It's building community while working and here we are again, Cole amplifying Native voices this week.

My mission to amplify Native voices just evolved very simply.

As an audio engineer, amplification is a part of the job.

It's kind of a more of a technical term and Native voices are the voices in my family.

They're the voices of my community, voices that I wasn't hearing.

So, I put those two together, amplification and Native voices, and there's my mission, to amplify Native voices.

- You can find all the projects that Leah's working on at leahklemm.com.

(gentle music) - My name's Tim Cochrane and the name of the book is "Making the Carry, The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater".

It's a book about an indigenous couple that made their lives through incredible change, the cutting of the white and red pine forest the coming of mining and white settlers.

It's really a story of their resilience and fortitude it through all those changes.

I first bumped into a picture of John Linklater when I was quite, almost 45 years ago and I was in a library at Isle Royale National Park and I saw a picture of this man wearing a top hat and he's clowning around for the camera and I'm going, "This is interesting," and then, I started to learn a bit more that like many parks or some parks, national parks, that at that time, this is in the late 1970s, they didn't really know much or acknowledge much of their Native past and that just started me off and on on learning more about the Linklaters and the story just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

She was an artisan that as one of her friends said, "She could make anything.

"/\ She made things from like his one side of things, very utilitarian things like dog harnesses for her dogs, canoes.

What's really remarkable is she made these cedar bark mats.

They're geometric cedar bark mats and that art form and among Anishinabe people was almost lost.

It's remarkably 11 of her mats survived and that's the largest collection of them anywhere, but then, she found a secondary audience for them with wealthy, if you will, white individuals that purchased them and they survived largely at Isle Royale in vacant cabins.

So, most of these cedar mats just happened to live on in these cabins for decades and then, the National Park eventually were mostly given them and now, they're taken care of in Grand Portage at the Grand Portage National Monument.

As near as we can tell, they got along famously and it was a real partnership.

No, I think, I just think they're remarkable people and they've just been sort of pushed to the side.

They're well-remembered in some circles, but mostly among the new folks, if you will, in the northern part of Minnesota, there wouldn't be much knowledge about 'em and to me, they're just remarkable, striking, clever, brilliant people that people deserve to know about.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - I make dream catchers, because it's therapeutic to me and it helps me when I'm struggling or anything like that.

This one, specifically, it was a older dream catcher that the centerpiece was a piece that was from my dad who passed away and it broke.

So, what I did was just kept the middle piece and made it into a larger dream catcher for a gift for my mother and then, I also do these dream catchers that are specifically made for families of missing and murdered indigenous relatives and survivors of violence.

So, this specifically one is for a sister that is on the Leadership Council at Sovereign Embodies with me and I made it for her, because it signifies the circle of healing and these are all small little abalone shells and turquoise teardrops.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - If you missed a show or wanna catch up online, find us at nativereport.org and follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for behind-the-scene updates and drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show.

Thanks for spending time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian Country.

I'm Rita Karppinen.

We'll see you next time on "Native Report".

By emailing... (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund and Alexandra Smith Fund, in support of Native American treaty rights, administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, (gentle music) DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.

(gentle music continues) (enchanting musical tones)