Progress 09/15/22 to 09/04/25
Outputs
Target Audience:During the 2024-2025 reporting period, Red Lake Nation College Community Connections (RLNCCC) engaged a diverse audience from Red Lake Nation and surrounding Tribal communities, including students, faculty, staff, Elders, youth, and community members. Programs were designed to foster intergenerational learning and cultural engagement through activities such as counseling sessions, wellness services, study groups, domestic violence awareness events, therapy dog visits, trauma-informed workshops, beading and sewing circles, storytelling events, Wild Rice Camp, and community gardens, both rural and urban. Fall and spring Traditional Feasts provide opportunities to honor seasonal foods and give thanks to Mother Earth. Outreach through social media, email, and campus digital boards ensured broad visibility and participation. These efforts collectively strengthened cultural pride, language revitalization, intergenerational knowledge transfer, holistic wellness, and community resilience across the Red Lake Nation Changes/Problems:During the reporting period, the RLNCCC experienced staffing changes that affected program coordination. The Program Coordinator resigned in late fall 2024, followed by the Assistant Coordinator in August 2025. Neither staff member conducted program activities during their tenure. Despite these transitions, the newly appointed Program Coordinator quickly collaborated with internal staff and partner programs to develop and implement activities that fulfilled all grant requirements. These efforts ensured continuity of programming and maintained progress toward achieving project goals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?RLNC sent participants to the annual Falcon Conference in 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a 3-day conference with training and updates on the NIFA Grant. RLNC sent attendees to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) conference in March 2025, Rapid City, South Dakota. Individual professors and adjuncts have a variety of trainings and professional development opportunities, specific to their area of expertise. August 30 2025 Traditional & Salve Making Training with Karen DeJesus; plants and herbs utilized from the urban garden through Extension. Bonnie Ekstrom Professional Memberships: American Psychological Association; Midwestern Psychological Association; Minnesota Psychological Association Member since 2021 APA; MPA; MNPA Workshops Webinars, Conferences Attended Aug 2020- Dec 2025 American Indian Higher Education (AIHEC) Annual Conference 3/8/2025 - 3/11/2025 AIHEC Annual Student Conference How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Red Lake Nation College Community Connections (RLNCCC) ensures that information about programs, events, and outcomes is widely shared with community members and stakeholders. Flyers are distributed and posted at key community locations, including community centers, post offices, local stores, Chemical Health, Immersion Schools, Red Lake Tribe offices, and public schools. Digital communication strategies include emailing the campus community and the Minneapolis College site, posting on the college's official Facebook page, and sharing via the digital boards on campus. RLNCCC maintains an active presence on social media through its own Facebook page and by sharing information via personal networks, ensuring that families, Elders, students, and community members are consistently informed and encouraged to participate What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, Red Lake Nation College Community Connections (RLNCCC) will continue to advance its goals by hosting culturally grounded, intergenerational programs that integrate traditional knowledge, language, and experiential learning. The Moccasin Game Community Tournament is scheduled for Fall/Winter 2025 and Spring 2026, will engage participants from Tribal colleges and partner communities, including Red Lake, White Earth, and Leech Lake Tribes. These activities will feature traditional gameplay, Ojibwemowin language instruction, cultural songs, and shared foods. As a time-honored Ojibwe guessing game, the moccasin game (makizinataagewin) fosters strategic thinking, memory, and probability skills within an Indigenous intellectual framework while transmitting core Anishinaabe values such as balance, respect, humility, reciprocity, honesty, courage, wisdom, and attentive listening. By embedding ceremonial protocols and game-specific language into the program, the tournament supports Ojibwemowin revitalization, strengthens intergenerational knowledge transfer, and promotes holistic wellness through mental focus, emotional regulation, and social bonding. Additionally, this activity affirms the relevance of Indigenous science and pedagogical practices for workforce development, ensuring that cultural, ecological, and intellectual knowledge continues to thrive among future generations. Deer Hunting, Harvest, and Processing will also be a central activity in the upcoming period, directly supporting Goal III: Strengthen Food Sovereignty through Traditional Foods and Nutrition, while intersecting with Goal I: Cultural Sovereignty. This program engages community members in the full cycle of traditional deer hunting, from preparation with prayers and offerings, to sustainable harvest, to careful processing and preservation of meat, hide, sinew, and antlers. Participants learn to respect the deer as a sacred provider, using all parts of the animal while honoring ecological balance and traditional stewardship practices. The activity not only ensures the availability of nutrient-rich, locally sourced food but also reinforces cultural continuity, intergenerational teaching, and community resilience. By sustaining both subsistence and spiritual practices, this initiative strengthens food sovereignty, promotes wellness, and cultivates cultural pride, ensuring that Ojibwe lifeways remain vibrant and accessible for generations to come.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Hand Drum Class (Dec. 7-8, 2024) - Nineteen participants crafted hand drums, learning spiritual, historical, and ceremonial significance with Ojibwe language, song, and oral traditions. Expanded ecological knowledge, cultural knowledge (drum responsibilities, ceremonies), spiritual grounding, and intergenerational connections fostering cultural pride and leadership. Rattle-Making Class (Feb. 24-25, 2025) - Nine participants created ceremonial rattles, learning ecological, spiritual, and cultural significance. Reconnected to ecological knowledge, ceremonial roles, spiritual teachings, emotional expression, reflection, and wellness. Promoted cultural pride and responsibility tied to ceremony and healing practices. Ojibwe Storytelling Event (Feb. 12, 2025) - Twenty-one participants heard Nanabozho stories and Indigenous literature with a traditional meal. Strengthened oral traditions, intergenerational transmission of ecological, cultural, and spiritual knowledge, literacy, critical thinking, and cultural identity. Traditional Spring Feast & Storytelling (May 7, 2025) - Forty-one participants engaged in feast traditions and drum teachings, co-led by youth and Elders. Reinforced cultural/ecological cycles, strengthened Ojibwemowin, promoted spiritual knowledge, cultural pride, and social connection, reducing isolation and building community wellness. Storytelling Event - Lone Dog Road (Spring 2025) - Thirty-five local participants and over 1,000 online viewers explored Indigenous literature and oral history, strengthening cultural/ecological knowledge, validating storytelling as an Indigenous pedagogical system, and inspiring broad participation. OTEK Sessions (Dec. 2024 & Feb. 2025) - Seventeen participants learned seasonal ecology, plant medicines, and land stewardship. Expanded ecological, cultural, and spiritual knowledge, built awareness of Indigenous health resources, and reinforced Ojibwemowin health terminology. Maple Sugar Camp (Mar.-Apr. 2025) - Thirty-two participants engaged in tapping, boiling, and syrup-making, learning ecological, cultural, and spiritual teachings. Reconnected to traditional nutrition, food sovereignty, wellness, and Ojibwemowin vocabulary. Spring Foraging & Site Assessments (Apr.-May 2025) - Staff identified culturally significant plants and ecological conditions, expanding ecological, cultural, and spiritual knowledge, informing food sovereignty programming, and supporting educational sovereignty. Gichi-apiitendaagoziwin Gitigaan - Garden of Great Respect - Youth planted vegetables, mint, and sacred tobacco, learning ecological, cultural, and spiritual knowledge. Taught Ojibwemowin plant vocabulary, strengthened holistic health, nutrition, emotional wellness, cultural pride, and intergenerational bonds. Ogimaawi-giizhigad Gitigaan - Sovereign Sky Garden (Minneapolis) - Urban rooftop garden taught traditional teas and salves from medicinal plants. Expanded ecological knowledge, reaffirmed cultural and spiritual knowledge, promoted Ojibwemowin gardening terms, and reinforced holistic health and educational sovereignty. Traditional Spring Feasts (Nov. 2024 & May 7, 2025) - Feasts reinforced Ojibwe cultural identity, ecological stewardship, holistic wellness, Ojibwemowin, nutritional awareness, and intergenerational ties. Wild Rice Harvest Camp (Fall 2025) - Nine participants engaged in ceremonial offerings, sustainable harvesting, and processing techniques. Strengthened intergenerational learning, nutritional sovereignty, ecological stewardship, and cultural resilience. OTEK & Drum Workshops - Highlighted Indigenous science, language, and culture. Expanded ecological, cultural, and spiritual knowledge, validated Indigenous science, strengthened educational sovereignty, supported Ojibwemowin literacy, and inspired cultural career pathways. Counseling Hours (Sept. 2024-May 2025) - One-on-one and small-group sessions supported student mental health, resilience, and academic persistence, addressing stress, trauma, and personal challenges with culturally grounded approaches. Wellness Massages (Dec. 2024 & May 2025) - Provided stress reduction and relaxation, promoting mental, emotional, and physical well-being, reflecting holistic Indigenous perspectives. Therapy Dog Visits (Oct. 2024 & May 2025) - Reduced anxiety, built social connection, promoted emotional regulation, and reinforced traditional teachings of kinship with animals. Trauma-Informed Video Presentation (Nov. 2024) - Educated 44 participants on trauma, resilience, and culturally informed approaches to healing, increasing awareness and promoting dialogue on recovery. Stop Domestic Violence Awareness Event (Oct. 2024) - Engaged 23 participants in education and advocacy around healthy relationships, safety, and cultural perspectives on respect and accountability. Overall Impact: RLNCCC initiatives strengthened cultural, food, educational, and health sovereignty. Community members gained ecological, cultural, spiritual, and Ojibwemowin knowledge through hands-on workshops, feasts, gardens, harvests, and mental health services. Activities promoted wellness, intergenerational learning, cultural pride, resilience, intellectual sovereignty, and pathways for future careers rooted in sustainability and Tribal self-determination.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience: In 2022-23, the Red Lake Nation College Extension Program (RLNCEP) primarily served Red Lake Nation citizens who are adult and community members and learners. Our college staff, faculty, students, and alumni, who are also community members, frequently attended our events as well. Overall, our 2023-2024 participants included women of all ages, and we expanded our audience to language learners and elders in the winter. Starting in the Spring of 2024, we met with Nikki Crowe from the University of Minnesota FRTEP program to start building our relationship with her and discuss what events we would like the community to see in Red Lake, MN. Since Nikki Crowe's expertise leans towards more gathering and fishing, she wanted to work with the community to go netting, but we learned that in Red Lake no one goes netting. Netting has been prohibited as part of the local walleye management plan. So we decided to work on the Strawberry Moon project. We had 27 Events with an average of 20 people participating. Our events have mostly been advertised on Facebook and Instagram. We have reached over 1,164 followers who have been adults ages 35-54 primarily who are women. Most of the audience on Facebook has been from Red Lake,MN. Changes/Problems:Since Shirley's passing, there has been a new employee from the University of Minnesota. She did a little planning with us, but it wasn't in alignment with our programming. We felt the work of added events was a major stressor for me and my new assistant Lisa Johnson. She had been hired to help the Community Connections part of the grants that we manage. She has been assisting me with planning events and executing them as well. When we wanted to plan events with Cherilyn Spears from the Red Lake Agriculture Buffalo program, Cherilyn felt that planning with us was too tumultuous of a task and that it put too much of a strain on her department and workers. We wanted to coordinate a food sovereignty project with her during September, but she was not on board with it and wanted to do her program alone. So we backed off that idea and decided that our Eco-Fest will be held next year in 2025. We decided to hold off on it because we are up for our Higher Learning Commission review in October, and the Project Director and the assistant had to write a report about our Extension department. It came at the time of the Eco Fest so we decided to cancel it What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Floyd Jourdain attended the Chemical Health Fair and Conference 2024. Tallie Large attended the annual Falcon Conference in 2023 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a 3 day conference with training and updates on the NIFA Grant. We went along with RLNC Director of Sponsored Programs and Research, Wendy Greenberg, and two student research interns. I also attended the AIHEC conference in March 2024 in Minneapolis. I was the coach for the RLNC Hand Games team. We won 3rd place for this National Conference. We had eight students participate and two coaches for the hand games. In September 2023 we were invited to attend the Fond Du Lac College's Food Sovereignty Conference. June 5th 2024 Tribal Extension Mentoring Circle. Zoom. X2 July 10 2024 Training meetings with the new Extension Coordinator from Minneapolis. July 17 2024 Training meeting with Karen DeJesus to train her in Extension. May 29th 2024 Tribal Research Partnerships: Indigenous Agroforestry, Food Security and Sovereignty. Zoom. May 7th 2024 RLNC-AND U of M Extension. Zoom. Feb 15th 2024.Continuation Paperwork Q&A Great Lakes Regional Summit 2 day conference. Food Sovereignty and Gardening workshops. April 22 Consultation on Tribal Barriers at USDA:Education & Research Bonnie Ekstrom Professional Memberships: American Psychological Association; Midwestern Psychological Association; Minnesota Psychological Association Member since 2021 APA; MPA; MNPA Workshops Webinars, Conferences Attended Aug 2020- Dec 2024 HRs Attended? Hawkes Learning Virtual Conference 10/10/24-10/11/24 Keynote: The role of AI in education: What's New With Youth and Sexuality 9/18/24 Statistics and resources presented by Jill Farris UMN Faculty Staff Inservice 8/19/24-8/20/24 HLC/AI/CLO-PLO/Eportfolio Faculty Staff Inservice 5/15/24 - 5/16/24 AI Policy; CLO/PLO Discussion/HLC UMN Law Consortium 5/1/24 Webinar Medical Dying Issues Adult Mental Health Crisis Support Tribal Program 4/11/24 Introduction to a new Tribal MH Support Program (RLNC) UMN Wellbeing Series 4/2/24 Your Brain on Art American Indian Higher Education (AIHEC) Annual Conference 3/9/24-3/10/24 AIHEC Annual Student Conference MN Association for the Treatment & Prevention of Sexual Abuse: Virtual 2/22/24 Apply Information from a Neuropsychological Evaluation for Treatment Interventions: Dr. Gerth 13 Moons Fon Du Lac Tribal College Extension 1/12/24 Food Sovereignty Workshop Community Wellness gathering: Red Lake: Dr. Michael Yellowbird 1/10/24 Knowledge of Indigenous Mindfulness How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Flyers are made for each events and hung up at all community centers, post offices, stores, Four Directions Farm, Chemical Health, Immersion Schools, Red Lake Tribe, and public schools. Through social media we email the campus and the Minneapolis College Site, and out IT department posts it to Facebook, and puts it up on the digital board. Thursdays are the informational day, we email them our flyer for announcemnts, local powwows. We have our own Facebook site that we post all our info on. We also post on our personal pages too and alot of families come to participate. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have made a tentative calendar of events for one year. Of course, we will have some pop in events here and there as some other local community programs want to coordinate with us. On September 23 we will have the Immersion school come out to the garden to harvest some fall vegetables, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and zucchini and hopefully squash. Lisa Johnson and Tallie Large are planning to attend the FALCON Conference in October 2024. We are also planning to have a Water Ceremony on Oct 21, 2024 For November, we are planning a community meeting to discuss the needs and wants from the community. We will gather data from all communities. We also will schedule a podcast with Tasha Hart from Red Lake who has been a food sovereignty advocate and wrote several books, including The Good Berry about wild rice. We will also have her do a podcast with us and invite one local elder who speaks Ojibwemowin. We also will plan a Moon Ceremony at the college in October and hope that we can do them once a month. For the Spring months we will be focusing on having some CPR and First Aid Training with the Vista workers and have it open to the community as well. We also will have some elders come out to do some storytelling during the winter months. In March we go to the annual American Indian Higher Education Consortium conference in Rapid City, South Dakota and compete in Hand Games. The community, highschools, middle schools , and elementary schools has expressed interest in helping them make a set of hand games that include making drums, rattles, and wooden sticks and paint for colors. Hand Games has been a new popular game everyone enjoys playing. For summer we will be ready to garen earlier than we did this year. We will have the tools for it and also a plan. We got behind with the new replacement soil this year and ended with a fall crop. Next year we will have plenty of garden supplies. Next year we also will plan for the ECO Fest and feel like we can give it 100% of our time and do a good job.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the fall of 2023, we held over 27 events. We started with a traditional corn grower, Jack Desjarlait, (an elder in the community) and a conventional corn processor. I had Jack Desjarlait bring corn and lend his tools to use for processing, and the John Parson's showed people how to process the corn once it was off the hulls. We processed the corn with wood ashes and John Parsons's traditional basket he made just for corn washing. Overall it was a good turn out and most have never seen corn being processed the old way. Goal 1. For this goal, we hired a band called Indigenous. We wanted to look for someone who relates to the Indigenous population in regards to speaking about historical trauma and what that meant. Most of the songs from the band Indigenous speak to the native population about family, environmental justice, and what it means to stay sober and heal from trauma and pain. The band prides themselves on sobriety and culture. They spoke to many people in the community about what it is like to come from the bottom with nothing and now that they have been successful they want to teach the youth the same ethics that was instilled into them by being taught these basic principles from their father as far as staying sober and living on a reservation. Goal II. We held an "Open Mic Night" at the college and called it "laughter is medicine" for the National Mental Health Awareness Day to address our mental health and provide healing through laughter since Native culture is a huge component of laughter in our cultures. We had 27 attendees, a good turnout. We provided popcorn and candy to everyone that came out. In February at the Chemical Health Conference, we had over 300 attendees. The conference had Ojibwe language speakers and doctors present research findings on the effects of trauma and our DNA and how that affects children and youth. There was training on Narcan, an overdose response and some tabling events from other organizations alike in the community. Goal III. We brought in John Parson from Onondaga Reservation. He lives and works in the community and has been hand-processing corn, breaking down corn with hardwood ashes that he sifts himself all winter long. He actively grows his traditional corn. The Oneida white corn is a white corn that is good for soups, and making bread. John Parsons took us through the steps of how to cook corn with ashes, and his oral stories of corn long ago. The whole process of cooking corn takes about three days if he was to go through the whole process. We did a one-day demo. It took over 8 hours. When it was done there wasn't the big crowd we intended, next time we will have to either shorten the process or extend it into the weekend. For the summer of 2024 we focused on the 13 moons, the sixth moon called the Strawberry Moon. We wanted to focus on Strawberries so we invited the University of Minnesota Extension to help with the planning. It was a great event. It was just confusing as to who was going to pay for what and who was running the show. There wasn't clear communication about delivery dates for the strawberries. Red Lake Extension department booked the venue, ordered the food, and provided baskets, dirt, and mulch, UMN paid for the strawberries, and organizer was Nikki Crow. I felt that things didn't go so smoothly and I knew that it would be less confusing if we could just do the programming on our own. For our Spring giveaway, we partnered with Miwizha (Indigenous Birthworkers) and we did some sewing with the community and helped make Feast bags, pipe bags, purses, and baby onesies for the newborns. We did this for three days and we had our Spring giveaway. Participants made one item for the giveaway and one for themselves. The Spring giveaway is a ceremony where we honor our ancestors. We catered some food from the local restaurant. We had 32 participants, the majority of them were women. For the garden, we focused our efforts on growing things like fall foods. People from the surveys wanted pumpkins, squash, and strawberries, and one wanted a salsa garden. We ended up growing squash and pumpkins that weren't quite ready yet. On the University of Minnesota Strawberry Moon Planting Day there were still two big boxes of strawberries that needed to be planted, so we gave away some to Leech Lake daycare center. We gave some to Four Directions, a program that focuses on gardens and food sovereignty. We had over 200 strawberry plants that were given to Wasaabik Headstart (the language nest), and Endazhi Charter School k-6 grade Language School. We had June-bearing Strawberries, and Alpine/Woodland Strawberries. In short, we were able to give away all the strawberries that UMN Extension bought for the program, and the community programmers were elated to grow these in their gardens. This year we had to replace the soil because we kept digging up glass and we knew that it had to be done. We hired Lawrence Herrmann to come dig up all the dirt with a plow he rented and hauled in some soil and 14 year old cow manure. With the late season we able to grow a fall crop.We grew cucumbers, squash, pumpkins,watermelons, red and white onions, tomatillos, Roma tomatoes, beef steak tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, green bell peppers, yellow banana peppers, jalapenos, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli,cilantro, parsley,rosemary, chives, oregano, mint, and basil.. We gave away some to Student Pantry and about 5 different families that wanted some cucumbers and tomatoes. When we get more squash we want to make a recipe for the elders to make squash soup, pumpkin soup, or a salsa recipe to make salsa. September the 25th is Family day for Waasaabik Immersion School. They are coming to pick salsa vegetable's so we can make salsa and have lunch. I also asked one of the staff if he could come sing some Ojibwe songs with his acoustic guitar. Goal IV. Has not been addressed yet, but the community has expressed interest in having CPR & First Aid Training. We plan to work with the Vista workers and Vickey Fineday. We had 27 Events for 2023-2024: Study SMART group Wellness: Comedy Night Midterm Wellness Massages by Jenn Study SMART Group Equay Wiigamiig Tabling Event Recipe Club-Sharing Indigenous/other recipes Study SMART Group Beltrami County Therapy Dogs Yoga with Liz Strong Hand Games Beading & Sewing Ribbon Tote Bags Corn Soup Random Acts of Kindness Day Study SMART Group w/Bonnie Ribbon Skirts w/Laurie May Wellness Massages by Jen Study SMART Group w/Bonnie Mino'ayaan (Be Well) MH Crisis Support Present Indigenous Yoga with Liz Strong Indigenous Yoga with Liz Strong Community "Relatives" Garden Planning St. Mary's Catholic School planting Strawberries.(rained we did a indoor project) Language Symposium Conference Indigenous Band Strawberry Moon Planting
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience In 2022-23, the Red Lake Nation College Extension Program (RLNCEP) primarily served Red Lake Nation citizens who are adult and community members and learners. Our college staff, faculty, students, and alumni, who are also community members, frequently attended our events as well. Overall, our 2022-2023 participants included women and mothers, and we expanded our audience to youth and elders in the winter. Starting in the Early Winter of 2023 we collaborated with Shirley Nordrum, the Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Program Educator from the University of Minnesota. We had 17 Events with an average of 20 people participating. Our events have mostly been advertised on Facebook and Instagram. We have reached over (?) followers who have been adults ages 30-60. Since October we have been posting on Facebook and Instagram and cross posting along with the Red Lake Nation College Facebook and Instagram pages. The new social media posting automatically will post for you if you decide to post anything on Instagram. Since this has happened I found it easier to post to Facebook then let it automatically post on Instagram. Our audience has been from several different Nations across america. Changes/Problems:During the beginning of the PI change starting in October 2023, the direction headed more towards what Red Lake Nation was doing already that has been popular and the surrounding communities from White Earth and Leech Lake Nation. We also started planning with Shirley Nordrum from the University of Minnesota Extension department during the winter months. Her program was called Woodland Wisdom, a FRTEP program specifically to work with Red Lake. We designed a chart that involved the 13 moons and what the Anishinaabe seasonal cycle looked like. We wanted to incorporate more traditional ecological knowledge and start a T.E.K. table and break down what it encompasses, how it looks to the community, and how we use T.E.K. in everyday life. Our first T.E.K. activity was to play snow snake games and invite the three surrounding reservations to the Red Lake Tribal College to host the Traditional Snow Snake Games. For the 3rd week of every month, I hosted the Sewing & Beading events and asked Shirley if she would like to come and talk T.E.K. with the community. Every month, she had a topic that she would share with community members about the current season: winter. During May, we lost Shirley and the programming that she was focusing on. I had about three cancellations during May because of how Shirley's passing affected all the staff, students, faculty, and community members. We have reached out to the University of Minnesota, where Shirley worked, and will hold a Zoom meeting online to connect with the staff and see where her program will go and if they still want to keep it going. Even though she is gone, we still have incorporated Shirley's work into our programming. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Bonnie Eckstrom attended and participated in the following:, the Treating Opioid Dependence 4/18/23; Academic Programs Staff Development Workshop Feb 8/10, 2023; Red Lake Human Trafficking Conference May 3, 2023. Attending relevant Counseling workshops. She reviewed an OER text following AIHEC training 10/21/22; Youth Mental Health First Aid Training Certificate (11/29/22 BIE Behavioral Health and Wellness Program); CANVA workshop 4/7/23 Attended Virtual ATD Learnere Summit 10A-4P 5/11/23. Tallie Large has attended the following conferences: American Indian Higher Education Consortium conference for the dates of 3/4/23-3/7/23, attended the staff inservice for 1/9/23-1/11/23, Canvas Catalog 11/7/22, Gifts of the Plant Nation:Rosehips 11/29/22, Star Teachings of the Anishinaabe 12/21/22 Mary Moose and sons, Intro to Growing Food Indoors 1/25/23, NIFA-USDA Monthly Tribal Meeting 2/7/23,NCRCRD Webinar: Rural Broadband Tools and Resources 3/27/23, Teach Beading & Sewing 1/19-23, 2/16/23, 3/17/23,4/28/23,5/12/23 Library Sewing Club, Canvas Professional Development Training 4/7/23, Staff Inservice 8/21/23,8/22/23. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?PI Tallie Large, who joined October 28, 2023, has been working with Shirley Nordrum and Floyd Jourdain on the Woodland Wisdom project that focuses on the 13 moon Anishinaabe moon cycle. It is a 13 month moon cycle that Ojibwe people follow. This incorporates food sovereignty, mental health, and ceremony and language. It fits well into the program and meets all goals under the grant. Using this 13 moons seasonal cycle intertwines with Traditional Ecological Knowledge into several art forms that we have under our programming and meets all areas of the goals, Strengthen Cultural sovereignty, Strengthen health sovereignty, Strengthen food sovereignty, and strengthen education and intellectual sovereignty. During this fall and next spring we will be more outdoors and active and hold classes where we can put them in the Canvas Catalog and register for the classes. For our bigger events that we collaborate with Chemical Health and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's events we would like to gather more qualitative data for these events that reach over 200 people. We would like to set up some tablets for participants so we can better keep track.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Fall 2022 we started our first event and went Food Foraging. We had bought Red Lake walleye and buffalo meat to cook with the plants that we foraged in the woods.We cooked a meal together and made some Labrador Tea. We also continued to invite community members of Red Lake Nation and college campus to participate in Winter Anishinaabe games, and community gatherings that involved work around Woodland Wisdoms, a program from the University of Minnesota that discusses Traditional Ecological Knowledge and have discussion as to what that looks like season to season in efforts to bring back some traditional knowledge of the past. We also had presenters come in to teach about sexual health, and many healing and mental health events. Events included: Food foraging Beading and Sewing every third week of the month Snowsnakes games Birchbark earring class Storytelling MMIW Chemical Health Conference Counseling services AASK or Anishinaabe Sexuality Knowledge Keepers LSSM meal giveaway Project grow harvest 4th and 5th graders Nimaamaaaki Festival Wendy's Earth Science in the healing garden Equine Therapy Massage therapy Yoga Indigenous Peoples Day March Study Group Internships Woodland Wisdom Program from University of Minnesota Student Centered Counseling Fall Mewhiza birthworkers (ceremony)Goal I. The first goal was to strengthen cultural sovereignty by expanding community knowledge of an experience with traditional culture and arts. When we held classes and events, we surveyed the attendees and asked five questions through Survey Monkey, then later switched to Google Forms. We ask fundamental questions if they learned anything new and if they would like to see more of these programs come to the RLNC Extension program. Then, we asked the community what they would like to see in the future with programming. This led to the first Anishinabe Snow Snake Games at Red Lake Nation College under Goal 1. We had Leech Lake Nation community members, White Earth Community, and Red Lake Community come out and play a series of three ways to play snow snakes. We sanded down wooden sticks and then painted them. The next day, we were told the Anishinaabe oral story and an elder told it in the Ojibwemowin language. We learned new game names, such as "Zoogiipoon" meaning "slippery snow." The right kind of thin ice to play in parking lots is probably the best on a sunny day because the heat of the parking lot's black tar and the hot sun and cold freezing temps made it perfect for throwing snow snakes to see who gets the farthest. This kind of game is the definition of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. We had 30 participants, and we got back about ten documented surveys. One question on our survey is, "Do you have any suggestions that extension could do for the community?" and one answer is, "Thanks for today's beautiful teachings. The best part was hearing a young man speaking his language". Our survey response showed us that they wanted more cultural programs on the reservation and to be able to pick others up to attend. Goal II. Our second goal was to strengthen health sovereignty by engaging the community to become active participants in processes of self -knowledge and healing through wellness and spiritual methods. was to hold the Chemical Health and Wellness conference, which brought over 200 participants. Bonnie has hosted her weekly "talks with Bonnie" to help with mental health and wellness; she also had her Coaches Corner and Study Group. We had the Mehwizha traditional birth workers come in to do some women's teachings. A ceremony was held for all who participated and were present. We encouraged men to attend these ceremonies because we know how important it is to have men present. Although the initiative was there, we had two men show up. We held surveys asking how much knowledge they knew and what they learned was new. Goal III.Strengthening food sovereignty by expanding community knowledge of an experience with traditional foods and nutrition. We started by foraging for food foraging in the local area for our Floyd Buck Jourdain secured a spot where we could forage in the bog swamps to gather cedar and labrador tea. We wanted to do this before the snow came in. In early November, we were able to get this done. We had eight participants, including two students who attended. The rest were staff, faculty, and community members. We had made our offerings, and "Buck" prayed for us. We talked about what we were seeking to do and why we wanted to do it. We gathered several plants and some pines for cooking with our meat. We also picked swamp tea or "muskeg mashkikiwaaboo" in the Ojibwe language, meaning swamp medicine tea. We brought all these items back and cooked and made teas together. We had some butternut squash that Tallie had brought in from her garden. When we all cooked together, some people told me they had never cooked with traditional foods at home, but now they realize how easy it is they would like to cook like this at home. The purpose of food foraging is that we showed them all the plants that live in a peat moss bog environment and what environmental factors this ecosystem had adapted to. Having the Snow Snakes games come to Red Lake, we received considerable interest, and more community members wondered if we would do it again with the pull of participants and the surrounding areas.
Publications
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