© 2024 The Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation (WDSE)

The North 103.3 FM is licensed to The Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation (WDSE)
Locally Curated. Community Owned.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Journey to Wellness // Monday 8:00amA 10-minute bi-weekly program on Native American Community Health in MN and around the country in partnership with the University of Minnesota Medical School- Duluth Campus, Center of American Indian and Minority Health. The program will feature interviews with medical and health researchers, professors, and doctors plus native people active in Native American health today. Journey to Wellness on The North 103.3 is made possible by Ampers and the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Journey to Wellness in Indian Country

A photo of graduates of the Carlisle Boarding School, all Native Americans. The caption says "Educating the Indian Race. Graduating Class of Carlisle, PA.
Photographer unknown/edits Lisa Johnson
/
Wikimedia
A photo of graduates of the Carlisle Boarding School, all Native Americans. The caption says "Educating the Indian Race. Graduating Class of Carlisle, PA.

"Once you know something, it's your obligation to do something"

In the 19th century, the American government decided the most efficient way to rid itself of Native American culture - and Native Americans - was to round up the children and send them off to residential schools.

The repercussions of those decisions are felt every day in Native communities and by Native people.

Tadd Johnson is the University of Minnesota’s first Senior Director of American Indian Tribal Nations Relations and Director of the Tribal Sovereignty Institute. He says anytime a group of Native folks are in a room and he asks whose life has been affected by the boarding schools, almost all hands go up.

Rebecca St. George, Duluth's City Attorney, said every time a group of Native women are in a room, and someone asks whose life has been affected by violence against Native women, hands go up.

While the solutions to much of what Senator Mary Kunesh calls "resounding pain" remain with tribal communities themselves, there is an important role for non-Native people, allies or not: take a critical look at what you've been taught - and what you haven't been taught - and do the work to educate yourself.

Lisa Johnson has been a broadcast journalist for 41 years ... and a radio announcer for a teensy bit longer.
Related Content