Details

Storyteller: Ashlee
Tribe: Red Lake Band of Ojibwe
Created: 2018
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Transcript: In Fall 2009, after graduating high school, I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota to attend Hamline University. It was my first time living away from home which was now four hours away. I was nervous to begin my journey in a much larger city. During my four years at Hamline, I realized how little people knew about Native people and their cultures. I often felt invisible or stereotyped. There were no classes offered on campus that taught Indigenous history or culture. During my freshman year, I met two other Native students that were also attending college at Hamline. We joined forces to create a student organization titled Hamline’s Indigenous People’s Society.  Our work on campus was to create an Indigenous space for ourselves and educate the larger audience. Often we organized our work on campus to be extremely visible almost as a way to counteract how invisible we felt. After graduating college, I sought to be more active in the Native community within the Twin Cities. I got a job as the Program Director for the Little Earth Boys and Girls Club in South Minneapolis. Little Earth is the only urban housing project that has a Native preference in the United States. It has a deep history in the American Indian Movement and represents over 38 different tribal affiliations. Little Earth taught me a lot about history, language, and tradition. It was the first place that I experienced both an asemaa ceremony and a full moon ceremony. I felt empowered and even more connected to the community and my own culture. It gave me a sense of pride and I began to realize how important it was to teach our young people their culture, language, and tradition. During my time as a program director, I connected with community partners to bring Ojibwe language and drum making to our youth. I believe the most powerful tool we can use to begin to heal our communities is to empower our people through tradition and cultural teachings.