Ojibwe & Dakota: Protecting Minnesota’s vanishing first languages

from News Day by Mary Turck

Growing up on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, Michelle Goose listened to aunts and uncles and her father, who spoke Ojibwe “enough to spark my interest in it.” Today, she has a degree in American Indian Studies with an emphasis on Ojibwe language from the University of Minnesota, and she is a passionate advocate for the revitalization of language.

Dessa sits down for candid chat about Doomtree, poetry and breathing underwater

from RedCurrent by Sarah Staley-Ayre

Words are everything for the woman most know simply as Dessa—the sole female artist in the Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree. Last month the group released “All Hands,” a slightly schizophrenic, genre-spanning collaborative work between the seven artists.

History in horticulture: The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

from Squeaky Green Machine by Heidi Van Heel

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is the Upper Midwest’s largest public garden and is open 363 days a year. Part of the University of Minnesota, the earliest grounds were established in 1907 as the Horticultural Research Center. They developed cold-hardy crops and we have them to thank for our beloved Honeycrisp apples (among many other plants).

Forty-nine years of serving others at Faribault Lions Club Super Bowl pancake breakfast

from Minnesota Prairie Roots by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

…Bob welcomed my questions, allowed me to take photos. And although I didn’t get the precise recipe, I have a pretty good idea now what goes into these tasty pancakes. Eggs. Oil. Water or milk (sorry, I can’t recall which). And, the secret ingredient—cake donut mix, as in a pre-mixed combination of flour, sugar, salt, whey and more used in making cake donuts. The cake donut mix adds a touch of sweetness to the pancakes, Bob says.

The Loppet

from Macaroni by John Toren

The Loppet is a fabulous festival that takes place every winter at Theodore Wirth Park—depending on the weather. The events include several high-class cross-country ski races, a dogsled race, some ski joering, and a fat tire bike race across the frozen lakes.

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