After Monday’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations, Minneapolis is preparing for Saturday’s Owámni Falling Water Festival, a showcase of Indigenous culture, food and art.
This Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Owámni Falling Water Festival will be hosted at Mill Ruins Park and Father Hennepin Bluffs Park, said Carrie Day-Aspinwall, the first-ever Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board liaison, who is opening the celebration.
The free festival features Indigenous-owned food vendors, arts and crafts vendors, performers and games. Day-Aspinwall said she is excited for it all — the vendors, the entertainment, and the overall extension of indigenous gifts and knowledge.
“Each and every one of us has a certain gift, whether it’s to tell a story or sing a song or dance or sew or whatever it is,” Day-Aspinwall said. “We are here to serve a purpose, and part of that is sharing our gifts.”
Day-Aspinwall assumed her position as Indigenous liaison for the MPRB around three years ago, and since then has assisted in a variety of projects. She said her Ojibwe name is Amik, meaning beaver — bridging gaps and building is in her nature.
“My purpose is to show what can be done when we cross the river,” Day-Aspinwall said. “I found a lot of purpose there and in the ability to be able to share my culture to a group of receptive people.”
Bringing ancestral and cultural knowledge to the MPRB puts our shared humanity at the forefront and leads to the betterment of all people and land, Day-Aspinwall added. She said the land is never treated transactionally in Indigenous culture, traditional methods ensure a healthy life for animals and plants.
Minnesota stems from the Dakota word meaning “cloudy water” or “sky-tinted water,” and for thousands of years, the Dakota and Anishinaabe people have called the land, now known as Minnesota, home.
“The land, the ability to touch the land and feel the water run through your fingers,” Day-Aspinwall said. “That’s who we are. That’s how we are able to survive.”
Day-Aspinwall added that we are all connected to the land because it is what gives every living thing life. Beyond the efforts of the MPRB, she said there are still gaps in the understanding of Indigenous culture that need to be dispelled.
“There are people who definitely are still very unaware of who we are,” Day-Aspinwall said. “We always take that opportunity to try and teach and learn and bring people in and welcome them.”
Memegwesi Sutherland, Minneapolis American Indian Center Language Coordinator and Instructor, said Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a time to gather and celebrate Indigenous culture and bring awareness to language and cultural vitalization.
Sutherland said his life’s purpose is teaching the Ojibwe language and giving people back a part of their Indigenous identity that was lost through forced assimilation policies.
The U.S. federal government enacted the Code of Indian Offenses in 1883. Indigenous practices, spirituality and languages became grounds for criminal prosecution, and years of forced assimilation followed.
The CIO remained in place until 1978 when the Religious Freedom Act was signed, which protects religious freedom.
Indigenous children were forced to leave their families and attend boarding schools where they were subjected to abuse and, at times, killed.
Indigenous people were also sent to Hiawatha Insane Asylum for practicing their cultures, according to Sutherland.
Today, historic trauma and continuing systemic oppression still make it hard for Indigenous people to connect to their cultures and languages, Sutherland said.
Megan Red Shirt-Shaw, director of Native Student Services at the University of South Dakota, said Indigenous excellence can be found every day.
Shirt-Shaw spoke at the annual Indigenous Peoples Day summit on Monday at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. The event was led and advocated for by MCTC American Indian Success Program Coordinator Aubrey Hendrixson, who did a fantastic job, according to Shirt-Shaw.
“Indigenous Peoples’ Day is every day,” Shirt-Shaw said. “I hope Indigenous Peoples’ Day continues to serve as a reminder for the state and the rest of the country that we’re still here, we’re still excellent, we’re thriving.”
Shirt-Shaw said it is vital to acknowledge the contributions Indigenous people have made and continue to make.
MAIC hosted a powwow on Monday featuring Indigenous vendors, art and dancing.
Sutherland said being at a powwow and surrounded by Indigenous culture is a source of major pride.
“When you turn on the TV, open a magazine, or go for a drive and see billboards, you see someone else’s culture, someone else’s language,“ Sutherland said. “When you go to a powwow, it’s your people, your culture.”
Through the MAIC Culture Language Arts Network, the center is working to provide opportunities to bring Indigenous cultures and language back, according to Sutherland. He said more effort toward supporting and learning from Indigenous communities would help make cultural connections more accessible.
Sutherland said interest is high, with over 1000 people registering for an online Ojibwe language class at MAIC during the pandemic. He added that all Ojibwe and Dakota language classes taught at MAIC are free, but other organizations cannot offer all free classes.
Indigenous communities receive only 0.4% on average of all philanthropic funding from large U.S. foundations, according to Candid and Native Americans in Philanthropy.
Sutherland said Indigenous organizations are all reaching for the same small set of competitive grants.
“There was this massive effort to take our language culture away. Why can’t this massive effort come back to us to help bring back our language and culture?” Sutherland said.
Sutherland added that people need to understand how U.S. policies and boarding schools still influence many struggles of Indigenous people.
“Try to be more kind, caring, forgiving of us and just be more helpful,” Sutherland said. “Just remember too that Native people, we are the original inhabitants of this land.”
