ChangeMakers

ChangeMakers is a series from MPR News showcasing Minnesotans from diverse, often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact. Whether they’re making history or making a difference for just one person, these individuals are leaders building new futures for their communities. Scroll down to meet our ChangeMakers.

November 19, 2020 5:00 AM

ChangeMakers: Brenda and Benay Child, channeling Ojibwe pride from one generation to the next

University of Minnesota history professor Brenda Child says her mother taught her to be proud of her Red Lake Ojibwe heritage, something she strives to pass on to her two children. Daughter Benay Child, 20, is taking that love of Ojibwe stories and language to create art and better connect with her ancestors.

by Christine T. Nguyen

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November 18, 2020 5:49 AM

ChangeMakers: Marlena Myles, educating through art and innovation

Marlena Myles is a self-taught professional artist. Her art leverages technology to create immersive interaction that engages and educates people about the language, history and spirituality of her tribe, the Dakota people.

by Kathryn Styer Martinez

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November 16, 2020 5:00 AM

ChangeMakers: LeAnn Littlewolf, economic development rooted in culture

LeAnn Littlewolf, 47, is the economic development director at the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) in Duluth, Minn. She sees her work at AICHO as her cultural values in action. “All of the answers are in our culture, the path forward is in our origin story. We do economic development but we do it in an Indigenous way,” she said.

by Jaida Grey Eagle

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November 13, 2020 3:00 PM

ChangeMakers: Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor

Peggy Flanagan, 41, is the first Indigenous person elected to executive office in Minnesota’s 162-year history. She started her political career in 2004, being elected to the Minneapolis School Board, before becoming a state representative and sharing a ticket with Gov. Tim Walz in 2018.

by Evan Frost

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November 12, 2020 5:00 AM

ChangeMaker: Maggie Lorenz, preserving cultural heritage through land conservation

Maggie Lorenz, 37, is the head of Lower Phalen Creek Project and the director of the Wakan Tipi Center. She hopes that future generations will have access to “places like Wakan Tipi Center where they can come together with community and fully be themselves as Dakota and Anishinaabe people in Minnesota.”

by Christine T. Nguyen

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November 11, 2020 5:00 AM

ChangeMakers: Sean Sherman, teaching Indigenous food traditions as cultural preservation

Sean Sherman, 46, founder of the Sioux Chef and Indigenous Food Lab is working to teach Indigenous people about ancestral food traditions. Sherman’s approach to education incorporates foraging, ancestral recipes and business training, in hopes that someday soon, there will be more people creating Native cuisine in Minnesota.

by Kathryn Styer Martinez

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November 9, 2020 10:30 AM

ChangeMakers: Vanessa GoodThunder, revitalizing the Dakota language

Vanessa GoodThunder, 26, is the director of the C̣aƞṡayapi Waḳaƞyeża Owayawa Oṭi, the Lower Sioux Early Head Start and Head Start Dakota language immersion program in Morton, Minn. She is from the Lower Sioux Indian Community, a Dakota community in Southwest Minnesota described as "where they paint the trees red."

by Jaida Grey Eagle

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November 6, 2020 11:30 AM

ChangeMakers: David Glass challenges appropriation of Native imagery, culture in sports

David Glass, 69, has been fighting for the dignity and rights of Indigenous communities for decades. He has been working with the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media for more than 30 years to lobby sports teams to drop racist and offensive names and to stop using depictions of Indigenous people as mascots.

by Kathryn Styer Martinez

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November 2, 2020 5:49 AM

ChangeMakers: Nicole Matthews, ending sexual violence is ‘part of my purpose’

Nicole Matthews, 48, is the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, a statewide tribal coalition working to end sexual violence against Indigenous women and children. Matthews said many of her female relatives have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault. She experienced sexual violence. And so advocating for sexual assault victims in the Native American community is personal.

by Christine T. Nguyen

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November 2, 2020 4:00 AM

ChangeMakers: Indigenous Minnesotans making history

Native American Heritage Month celebrates and honors the culture and heritage of Native Americans through time. This November, MPR News introduces you to Indigenous Minnesotans who are making history right now across the state. Each will discuss what being Indigenous in Minnesota means to them, a bit about their background and their hopes for the future.

by Evan Frost, Kathryn Styer Martinez, Jaida Grey Eagle and Christine T. Nguyen

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