Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine

In Native Lights, people in Native communities around Mni Sota Mkoce - a.k.a. Minnesota - tell their stories about finding their gifts and sharing them with the community. These are stories of joy, strength, history, and change from Native people who are shaping the future and honoring those who came before them. Native Lights is also a weekly, half-hour radio program hosted by Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. Native Lights is a space for people in Native communities. Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. Online at https://minnesotanativenews.org/

Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is a society podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine, a society show with 0 episodes published.

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  Episode #184

  Ryan Dixon: Making Friends with the Dakota Language

  Sep 24, 202629 minS3

  Today, we're speaking with Ryan Dixon. Ryan is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe from Pine Ridge in South Dakota and has spent over two decades immersed in the Lower Sioux community in southern Minnesota. He trained under First Language Dakota speakers, and he now teaches Dakota. An educator and Indigenous language activist, he co-founded a Dakota Immersion Head Start programming and works to keep the language alive for future generations. Ryan grew up in Georgia, far away from the Lakota homelands, but he had access to a first language speaker in his grandmother. When he moved to the Lower Sioux community in Southern Minnesota, he was recognized as someone who knew a little language. That led to people asking him to translate and, later, to an unbelievable apprenticeship that paid him to learn and teach Dakota. He didn’t speak fluently until he was 31 and believes anyone can gain fluency in two years. But he says there’s one key ingredient that can’t be missing if a language learner wants to succeed. He also shares how he connects to the spirit of the Dakota language and what it means to become its friend. ----- Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood ----- For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradio/ instagram.com/mnnativenews/ Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

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  Episode #183

  Michael Kurtz: Tales of a Wildlife Photographer

  Sep 17, 202628 minS3

  Our guest today is a photographer who takes some stunning photos of wildlife. We're very excited to speak with Michael Kurtz (Tasunka Opi). He's Sicangu Lakota, enrolled in the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He runs Lakota Photography, blending wildlife photography, tracking, and cultural education. He's also a naturalist and has volunteered with groups like the National Park Service and Project Coyote. He has spent countless hours across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and beyond, capturing wildlife in its natural habitat. Currently, he's supervisor of programming and interpretation with Hoċokata Ṫi Cultural Center at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community. Michael's first camera was a Fisher Price kid's model, which he used to photograph toy dinosaurs. That early interest, paired with a love of the natural world, laid out his life's path as a wildlife photographer and naturalist. He gives us his photography tips, weighs in on camouflage and scenting, reveals the once-in-a-lifetime wildlife shot he still can't believe he got and explains why he's putting off photographing a wolverine till retirement. He also talks birding and attempts his favorite birdcall. ----- Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood Michael Kurtz [photo credit: Michael Kurtz] ----- For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradio/ instagram.com/mnnativenews/ Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

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  Episode #182

  Kent Estey: The Art of Survival

  Aug 27, 202629 minS3

  On this episode, we speak with contemporary artist and White Earth Nation citizen Kent Estey. Kent paints at his home studio in Naytahwaush, in the heart of the White Earth Reservation. He's known for really bold abstract landscapes, acrylic, oil, ink, and metal. He’s also an author. In 2025, he released the children's book Picking Sweetgrass. His latest exhibit, "Mino-Bimaadiziwin: The Good Life" runs through Labor Day weekend in Detroit Lakes: https://project412mn.org/Estey-The-Good-Life-Art/ . Kent shares why he believes his community is the best place to live and to make his work, and how he’s turned his rural studio into a hub of his art merchandizing. Kent tells us how his success is due in large part to Becky, his wife and partner in the business. Kent’s grandmother was a nationally recognized black ash basket maker. Before she was a well-known artist, she was an Ojibwe girl from White Earth who’d been stripped of her culture and language by boarding schools. She never again spoke Ojibwe with her family. But, she made traditional black ash baskets the rest of her life. Kent explains how those baskets became her language and how he’s kept her legacy alive in his own creations. When Kent started out, he got a great piece of advice: Don’t settle on being a starving artist. If you’re starving, you’re not doing the right work. Find out what it is and do it. ----- Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood ----- For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradio/ instagram.com/mnnativenews/ Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #181

  Rafael Gonzalez, aka, Tufawon: How a Minneapolis Rap Artist Learned How to Sing and Make a Difference

  Aug 20, 202629 minS3

  We are very excited to speak with Rafael Gonzalez, aka, Tufawon. He is a Mdewakanton Dakota and Boricua (Puerto Rican). He's a rapper, singer-songwriter, and producer who calls South Minneapolis home. In addition to his music making, he's an educator. He teaches youth music production, songwriting, and recording through his music production program ".WAVWARRIOR". Rafael joins us from Aguada, Puerto Rico, the mountainous home of his Boricua family. Puerto Rico and its musical heritage would eventually play a large role in the sounds he brought to the Minneapolis scene that gave rise to him as an artist. He talks about the support of the Minneapolis rap community when he was starting out, and how a group of Lakota and Dakota water protectors became his music mentors. He reveals his biggest fear as a performer, why he believes in the next generation of creators and why he'll never step away from music making. He also shares clips of two new tracks from his EP Gradient . ----- Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood Image: Rafael Gonzalez [photo credit: Rafael Gonzalez] Music: " Colorful " from EP Gradient (2026), written and produced by Tufawon, courtesy of Rafael Gonzalez/Tufawon. [00:00:28] " Wandering " from EP Gradient (2026), written and produced by Tufawon, courtesy of Rafael Gonzalez/Tufawon. [00:01:00] ----- For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradio instagram.com/mnnativenews facebook.com/MNNativeNews Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

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  Episode #180

  Alexandera Houchin: Life on Two Wheels

  Jul 30, 202629 minS3

  Today, we're very excited to Welcome Alexandera Houchin to the Native Lights podcast. Alexandera is a citizen of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). She resides in her reservation community in northern Minnesota. She's an ultra racer, bike packer, mountain biker, outdoor adventurer, storyteller, and writer. And she is currently working on her memoir for Penguin Random House and is the subject of a documentary. Alexandera shares her story of growing up apart from her Ojibwe roots. Her mother had been adopted and spent the first 19 years of Alexandera's life trying to track down her Native birth family. As an adult, Alexandera got her first bike to replace a car that no longer worked. But soon, she was sucked into the exciting world of bike tours and ultra endurance events, multi-day races over hundreds of miles. She tells us how the long stretches of open road helped her cultivate healing and a place for ceremony. She also opens up about how her racing career led her to become a writer and how following her passion—along with setting records in some intense, grueling races—led to a documentary project and an unexpected invitation to write a book. ----- Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo Editor: Britt Aamodt Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood ----- For the latest episode drops and updates, follow us on social media. instagram.com/ampersradio instagram.com/mnnativenews facebook.com/MNNativeNews Never miss a beat. Sign up for our email list to receive news, updates and content releases from AMPERS. ampers.org/about-ampers/staytuned/ This show is made possible by community support. Due to cuts in federal funding, the community radio you love is at risk. Your support is needed now more than ever. Donate now to power the community programs you love: ampers.org/fund

  ListenShow Notes

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