Star Tribune
Tribal group angered Pioneer Press hid medallion on St. Paul land considered sacred
Members of a Native American nonprofit in St. Paul say they feel disrespected by the city’s daily newspaper for hiding its annual Treasure Hunt medallion in a nature sanctuary east of downtown that the group manages and considers sacred land.
“I hate to make the comparison, but it’s like basically digging around in a church,” said Jenna Grey Eagle, an environmental justice and stewardship programs manager for the nonprofit, Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi. “It’s strictly just disrespect.”
The Pioneer Press has held its annual Treasure Hunt since the 1950s, connected to the city’s longstanding Winter Carnival. Organizers select a park and hide the medallion, typically burying it in the snow. This year they hid the medallion in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, which contains Wakan Tipi Cave.
Lori Swanson, a marketing consultant who directs the Treasure Hunt, said in a follow-up Pioneer Press article that the sanctuary will be off-limits for future hunts.
“We respect history, culture and everybody who cares about it, and we take concerns about the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt seriously,” Swanson said.
Pioneer Press Editor Mike Burbach declined to comment on the controversy when reached by phone Monday afternoon.
Andy Rodriguez, St. Paul’s Parks and Recreation director, said in a statement that the location picked for the medallion to be hidden is “not in alignment with our valued partnership with Wakan Tipi.”
He added that while the parks department is supportive of the annual event, the city is not told of the medallion location in advance.
The cave’s name, Wakan Tipi, means “Dwelling place of the sacred.” It sits below a number of Dakota ancestral burial mounds on a bluff.
Two brothers found the medallion midday on Saturday, encased in a clear plastic pyramid, inside a small plastic box. This is the first time the medallion has been hidden at Bruce Vento. The sanctuary is named in honor of a former St. Paul congressman.
The winners got the full $10,000 award for finding the medallion, which was hidden on a patch of land between the two most southeasterly ponds in the park, according to an article in the Pioneer Press.
The medallion was not located next to the sacred cave, which is gated off. But Grey Eagle and others said it was still disrespectful.
“Just because they started calling it a park and treating it as a park, people don’t realize this is a resting place for people and should be treated with respect,” said Strong Buffalo, who runs the Indigenous nonprofit Oyate Hotanin.
Gabby Menomin,the restoration manager for Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi, said it was “really disappointing” when she found out about the sanctuary’s selection for the treasure hunt.
“It really came as a surprise to all of us,” she said.
Menomin also was critical of the selection from an environmental standpoint, noting that the nonprofit has been working on habitat restoration efforts there.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
