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Native-led nonprofit receives support for critical state funds
Waḳaŋ Ṭípi Awaŋyaŋkapi says it would use the nearly $700,000 on educational programming and land preservation.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Since the ’50s, the Pioneer Press has hosted a treasure hunt as part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
This year, they chose to hide a medallion in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, a city owned park.
That didn’t go over well with Waḳaŋ Ṭípi Awaŋyaŋkapi, a Native-led nonprofit that cares for the park, and the newspaper vowed the nature sanctuary would be off limits in the future.
Right now, the park is temporarily closed as crews work to replace the Kellogg-3rd Street bridge. It’s set to reopen Sept. 9.
And that’s not all that’s under construction.
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary lies between I-94 and the Mississippi River and is not far from the busy streets of downtown St. Paul.
“It’s really amazing just seeing how beautiful the site can be from year-to-year or even month-to-month,” Waḳaŋ Ṭípi Awaŋyaŋkapi Environmental Restoration Manager Gabby Menomin said.
Menomin says it wasn’t always so beautiful, when railroad and other industrial developments nearly destroyed it.
“It had been an unofficial city dump,” she recalled. “[It] was full of a lot of invasive species.”
But Menomin says the habitat has already improved since 2020 when the nonprofit’s restoration work began.
“We’ve really seen an increase in biodiversity, a lot more wildlife and migratory birds especially coming back,” she said. “A really cool story actually, we had a mating pair of killdeer birds that had been down there for a couple of years and last year they had their first batch of chicks.”
Menomin explained why the land is sacred.
“At the back of the sanctuary is the Waḳaŋ Ṭípi cave,” she said. “Its name itself, Waḳaŋ Ṭípi, kind of loosely translates to ‘something sacred lives there,’ and so in the past, before the railroad had kind of destroyed the inside of the cave, there had been pictographs on the inside of the cave really depicting that this area, and that cave, was a very important cultural place … The sacred site is still being used for ceremony purposes for some of the neighboring Dakota tribes as well .”
She says the cave is historically connected to Indian Mounds Park, where there are burial mounds on the bluffs above the cave.
But not everyone has treated the land respectfully, she said, referring to this past January when individuals went digging for a medallion there as part of the annual Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt – as well as daily recreational activities taking place.
“Currently it’s designated as a park,” Menomin said. “Should it be considered a park in the future? We’ve just been having a lot of these internal conversations, conversations with the city as well that, you know, think about how do we want to educate people on how to treat the site?”
In May, Waḳaŋ Ṭípi Awaŋyaŋkapi and the city broke ground on a cultural and environmental interpretive center. The new Waḳaŋ Ṭípi center is set to open next summer.
They may be getting more support to educate the public now that the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources has recommended the nonprofit receive 3 years of state funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
“Yeah, so it’s not official that we are receiving the funding,” Menomin explained. “The funding will become official after [the 2025] legislative session where then the governor will sign it into law.”
According to the press release, LCCMR will meet this winter to finalize the recommendations. The commission initially received 214 proposals requesting approximately $183 million total, and some of the groups behind them were later invited to provide a presentation for further consideration.
Ultimately, 125 projects received a recommendation to the Legislature for some portion of the approximately $103 million available. Waḳaŋ Ṭípi could receive $669,000 of those funds.
“It’s gonna really help us kind of step into this co-management agreement with the city of Saint Paul … about how our organization can take on a stronger leadership role,” Menomin said.
The additional dollars would also allow for more educational programming.
“The Bioblitz, which is a citizen science where people are able to come out to the site once a year and learn from our environmental partners and professionals that we invite, and we try to identify as many different species at this site as possible,” she said. “A lot of great environmental projects [are] happening in Minnesota, a lot of great environmental education as well. It’s really exciting.”
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
The organizations say many Asian Americans are planning to vote despite lack of candidate outreach.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Most people have been contacted in some way shape or form by a campaign in the last few weeks. And if the polls are right and the race for president is a dead heat, every vote will matter.
That’s why this is a head scratcher:
According to a September 2024 voter survey by Asian American Pacific Islander Data, 27% of Asian-American voters said they hadn’t been contacted by either political party trying to get their vote. Last spring, earlier in the voting season, it was even more – 42%.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group nationwide.
Their voter participation levels are growing too, with 60% of eligible Asian-American voters turning out in 2020. And AAPI Data reports as many as 90% of Asian Americans they surveyed said they plan to vote this cycle.
“Candidates are not reaching out to Asian Americans, which is a huge mistake,” said ThaoMee Xiong, executive and networking director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders.
She says even though there are more than 200,000 eligible Asian voters in Minnesota, the Asian vote is under-appreciated.
“Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have been reaching out in huge numbers,” Xiong said. “They’re sending general mailers to everyone but … they need it in their native language.”
That’s why CAAL is partnering with two more organizations to keep voter turnout high and reach anyone candidates or advocates missed.
Xor Xiong is from Asian American Organizing Project, which focuses on engaging metro-area teens and young adults.
“Many of our communities are still facing barriers to go to vote,” he said. “There’s been more times than I like to admit in terms of when I was having a conversation over the phones of voters being surprised that they can take time off to go and vote, or they can bring the kids to the polling locations, or they can even bring someone to translate for them.”
“In Ramsey County, because of the large Hmong American population there, the polls in Ramsey County are federally required to provide interpreters and translated materials,” ThaoMee added.
Their nonpartisan campaign, Get Out the Vote for Asian Minnesotans, aims to get people registered and well-informed.
“Throughout Covid, there was a lot of anti-hate around the AAPI community and we are still feeling the impact of that to this day,” said Amanda Xiong, a community organizer with a group known as CAPI USA. “Even if folks are afraid to go to the polls, due to that, we try our best to then educate them around absentee ballots, voting early.”
“And so yes, there is a huge increase in terms of voter turnout, but then why is it still 70% feel as though they don’t belong?”
In 2021, the FBI reported a 168% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes.
In Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, the groups knocked on at least 700 doors in one session alone while keeping safety top of mind.
“We make sure that there’s a car following all the door knockers,” ThaoMee said. “We put everyone on text chain … and we are putting a lot of precautionary measures in place for the day of voting.”
After the election, the CAAL plans to conduct surveys and send the results to county election officials. They’ve done this before and say it led to policy changes this year at the legislature including measures to ensure people have easier access to interpreters.
