I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Oct. 20, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
RED LAKE -- The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council pledged its support Tuesday to Bemidji State University's effort to build an American Indian Resource Center on its campus.
The action was taken by the affairs council during the group's quarterly meeting held at the Red Lake Reservation's tribal headquarters in the village of Red Lake. The MIAC is a state funded group comprised of the chairs of Minnesota's 11 Indian tribes and charged with the role of serving as a liaison body to the state Legislature and the governor's office.
BSU announced last week it is seeking to build a $2.6 million American Indian Resource Center just south of the Bangsberg Find Arts Complex on the southern end of the campus.
The project was was well accepted by the seven members of the affairs council present, but Upper Sioux Reservation Chairman Dallas Ross said he was concerned that the center portray the history of northern Minnesota's Indians accurately -- including the fact that the Ojibwe haven't been the only Indian people to inhabit this region.
Prior to lending his support, he said, he wanted to know that it would be taught that the Sioux, or Lakota Indians, and even the Cheyenne have inhabited this area as well as the Ojibwe now here.
"It seems the only time the Lakota people are remembered up here," he said, "are when they are dug up out of the ground."
BSU Vice President for University Advancement Dave Tiffany assured the council that there would be room for historical projects concerning the history of this region and even the history of Indians in a five-state region.
BSU's Director of American Indian Programs and Services Lenee Ross added that the school already has one Indian history course that covers all Indians, not just the Ojibwe who currently occupy northern Minnesota.
Red Lake Tribal Chairman, and also MIAC Chairman, Bobby Whitefeather lauded the state for offering $1.1 million in matching funds to build the facility. In fact, Whitefeather was so impressed with the project, he agreed to be a co-chair -- along with BSU President Jim Bensen -- of the project's capital campaign.
He said the project was important because an Indian center has the opportunity to teach BSU's diverse student population a lot about Indian culture and history.
He added that last week, the Red Lake Tribal Council voted to donate $50,000 to the project. White Earth Tribal Chairman John Buckanaga and Leech Lake Tribal Chairman Eli Hunt said their council's were considering similar requests.
"The idea is not only to serve Indian students at BSU," Tiffany said, "but really it is a resource for individuals who are working for tribal governments."
BSU's proposed center would be three stories and 13,000 square feet. Almost half of the funding would come a state matching grant which triggers when BSU raises $500,000 and totals $1.1 million in total if BSU can raise that much.
Tiffany said the school would like to raise an additional $400,000 to enhance the school's Indian studies, to expand the Ojibwe language minor into a major and for training for Minnesota's Indian leaders.
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