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North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live is a daily, five-minute newscast that shines a spotlight on the stories and perspectives of Minnesota’s diverse communities, including Black, Latine, Asian American, East African individuals, people living with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ residents, laborers, veterans, and those from Greater Minnesota.
HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories - voices from where we live - a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: Today, how Minnesota is falling behind in affordable housing, followed by how indigenous people in Minnesota are using traditional ecological knowledge to access local, sustainable food. And, we end with the grandparent phone scam targeting elderly Minnesotans. I’m Gracie J.
ANCHOR: Minnesota is falling behind in affordable housing. According to the Minnesota housing project, which seeks to finance and support housing for low- to moderate-income Minnesotans, the state lacks adequate housing stock for this population by at least 114,000 homes. The crunch is felt in rural areas where a large percentage of Minnesotans spend an estimated 30 percent of monthly income on rent. On March 5, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed an affordable housing package that would clear up some of the red tape that slows down construction and leads to more townhomes and duplexes being built.
ANCHOR: Next, reporter Deanna StandingCloud shares how indigenous people in Minnesota are using traditional ecological knowledge to access local, sustainable food sources and combat food insecurity.
Deanna StandingCloud: The push for Minnesotans to access local and sustainable food sources is becoming more vital in our current economic environment as food prices continue to rise. According to a 2024 survey conducted by Second Harvest Heartland and Wilder Research, one in five households in Minnesota faces food insecurity.
Nicole Kneeland: That food sovereignty piece is really, really big, but it does take time and consistency to change palettes to those healthier, more natural, traditional foods. But it is so worth it.
Deanna StandingCloud: Nicole Kneeland is a tribal citizen of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe and works with young mothers in a language immersion program on the Fond du Lac Ojibwe reservation and food is a big part of their work.
Nicole Kneeland: And also we just know the quality of the food is just not really the best anymore that we’re putting into our bodies.
Deanna StandingCloud: The Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous People in Minnesota offers insight into sustainable and environmentally conscious strategies for food security. Sugarbush is one example. Nicole Kneeland harvests maple sap with her two daughters in their neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota.
[sound: A blazing fire]
Deanna StandingCloud: The glow of hot wood burns under three large kettles filled with sap from nearby trees. This is the scientific process of rendering the maple sugar by Indigenous people of the region long before maple-flavored syrup was sold in grocery stores.
Nicole Kneeland: For me, we're kind of, in a sense, reclaiming for our family, reclaiming this activity for our family as woodland people, to also have that really intimate relationship with other living beings. Also, that acknowledges that they are intellectual living beings, and so, we’re also building those relationships.
[Sound: liquid pouring into a bucket]
Deanna StandingCloud: Maple sugar provides a spectrum of vitamins and minerals in comparison to refined white sugars. Maple trees have been honored for their sap that flows in the springtime for centuries. The tradition continues to this day.
Nicole Kneeland: And you can visualize, like our ancestors, doing that, having the babies there all the way through the elders -- everybody’s there. Another piece of it too is it really brings our little family together.
Gloria Iacono: We have been doing urban maple sugaring for about a month. And this came about because our food sovereignty work is all geared toward helping Indigenous people reconnect with traditional foods and traditional life ways and medicines within an urban setting.
Deanna StandingCloud: Even in urban areas like the Twin Cities, food justice advocates like Gloria Iacono, who is the Four Sisters Food Sovereignty Manager for the Native American Community Development Institute, are also collecting sap right in Minneapolis. For many Minnesotans like Gloria and Nicole, food sovereignty is more than just access to food, but a connection to the natural world. For North Star Stories, I’m Deanna StandingCloud.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories. A new scam is making the rounds. In February, elderly Minnesotans were contacted by phone and told that a grandson was either in an accident or had been put in jail. The caller said that money was needed immediately to help the grandson. Authorities say that what sets this “grandparent scam” apart from other recent scams is that the caller requests to meet in person to collect the cash. This way, the money can’t be tracked digitally. Families are asked to share this information with elderly relatives and to report suspicious calls to the police.
HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS - Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities - with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS dot ORG.