Tiwahe Foundation

10/11/2026

This Indigenous Peoples Day, join us in listening to an important conversation about the strength, leadership, and future of Native communities in Minnesota.

Tomorrow, Monday, October 12, at 9:00 a.m. CT, Tiwahe Foundation Executive Director Nikki Love will join Amber Annis, Executive Director of Native Governance Center and Board Chair of the Tiwahe Foundation, on MPR News with Angela Davis.

Together, they will discuss how Native communities are thriving, the challenges they continue to face, and what the future holds for the next generation.

We are proud to see Native leadership represented in this important conversation and grateful for the opportunity to highlight the work, resilience, and contributions of Native communities across Minnesota.

Tune in tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.!

Listen live: https://www.mprnews.org/listen

Read more about the broadcast: https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2026/10/12/indigenous-peoples-day-voices-from-minnesotas-native-communities



https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2026/10/12/indigenous-peoples-day-voices-from-minnesotas-native-communities

Coming at 9 a.m. on Indigenous Peoples Day, MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about the opportunities and challenges for Native communities across Minnesota. What’s going well? What challenges remain? And what does the future look like for the next generation?

10/10/2026

🍂 October with OLN | Apply Cultural Learning to Families, Communities, and Work

This month, our 2026 OLN Cohort continues putting cultural learning, values, and teachings into action, strengthening reciprocal relationships and embodying what it means to be Good Relatives in Action.

Through OLN, we help leaders develop the capacity to reflect on and take responsibility for their choices, recognizing how leadership shapes our relationships with ourselves and others.

🌿 As OLN leadership and network members, our shared responsibility is the quality and integrity of the leadership process, nurturing opportunities for learning, connection, and growth.

Leadership is a lifelong practice, not a pursuit of perfection. Meaningful change takes time, intention, and care. We grow through practice, and we do this together.

10/09/2026

Indigenous Peoples Day — Monday, October 12, 2026

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day throughout the Twin Cities! Join community gatherings, ceremonies, cultural events, and celebrations honoring Indigenous peoples, culture, and community.

7:00 AM — Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Ceremony
Thomas Beach at Bde Maka Ska, 3740 W Bde Maka Ska Parkway, Minneapolis
Gather at 7:00 AM, ceremony at 7:15 AM, sunrise at 7:25 AM. Ceremony led by Chaske Henry. Warm refreshments will be available.

10:00 AM — Ȟaȟá Wakpádaŋ Water Blessing
Westwood Hills Nature Center, 8300 W Franklin Ave, St. Louis Park
Join the Fourth Annual Water Blessing, followed by arts activities and education tables. Free, family-friendly, accessible, and rain or shine.

10:00 AM–2:00 PM — Indigenous Peoples Day Gathering
Battle Creek Regional Park, St. Paul
Featuring a water blessing, Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble, Native Youth College Fair, Native Excellence Panel, vendors, food trucks, and a candle-making workshop.

11:00 AM–2:00 PM — We Are All Relatives
American Indian Magnet School, 1075 3rd St E, St. Paul
Community gathering featuring a feast and honoring Diana Johnson, Lisa Bellanger, and Kerry Rosebear-Channer.

10:00 AM–5:00 PM — Weisman Art Museum
333 E River Road, Minneapolis
Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day at WAM with special museum hours from 10:00 AM–5:00 PM. Explore Merciless: Indigenous Lands Since 1776 and enjoy free guided tours of the exhibition from 12:00–4:30 PM.
You can also join Convening: Relational Futures, beginning at 6:00 PM with a keynote address by Dr. Heather Ahtone, followed by a reception at WAM. A limited number of $25 access tickets are still available.

4:00–7:00 PM — Indigenous Peoples Day Powwow
Minneapolis American Indian Center, 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis
Doors open at 3:00 PM with Grand Entry at 4:00 PM. Come enjoy dancing, drumming, and community.

6:00–8:00 PM — Guthrie Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration
Guthrie Theater, Dowling Studio, 818 S 2nd St, Minneapolis
Enjoy poetry, songs, and sketches by local Native artists, along with light bites and a pop-up market. RSVP required.

There are so many ways to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day this year. Come out, connect, learn, support Native artists and businesses, and celebrate Indigenous community!

We are still here. We are still thriving. We are still celebrating.

10/08/2026

Indigenous People's Day Weekend - Native American Food Truck Festival 2026

Join us this weekend for the Native American Food Truck Festival 2026 as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day and honor Indigenous food, culture, community, and entrepreneurship!

The festival will take place Saturday, October 10 through Monday, October 12, 2026, with three days of delicious food, community connection, and celebration.

Festival Dates:
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Monday, October 12, 2026 — Indigenous Peoples Day

Time:
11:00 AM–8:00 PM each day
Vendor setup begins at 10:00 AM
Breakdown begins at 8:00 PM

Saturday Location:
Battle Creek Recreation Center
75 Winthrop St S
St. Paul, MN 55119

Sunday & Monday Location:
Battle Creek Regional Park
2300 Upper Afton Rd
Maplewood, MN 55119

Parking:
Free parking is available in the lots adjacent to the Recreation Center and Regional Park.

Come out, bring your family and friends, support Native food vendors and entrepreneurs, and celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day with our community!

October 10–12, 2026 | 11 AM–8 PM

10/02/2026

Help us celebrate Tony Drews and FIVE incredible years with the Tiwahe Foundation!

As the American Indian Family Empowerment Program (AIFEP) Manager, Tony has spent the past five years helping Native families, communities, and visionaries turn their ideas into meaningful action. His work is rooted in connection, empowerment, reciprocity, and a deep commitment to supporting Indigenous-led change.

Over the past five years, Tony has helped grow AIFEP’s annual investment in Native families fourfold — to more than $250,000 each year supporting approximately 100 families. Last year, he also added grants for Native Youth.

But Tony’s impact can’t be measured by dollars alone.

He has helped transform the way Tiwahe invests in community — moving beyond traditional grant-making toward collective visioning, reciprocal generosity, and being good relatives. Tony has driven throughout the metro to connect with relatives who may have never applied for a grant before, helping them see that investing in one another is part of how we build stronger, more connected communities.

And the impact of that work comes through in the stories families share. In AIFEP grant reports, people rarely focus on the money. Instead, they talk about what it meant to have an institution believe in them when they needed it most.

For many, Tony has been that person.

One AIFEP recipient shared:

“The support of this grant helped me be that support for someone else.”

That spirit of generosity is at the heart of Tony’s vision for AIFEP. His leadership has helped Tiwahe move from simply making grants to actively resourcing and facilitating Native self-determination within our community.

Tony, we are grateful for the knowledge, care, humor, energy, and heart you bring to Tiwahe every day. Thank you for five years of showing what it means to invest in community, believe in our relatives, and create a circle of generosity that continues to grow.

Congratulations on FIVE years, Tony!

We are so grateful to have you as part of the Tiwahe family and look forward to all that is still ahead.

Happy 5-Year Anniversary, Tony!

10/01/2026

We were honored to spend the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools with and the team behind the great documentary Medicine Ball. Sydney Beane (Flandreau Santee Sioux Dakota) shared that the boarding schools tried to tear us apart, but "we kept finding ways to come back together." The film and today's gathering showed how we are still finding ways to come back together for healing across generations.

Dr. Ramona Klein (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), boarding school survivor and new author, shared that "participation helps heal." That work takes so many forms: listening, sharing, laughing together, or leading like our own Baswewe Gayle, who visits her son's school every Sept. 30 to share boarding school history with his class. Because this isn't just Native history. This is U.S. history.

How are you participating in healing?

09/29/2026

It’s the end of September, which is National Su***de Prevention Awareness Month. I want to honor my little sister, Dani, my makoonz—my tiny bear. Last summer, she went to Gaagige-minawaanigoziwining - The Land of Everlasting Happiness. On this side, she was a mother, leader in food sovereignty, my favorite jingle dress dancer, and expert hoola-hooper. And, one of the most open-hearted people I’ve ever known. She touched SO many lives on the Bois Forte Rez and across Greater Minnesota. I wish Dani could have seen herself through the eyes of the people who loved her.

I wrote about Dani in the summer issue of The Circle and I’m finally sharing now because we’re in ***dePreventionMonth. But, I want you to know more than how we lost her. Though her death represents what happens when people are disconnected from their inherent worth and sense of belonging. I want you to know that she, like each of us, was worthy of love before she accomplished a single thing. This piece is to demonstrate that we must reframe resilience away from western standards rooted in our survival metrics and productivity.

We must step back into our true identities and reject the urge to be romanticized or victimized or let them attack our relationships with one another. Because Dani’s story also speaks to the role to dismantle lateral violence. It hurts to know that often Dani was shamed in our community for her mistakes and made to feel that her joy, her emotionality, and her full self were “too much.” It’s critical to realize that, “intimate relationships were the main targets of colonial violence.”

I’m using my voice now to call us into the work of reclaimed resiliency. We are lovable, sacred, and worthy. Resilience is something we practice together—through care, belonging, and a spirit of non-offense.

Let’s give people their flowers while they can hold them. Let’s love each other back into existence.

My full story, “Reclaiming identity is resilience,” is on pages 18–19 of The Circle Summer Issue on thecirclenews.org.

***dePreventionMonth

09/28/2026

Tiwahe joins our Twin Cities community for a Day of Remembrance is a time to honor the truth, remember those who attended Indian Boarding Schools, recognize the survivors and their families, and hold space for healing.

We believe it is important to remember because the impacts of Indian Boarding Schools did not end when the schools closed. The loss of language, culture, family connections, identity, and traditional ways of life continues to impact our families and communities today.

This history is deeply connected to why we do the work we do at Tiwahe. Our work is rooted in strengthening families, supporting wellness, and helping reconnect our relatives with culture, language, community, and the knowledge carried by generations before us.

Remembering is part of healing. Honoring our relatives who endured these experiences helps us understand the importance of protecting and revitalizing the things that make our communities strong.

We remember those who came before us.
We honor the survivors and their families.
We carry their stories forward.
And we continue the work of healing through culture, language, family, and community.

September 30, 2026
Powderhorn Park
3400 15th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN

12:15 PM – Community Gathering Begins

The day will include a screening of Medicine Ball by Leya Hale, followed by a panel discussion.

The gathering will also include a Remembrance Walk, community candlelight vigil, and speakers honoring Indian Boarding School attendees, survivors, and their families.

Film Screening + Panel Discussion: Registration was required and is now closed.

09/22/2026

“I was really fortunate to get funding from Tiwahe. It was during a time in my life when I was really struggling with some things. So Tiwahe’s help at the time that I got it, that was just amazing for me.” – Heid Erdrich.

We’re so proud that the McKnight Foundation has recognized Heid as their 2026 Distinguished Artist, and for everything she is doing with her voice and gifts. She’s is a living embodiment of our understanding that we all hold gifts, and if they are recognized and resourced in community, anything is possible.