News

Threats Directed At Native American Arrested From Sweat Lodge

February 25th, 2017

FARGO - Barking dogs don’t bite, but they’re noisy and excitable. The day Zebediah Gartner, an Anishinaabe from Fargo, was released from Cass County Jail after being pulled from a sweat lodge by Fargo police, the “dogs” began to bark. He received threats and slander from Fargo-Moorhead residents.

“A couple people talking nonsense but I didn’t give them the time of the day,” Gartner said. “They’re just talking crap about my mom, and talking about how stupid we are.”…

Fargo Police Arrest Native American From Sweat Lodge

February 24th, 2017

Zebediah Gartner released from jail Friday afternoon after being pulled from a spiritual ceremony in a Native American sweat lodge in Fargo by police - photo by C.S. Hagen

FARGO - Fargo Police pulled Native Americans out of a sweat lodge during a spiritual ceremony Thursday night, and took one to jail wearing nothing but undershorts for resisting arrest.

The resisting arrest charge was dropped for insufficient evidence by the city early Friday, but Zebediah Gartner, an Anishinaabe, pled guilty to a class B misdemeanor for theft of property, which stemmed from a January 24 incident involving a disputed two or three pieces of chicken taken from Cashwise…

The Final Standing Rock

February 23rd, 2017

Activists at Oceti entrance while fires rage behind them - photo by C.S. Hagen

CANNON BALL - Twenty hours before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline to evacuate the Oceti camps, the thunder beings arrived.

And geese returned home a month or more early.

Signs, activists say, like the the herded buffalo that charged near law enforcement in November 2016, or the golden eagle who perched for hours on a nearby fence, that nature is listening.

On the final day for the Standing Rock camps’ fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, native songs and flames filled…

Of Pets And Politics

February 22nd, 2017

FARGO - Choose to be oblivious. Choose to learn. Choose a story. Learn a cause. Choose to read. Choose anger. Choose to reject glacier calving. Choose to believe in women’s rights. Choose free speech. Choose big oil, big pharmaceuticals, America First, TV, alcohol, marijuana, fast cars, family, gay rights, indigenous rights, white power, terrorism…

Choose a pet.

From melting storied glaciers to I.C.E. deportations, fake news to alternative facts further polarizing political and social…

New nonprofit F5 Project helps rebuild felons’ lives

February 22nd, 2017

Four years ago, Adam Martin lost everything. He was homeless, had no car, no license, no job, no phone, and lost custody of his children. With five felonies on his criminal record and an eviction, prospects for getting a job and apartment were grim. The only positive was that he had two weeks of sobriety under his belt, a landmark for someone who struggled with addiction for fifteen years.

Martin was planning on getting drunk, but had an epiphany instead. “I decided that I should put…

The Siege of Standing Rock

February 15th, 2017

View from hilltop of Backwater Bridge, activists marching away - photo by C.S. Hagen

CANNON BALL - Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline has all the ingredients of legend, with only the ending remaining be be told. Centuries past, bards would be tuning their lutes, preparing lyrics, in fact, modern singers such as Neil Young, Dave Matthews, the Black Eyed Peas, Trevor Hall, and many Native American talents have already immortalized Standing Rock’s resistance.

“If you are a rock, stand up like a mountain,” Hall sang about Standing Rock.

Two…

North Dakota’s 100-Year War

February 9th, 2017

Alt-White: The Siege of North Dakota. Part Three in the series on racism in North Dakota. Inescapable comparisons between the political, racial, and economic sectors of the 1920s and 2010s. Local resident hunts Fargo’s Nazis, posts alert advertisements around Fargo.

FARGO - The day North Dakota women marched on Bismarck, a lone vehicle flying a Confederate flag cruised down Broadway, according to Fargo emergency dispatch. The pickup truck was stopped at Fourth Avenue when a middle-aged…

DAPL Easement Issued, Pipeline Work Will Soon Begin

February 8th, 2017

Former Oceti Sakowin - photo by Kirsta Anderson

CANNON BALL - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the final easement needed to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline Wednesday afternoon, sparking fierce criticism from tribal leaders and opened the doors to intensifying condemnation from Peace Garden State political leaders against the Standing Rock Sioux.

“On February 8, 2017, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted an easement to Dakota Access, LLC allowing the installation of a thirty-inch diameter light crude oil pipeline…

The Wiindigo comes in the winter

February 8th, 2017

Signs in the snow outside of the Standing Rock camps - photo by C.S. Hagen

CANNON BALL - Rumors, like the Wiindigo, are never full. They prey on the weak, devouring their kill, always hungry, gluttonous yet emaciated.

The legendary, cannibalistic being strikes mainly during lonely winters. According to Algonquian lore, it stalks the northern forests around the Great Lakes. Like rumors, the Wiindigo is difficult to kill, as its powers rise with every victim it devours.

The rumors surrounding Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline are not…

Critics: Legislators Attempt To Rewrite Measure 5 is “Abomination”

February 7th, 2017

FARGO - Days after North Dakota Legislation declared an emergency measure postponing Measure 5, or the North Dakota Medical Marijuana Initiative, a new bill was proposed.

Measure 5 is gutted, the bill’s initiator Rilie Ray Morgan said. More than 80 percent of the bill has been changed. Testimonies will go before the Senate Human Services Committee on Wednesday.

“It’s an abomination,” Morgan said. “Like I said it’s a punch in the gut to the patients of North Dakota, and a…