Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. Check out the events, businesses, and restaurants where you can celebrate, support and remember the histories of those indigenous to this country.

Current Events & Exhibits

Community Drum and Dance

October 29, 2019 - Jun 30, 2020
Minneapolis American Indian Center

Drum and Dance Practice welcomes all levels of singing and all categories and levels of dance sponsored by Prevention through Cultural Awareness Program. Drum and Dance meets weekly on Tuesday from 6:30-8:00pm in the gym at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. All ages are welcome to join, there's no registration required and we encourage Native youth ages 8-18 and their families to participated. This activity is free and children must be accompanied by an adult.

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Hoop Dance Lessons

October 29, 2019 - Jun 30, 2020
Minneapolis American Indian Center

Hoop Dance Lessons taught by Lumhe Micco Sampson, Seneca / Mvskoke Creek. All ages and levels of learners are welcome to join no registration is required. This activity is sponsored by Native FAN and Prevention through Cultural Awareness Programs. Lessons are free and children must be accompanied by an adult.

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Indigenous Cooking Event

November 5, 2019
Machine Shop

The American Indian College Fund is bringing its Indigenous cooking event back to the Twin Cities Tuesday, Nov. 5, 6-9 pm, at the Machine Shop, 300 Second St. SE.

Foodies who have long enjoyed Native ingredients and people wanting to learn more about Indigenous food and food sovereignty will find a wide array of tasty treats prepared by some of Minnesota’s top chefs to sample at the event. Attendees will learn about the history and importance of America’s original cuisine during the evening’s program and the role of food sovereignty in ensuring that Native communities control their food systems to ensure healthy food, resulting in healthier communities. Beer and wine will be available. Tickets are limited and are $60.

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Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon: Native American Artists

November 9, 2019
Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Honor Native American artists whose work is represented in Mia’s collection by writing or enhancing Wikipedia articles. In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, this event is a great way to make new friends, have fun, and learn something new, while adding content about Native American artists to Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia.

No Wikipedia experience necessary. Social hour with refreshments begins at 11 a.m., edit-a-thon at noon. Brief training session at 12:20 p.m. for newcomers. Library resources will be on hand. Bring your laptop, power cord, and ideas.

Presented by the Library Affinity Group.

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Storytelling: Julie Buffalohead

November 23, 2019 - September 6, 2020
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Julie Buffalohead creates visual narratives told by animal characters that have personhood, agency, and individuality. Like all great storytellers, Buffalohead connects the mythical with the ordinary and the imaginary with the real, offering a space to which viewers can bring their own experiences. As we enter her worlds, she coaxes us to discover additional layers of meaning—social, historical, political, personal—using metaphor, wisdom, and wit.

Born in 1972 and an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Buffalohead is a recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including the Guggenheim Fine Arts Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and the McKnight Foundation Fellowship for Visual Arts. She lives and works in St. Paul.

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Future Exhibits

"Our Home: Native Minnesota" Exhibit Opening

December 7, 2019
Minnesota Historical Center

Explore the exhibit and learn about Minnesota's Native communities, including stories of survival, resistance, and resilience that offer hope for the future. Visitors can enjoy acoustic music with Mitch Walking Elk, hoop dance performances by the Sampson Brothers, demonstrations of birch-bark biting artwork with Denise Lajimodiere, and traditional games like kansu kutepi (dice game), tasiha (ring and pin) and cankawacipi (spinning tops) with Jeremy Red Eagle.

Opening Weekend activities for Our Home: Native Minnesota is supported by major sponsor, U.S. Bank, and associate sponsors 3M and Ecolab.

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Food & Drink

Sioux Chef

Founded by Sean Sherman, CEO Chef, Sioux Chef is an indigenous kitchen with a restaurant coming soon! They are a team currently made up of Anishinaabe, Mdewakanton Dakota, Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, Oglala Lakota and Wahpeton-Sisseton Dakota. Their commitment to revitalizing Native American cuisine goes hand-in-hand with re-identifying North American cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary culture long buried and often inaccessible.

Gatherings Café

Gatherings Café serves fresh, locally grown foods that are Indigenous and prepared in healthy ways. In the heart of the urban Native American community, their goal is to educate the greater community through ancestral knowledge and to promote decolonized diets to improve the health of the Native population that has been severely impacted by colonization and the resulting historical trauma. Menu hours are from 8:00am-3:00pm.

Located at: 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis in the Minneapolis American Indian Center

Pow Wow Grounds

Pow Wow Grounds, located next to All My Relations Gallery, offers specialty coffee drinks, baked goods, smoothies, sandwiches and signature wild rice products. 

Located at: 1414 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis

Native Food Perspectives

Native Food Perspectives utilizes traditional and seasonal flavors and recipes to prepare dishes with fresh ingredients and an emphasis on nutrition.

Retail, Arts & Galleries

Birchbark Books

Good books, Native arts, jewelry, and community events. Owned by author Louise Erdrich, Birchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores.

Located at: 2115 W 21st St, Minneapolis

Turtle Theater Collective

A new collective of professional Twin Cities-based theater artists, the Turtle Theater Collective is committed to producing high-quality, contemporary work that explores Native experiences and subverts expectations about how and when Native artists can create theater. In addition to producing Indigenous plays, they center Native bodies and voices by situating them within the broader theatrical canon, providing opportunities for Native artists to grow and play.

Two Rivers Gallery

Two Rivers Gallery is an active space for the community to build relationships and to collaborate strengthening Native art and artistic voices within the Twin Cities. Their mission is to expose local emerging Native artists by providing a space to exhibit work, nurture creativity and provide professional development. Open Monday-Thursday, 10:00am-4:00pm.

Located at: 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis in the Minneapolis American Indian Center

Woodland Indian Crafts

Browse a unique selection of handmade gifts by local artists at Woodland Indian Crafts. Find beadwork of all types, jewelry, native music and DVD movies, beading supplies, t-shirts, greeting cards and more.

Located at: 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis in the Minneapolis American Indian Center

Northland Visions: Native American Art and Fine Gifts

What began as Northland Native American Products has grown from a home-based, mail-order business into a gallery and retail space where one can find treasures of the land. Explore original items made by Native peoples from the Woodland and Plains tribes of the upper Midwest in what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Canada and other northern states stretching from Montana to the east coast. Find dream catchers, earthen candles, books, sculptures, dance sticks, drums and blankets among a wide array of other products. 

Located at: 861 E Hennepin Ave #130, Minneapolis

All My Relations Gallery

All My Relations Arts honors and strengthens relationships between contemporary American Indian artists and the living influence of preceding generations, between artists and audiences of all ethnic backgrounds, and between art and the vitality of the Minneapolis American Indian Cultural Corridor.

Located at: 1414 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis

Centers, Tours & Resources

American Indian Cultural Corridor

The only urban Native American corridor in the country, the American Indian Cultural Corridor is located along Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis, which exists in the traditional homelands of the Dakota people. This is an area that is welcoming the whole region to share in American Indian culture and commerce, as well as the other anchor businesses that are located in the Corridor, many of which are listed above and below.

Minneapolis American Indian Center

Home to the Two Rivers Gallery, Gatherings Café and Woodland Indian Crafts, the Minneapolis American Indian Center is one of the first urban American Indian Centers in the country, providing services otherwise often unavailable for urban American Indians. The Minneapolis American Indian Center was initially formed by community members and continues its roots today with majority American Indian leadership and staffing.

Located at: 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis

OPOS Indigenous Tours

OPOS Tours and Travel offers a rare and unique insight into Tribal and Native Nations. Hear the ancient stories of the original peoples of this area, the Native Americans, in The Sacred Sites Tour. Go to and from prominent locations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region learning the powerful histories of those indigenous to this country.

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