Waabino and Gitigaan Littlewolf are Anishinaabe brothers who live in Naytahwaush village in White Earth Nation. Waabino is a senior at Mahnomen High school. Giitigaan is a freshman and in July was selected to be the Sturgeon Moon powwow brave.  As littles they both could sing ojibwe before they were able to speak English.  

Behind the Dining Hall

Wild rice is a crucial source of food and income for Indigenous communities in the upper Midwest. Rice Camps and other seasonal camps play a vital role in cultural revitalization, aiming to preserve and share traditional knowledge and practices. This will be a hands-on demonstration of the process of harvesting and finishing wild rice.

Stanton “Maang”Alexander” is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Stan is a lifetime practitioner of Anishinaabe Life ways in traditional hunting and gathering

Biome Center outside camp fire area

Learn how to process, mold, and fire White Earth clay pottery using traditional Woodland Pottery methods. Janet and Eliza are a mother-daughter duo who teach Woodland-style pottery and other traditional art. White Earth clay is the namesake of the White Earth Nation, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag, meaning “Place where there is an abundance of White Clay.”

Janet Klarer is a proud member of White Earth Nation. She teaches Woodland Pottery, a tradition her mother, Judy Toppings shared with her family to keep the knowledge alive for future generations.

Eliza Klarer is a graduate from the University of Minnesota – Morris, a studio arts major focusing on ceramics and painting. Eliza is an artist raised and living on the White Earth Nation, where theintricacies of the wilderness inspire her detailed artworks. She works and shares her knowledge of Woodland Pottery from her grandmother, the late Judy Toppings.

Building 49

Creating cyanotype prints is one of the oldest alternative photographic processes. It uses non-toxic chemicals to develop a UV-sensitive solution that produces vibrant Prussian blue colors. Participants will be able to use plants and leaves from the surrounding landscape, hand-drawn stencils, or printed transparencies to compose an image. The composition is then exposed to the sun to create prints on paper or fabric.

Joseph Allen is a photographer and printmaker based in Ogema, Minnesota, in the White Earth Nation. He is also Executive Director of the Manoomin Artis Initiative and founder of the Animikii Print Club in Mahnomen, MN. www.josephjallen.com

Building 45

Beginners will learn all aspects of the relief (linocut) printing process, including carving, mixing inks, printing the block (by hand or press), editioning the prints, and exploring applications of the printed image.

Matthew Regier is an artist and printmaker who grew up on a corn farm in South Central Nebraska. A self-taught artist whose formal study is in philosophy and theology, Regier lives in Matfield Green, Kansas, a very small town in the heart of Flint Hills Tallgrass prairie. https://matthewregier.com

Building 49

In this open print studio, participants will have the opportunity to learn the basics of pulling prints onto a variety of surfaces, including paper, fabric, and clothing. Then, using the on-site press, pre-burned photo-emulsion screens, squeegees, and water-based inks, they’ll create bold art prints and garments to take home.

Dan Crane is a multidisciplinary artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. His creative practice blends play and craft through image-making, screen printing, collage, woodworking, and appliqué. He also engages in organizing—collaborating, curating, teaching, and getting lots of friends together in the same place at the same time. Recent themes in his studio include color, shape, reverential subversion, utility, fan art, time travel, and general mischief.

Tester Hub building

Come play with design and humor as you learn techniques to creating layered collage. Teaching artist Joan Kauppi shares her insights “Throughout my six and a half decades I have experimented in many art forms and while I loved those, they didn’t keep my attention or I didn't feel like I belonged to them. Collage is different for me, I can be a storyteller by creating a single piece. Once images are merged and transformed the stories change, sometimes into absurdity. I love to combine images from different decades, eras, sizes, media type, mediums and old, worn out paper.  It's a participatory art form whether one is the artist or the viewer by creating ideas, messages or stories that vary by imaginations.”

Picnic tables by Dining hall (outside)

Dustina Gill, Sitomni S'a Yapiwin (Paints Red Around Her) hails from the Wahpekute Band from the Oceti Sakowin and is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and resides in Sisseton, South Dakota. Dustina is the founder and Executive Director of Nis'to (Neeshto) Incorporated, a Native non-profit that focuses on youth and young adult leadership development, skill-building and wellness through environmental justice, art, and the Dakota culture. Outside of her non-profit work, Dustina is a visual and digital storyteller and published poet. Her work as been exhibited in galleries in London, Rome, and various museums and cultural centers.