A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Minnesota State has named two finalists in the search for the next president of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. The candidates are Anita Hanson and Kimberly Spoor. Anita Hanson has served the college since 1994, beginning her career as a faculty counselor and disability services coordinator from 1994 to 2008. She currently serves the college as acting president, a position she has held since November. Previously, she served the college as vice president of student services and enrollment management during the fall of 2022; dean of...
Stephanie Hammitt, late president of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, was posthumously awarded president emeritus status by the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The award of emeritus status is a special honor for employees who have served with great distinction. Hammitt worked at the college in a variety of roles from 1990 until her passing in 2022. She served as interim president for 18 months before officially being appointed president in November...
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa joined two other northeastern Minnesota tribes last week in solidifying their stewardship of the 3.3-million-acre Superior National Forest. Fond du Lac, along with the Boise Forte and Grand Portage bands, joined officials with the Superior National Forest in signing a memorandum of understanding on May 2 in Grand Portage. The memorandum will ensure the bands’ involvement in the future management of the Superior National Forest, a joint news release said. The memorandum recognizes the bands as origi...
Each year, Carlton County is well represented at the annual Homegrown Musical Festival in Duluth. It's the 25th edition of the weeklong festival that celebrates local music and other arts at venues across the Twin Ports. It opened Sunday and included Darren Shabaiash, right, with the stage name of Darren Sipity, who is a rapper from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He was part of the opening ceremony set at Hoops Brewery in Canal Park. The #theindianheadband is a family group...
Nearly 40 people turned out for the Carlton school board meeting Monday, many of them upset by allegations of a threat of violence against a Native American student. In a news release Monday, Carlton Indigenous Student Council leader Ayeden Diver alleged a white male student held a knife to the throat of a female Native American student before spring break in March and that the perpetrator received only a partial-day suspension as punishment. Diver also submitted a letter to the school board in...
Celebrate “The Wolf’s Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told by Wolves” book with storytime and mask making at the Cloquet Public Library from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 22. The all-ages event will be led by students from the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Head Start. Refreshments will be provided. Author Thomas Peacock is a Cloquet native, growing up as part of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. This year, his 2020 book, “The Wolf’s Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told By Wolves,” is the 22nd One Book Northland selection,...
One could easily mistake a northeastern Minnesota meteorologist for a sadist these days. Just two days after the messy April 4-5 snowstorm, followed by some slight signs of an actual spring, the National Weather Service in Duluth issued a report on the likely flooding that will occur in the region. It seems the winter of 2022-23 just won't relinquish its hold on the public conversation during a non-existent spring that had any children on an outdoor Easter egg hunt tromping over snow deeper...
Because of the recent high temperatures and reduced overnight freezing, Carlton County is already beginning to experience flooding in many areas. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Thursday for Carlton County that will last through 4 p.m. Monday. Numerous roads remain closed or washed out due to flooding and streams continue to rise due to excess runoff from earlier rainfall and snowmelt. Low water crossings are inundated with water and may not be passible, a county warning...
Melvin Lester DeFoe, 82, passed away surrounded by his loved ones until the very last moment on Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Cloquet. He was one of 13 children - born to Joseph and Elizabeth (Colburn) DeFoe on June 12,1940. He was a proud member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. When Melvin was 6 years old he and his siblings attended Pipestone Indian Boarding School, in Pipestone, Minnesota. He completed elementary school there, then returned home and attended Cloquet public...
Melinda Rose Blacketter-Peterson of Sawyer, 57, passed away Tuesday, March 21, 2023, peacefully at her home surrounded by her family. She was born on Dec. 28, 1965, at Cloquet Memorial Hospital to James Jr. and Mary Ann (Nahgahnub) Blacketter. Melinda was an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and worked as a cook for the Elderly Nutrition program for 23 years. Melinda had an incredible talent for befriending animals and spent many hours watching, feeding and...
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa was featured this week in an announcement aimed at curbing food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service said Wednesday it signed a cooperative agreement with the Fond du Lac Band under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The Band will purchase and distribute locally grown, produced, and processed food from underserved producers. Using LFPA funds, the Band will establish the Aandanjigewin Local Foods Purchasing Agreement p...
Lawmaking in Minnesota is moving rapidly this year, and Carlton County farmers are pushing to make their voice heard. Several members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) met in Barnum on Feb. 17 and planned a call for area citizens to join in a Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day at the Capitol April 13. Affordable health care, expanded meat processing services, augmented farm-to-school programs, and soil enrichment are key issues. The LSP is a statewide, private, nonpartisan, nonprofit...
Steve Olson did a good job of relating the history of the various laws that affected the Fond du Lac Band in his March 3 column. But I wonder how far back in history we want to go. After all, the Ojibway seized the land from the Sioux. There is a reason why some of the lakes north of Deer River are called Cutfoot Sioux. There was a sign, now removed, on the Chippewa National Forest about the battle between the two tribes and a wounded Sioux warrior. The Cloquet Forestry Center was established with the 1909 law that resulted in the land being...
Duluth Judge Sally Tarnowski died March 6 while on vacation in Florida. Judge Tarnowski served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Judicial District from 2016 to 2020. She most recently served as a St. Louis County judge in Duluth, and occasionally heard cases in Carlton County. “All of us within the Minnesota courts community are devastated by the loss of Judge Tarnowski,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. “Beyond her exemplary service to Minnesota, Judge Tarnowski was a vibrant person whose commitment to justice shined through in ev...
In 2018 I retired as the forest manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa after a 37-year career. I'm also an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, College of Forestry. I'm writing to weigh in on the proposed return of the Cloquet Forestry Center lands to the Fond du Lac Band. I'll start out with a brief history of the land tenure on Fond du Lac so the reader can better understand the issues. The Fond du Lac Reservation was established with the signing of the 1854 Treaty, four...
More background details - and concerns - are emerging regarding the proposed transfer of the Cloquet Forestry Center to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, but it appears likely that answers could take months or even longer. News that the University of Minnesota intends to give the 3,400-acre research center and experimental forest to the Band became public two weeks ago, when it appeared as an information-only item on a University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting docket....
Carlton County commissioners gave support for a joint effort between the Fond du Lac Band, Carlton County, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to ask for $10 million in federal infrastructure money to build a trail between the Black Bear Casino to the Munger Trail in Carlton. The Moorhead Road bridge crossing Interstate 35 would be replaced....
It has recently come to my attention that the University of Minnesota Board of Regents will meet to discuss transferring Cloquet Forestry Center land to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. I am writing to you as a university alumni and a past interim director of the center with 30 years of experience while working at the facility. I am the last surviving faculty member with intimate knowledge of the history of the CFC. I am troubled with the meetings between the band and the university with no public input or informing those...
The University of Minnesota made public this week plans to give the 3,400-acre Cloquet Forestry Center to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The transfer of land was included in Thursday's University of Minnesota Board of Regents finance committee meeting docket, a meeting held in Minneapolis after this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press. It appears to be an informational notice only - with no action required by board members - but the docket notes the "real estate...
It's complicated. That's the phrase that often comes to mind when delving into exactly how acres within the Fond du Lac reservation came under non-Native control, paving the way for today's Cloquet Forestry Center. It is also quite simple. A series of laws passed in the late 1800s kick-started a land rush on reservation lands across the country. They allowed "allotments" for Native residents with promises of eventual ownership of land within reservations. It was an attempt to assimilate Native...
Cloquet Area Fire District board members started the new year by taking care of official business: selecting the Pine Knot News as the district’s official newspaper, and Frank Yetka as its official attorney. The board also elected officers for 2023. Leadership of the CAFD board will remain the same, with Brevator Township representative Linda Way serving as board chair, Fond du Lac Band rep Bruce Blacketter serving as vice chair and Scanlon rep Marshall Johnson serving as treasurer. Fire chief Jesse Buhs thanked the board members for their s...
Cloquet native's 2020 book with wolves is chosen There was an ease about Thomas Peacock as he made a presentation and later sat down to talk about his work as an author of revered books about the Native experience. He was at the Jan. 6 Dream Catcher Winter Gathering for educators from the region, talking about the use of "story" in teaching and learning about Native ways. It was the first such live gathering at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet since the pandemic hit. Peacock...
Randy Alan "RAZ" Zacher, 60, of Cloquet passed away unexpectedly on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth. He was born Nov. 6, 1962, in Cloquet to Vernon and Jean Zacher Sr. He graduated from Cloquet High School in 1981 and then attended Staples Technical College at Fond du Lac. He was a skilled carpenter who took pride in his work and was currently employed by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. RAZ enjoyed hunting, gardening, campfires,...
Once again, the Pine Knot News reached out to elected officials and other area leaders to solicit their New Year’s wishes and/or predictions, with the request that they share their thoughts on things within their own sphere of influence in 75 words or fewer. To find out what they said, read on. Carlton County District 1 Commissioner and chairman Dick Brenner I’m really hopeful for 2023 and I hope our economy turns around. In the county, the big thing moving forward is getting closer to the completion of the new Justice Center. And we’re going...
As 2022 came to a close, Rep. Mike Sundin left the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul one last time on Wednesday. But not before the Esko Democrat cleared out his office after 10 years as a representative for District 11A. "I'm going back to help Mary Murphy pack up, and that's going to be tough," Sundin said of his fellow DFL lawmaker and longtime friend. "I'll be helping her vacate an office she's held for 46 years. But it's a changing of the guard." It's been that kind of year throughout...
