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Two Native community members are among seven Minnesotans awarded the 2025 Virginia McKnight Binger Heart of Community Honor.
The Heart of Community award recognizes individuals from all corners of the state who have had a significant impact on Minnesota and its communities. Since 1985, 333 Minnesotans have received the honor.
“These seven Minnesotans embody the power of showing up with purpose and care. Across our state — from Moorhead to Red Lake Nation, from Rochester to Cook County — they are breaking down barriers, creating spaces where people belong and building communities where everyone has the opportunity to thrive,” said Tonya Allen, president of McKnight Foundation.
Joshua Jones, from Red Lake Nation, was nominated as the northwest region’s recipient for his community work in youth programming.
Wanetta Thompson, from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was selected as the central region’s recipient for her work in engaging both Native and non-Native community members through free art workshops under her organization, Bear Paws Cultural Art.
“It's very humbling to be recognized for something that doesn't feel like work, right? It's something that's in my heart that I want for my community, because I love my community. I love everything about it,” Thompson said.
Joshua Jones
Jones is a hydrologist with the Red Lake Nation’s Department of Natural Resources. He says he spent his “formative years not forming” and describes his early adulthood as "chaotic” and “varied.” His previous experiences have taken him all over the country in fields such as construction, motocross and music.
He found his passion for hydrology in 2014 after he enrolled in classes at Bemidji State University. His decision to major in the field led him to an internship with the tribe’s DNR. Now, at 40, he runs that same internship program.
“That's kind of paying it forward in a way and trying to provide the opportunity that I had,” Jones said.
Alongside the internship program, Jones has also helped create and run outdoor work programs that provide youth with work experience while connecting them to their Ojibwe culture.
These opportunities have allowed youth to participate in activities such as outdoor recreation, forest trail system building and cultural learning workshops.
Jones says there was a need for such programming in the tribal community, where youth and entry-level work opportunities are often limited.
“When you give the youth opportunities, they jump all over it. I mean, they are ready to tackle life in the world. But if there's no opportunities, what are they going to do? They can't create it for themselves,” Jones said.
He focuses on providing opportunities to young people who are in foster care and juvenile detention systems, as well as people with physical limitations. Jones says the programs help to prepare young people for the workforce. The programs provide compensation for their participation, including time spent in school.
“It's trying to offer that positivity, to believe in themselves,” he said, noting the transformations he has seen in youth that have worked in his programs for years.
“The future is the youth and, you know, the future of Red Lake is really important to me and many people,” Jones said. “These kids that are going to become adults someday, and they're going to be running everything.”
Jones says his nomination for the Heart of Community award would not have been possible without the youth he has worked with.
“I certainly wouldn't have been able to do most of the things that I've done all by myself. Giving them that sort of recognition, I think, is really important too,” he said.
Wanetta Thompson
Thompson, alongside her daughter and friend, founded the art organization Bear Paws Cultural Art three years ago with the mission to revitalize cultural heritage, build community understanding and facilitate healing through art.
She says the effects of historical and generational trauma from boarding schools were a catalyst for starting the organization. For Thompson, the loss of several family members was a part of her own personal story.
“We wanted to do cultural activities to help revitalize our cultural heritage and to help our people heal,” she said.
She says the art classes offered by her program named Maadaoonidiwag, meaning “sharing knowledge” in the Ojibwe language, foster a sense of cultural identity among young tribal members while helping alleviate the effects of generational trauma.
“It's important to me to share our knowledge and to make sure that the future generations know it so that it doesn't ever go away,” Thompson said. “I want all of our youth and our community members to know our cultural heritage.”
Bear Paws Cultural Art primarily travels to the communities of Hinckley, Mille Lacs and East Lake. They’ve also held workshops in Bemidji and Little Falls.
Thompson says they’ve had over 900 participants in classes and workshops, including making regalia such as jingle dresses, moccasins and ceremonial blankets. Participants have made regalia to be gifted to youth at powwows. This year, Thompson says they created and gifted regalia to a young boy at the East Lake powwow in McGregor.
“It was just the coolest thing ever,” she said. “That boy, he was so proud, and he danced so hard. It was phenomenal.”
Classes offered through Maadaoonidiwag are not exclusive to tribal community members. They are free and open to the public with the purpose of bridging cultural connection and building understanding between Native and non-Native community members in central Minnesota. She says she’s seen participation from those with no connections to tribal communities to those who have Native family members.
“My hope is that if someone's coming there to learn our culture, that we can become friends and build connections and work on community healing through art. I mean, it's beautiful,” Thompson said.
Both Thompson and Jones were honored at the end of November at an award ceremony held by the McKnight Foundation.
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
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