Cultural River Stewards
The Cultural River Stewards project gathers narratives and practices from different cultural communities' stewardship of the Mississippi River (Haha Wakpa). Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) will partner with Language Attitude to work with community members, educators, and artists to bridge science and cultural stewardship. Through curriculum and stewardship events, we will gather and share community connections to the Mississippi River (Haha Wakpa) in Minnesota (Mni Sota Makoce).
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Winter 2021
Outcomes:
* Completing at least 4 new site-based community narratives to our outdoor education program introductions for public stewardship events.
* Completing 4 new humanities-based components to our K-12 curriculum modules accessible online.
* Engaging a minimum of 10 new educators/youth group leaders in our programming, including reflecting on evaluating lessons learned, sharing both science-based and cultural stories and knowledge, and identifying activities they can do on their own or as a community to protect the Mississippi River and its watershed.
After piloting the lesson in 2022 in 4 classrooms, we will engage educators/youth leaders in 2023 with our content. We will conduct written or oral evaluations with all participating teachers and group leaders who engage in our new curriculum content. Our goal is to collect data via surveys or oral interviews from 80% of program leaders. This data collection will increase our understanding of the cultural connections to the river and stewardship. When possible we will collect youth participant data.
After adding cultural narratives to 4 sites along the river at our stewardship events. We will survey those who engage in our new curriculum content about its impact on their understanding and cultural connection to the river and stewardship. Our goal is to collect data via surveys or oral interviews from 80% of participants.
The Cultural River Stewards project gathers narratives and practices from different cultural communities of the Mississippi River (Haha Wakpa). Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) is partnering with Language Attitude to work with community members, educators, and artists to bridge science and cultural stewardship. Through curriculum and stewardship events, we are gathering and sharing community connections to the Mississippi River (Haha Wakpa) in Minnesota (Mni Sota Makoce). Outcomes:Development of at least one new site-based community narrative to support our outdoor education program introductions for public stewardship events.Completion of one new humanities-based component to our K-12 Cultural Landscapes curriculum module that is accessible online. Tracking the number of impressions and website engagement of our new video and online content, once uploaded to the website for educators and public viewing.
To date, we've made the following progress:
We are still working on collecting more data for at least one new site-based community narrative to support our outdoor education program introductions for public stewardship events. This is in progress - as we still need to conduct more community interviews. We have developed a draft of our new K-12 Cultural Landscapes curriculum. The lesson is about environmental justice focused on wild rice and how it connects to Indigenous sovereignty and water protection. The lesson was piloted in three classrooms - two in St. Paul at Como High School and one at the School of Environmental Studies. In addition, based on youth and educator feedback, we are adjusting to the new humanities-based component of our K-12 Cultural Landscapes curriculum module. The online content needs to be completed. We have not filmed the new video or the interview with Graci Horne, an Indigenous mixed media artist. We will incorporate her interview, into the finished curriculum module. You can view her mural and read the interview here: https://fmr.org/updates/stewardship-education/heal-earth-fmrs-2022-mura…
; We completed the community narrative video Honoring Land and Community: Crystal Norcross,featuring Crystal Norcross (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota) speaking about the history and cultural significance of Mounds Park Cemetery in St. Paul. Norcross also shares her personal relationship with this place and the ways she has advocated over the course of many years for its protection. The video was produced by Courtney Cochran (Anishinaabe) to be included in the Cultural Landscapes curriculum. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlsiTdmVfEQWe added a new humanities-based component to our K-12 Cultural Landscapes curriculum PDF teaching guide, which includes a teaching activity and links to interviews with artists Thomasina Topbear and Graci Horne, who created water-quality education murals at community-based installations in St. Paul. An example of one of those interviews can be viewed here: https://fmr.org/updates/stewardship-education/heal-earth-fmrs-2022-mura… have significantly enhanced our downloadable K-12 Cultural Landscapes curriculum teaching guide for K-12 metro educators, integrating partner feedback to include more cultural perspectives and community knowledge about FMR stewardship sites. We piloted Cultural Landscapes lessons in four classrooms - two in St. Paul at Como High School, one at the School of Environmental Studies, and one at Laura Jeffrey Academy. FMR staff also presented about the curriculum at Central High School. We also integrated feedback from our partner school Dowling Elementary School. Through collaborative relationships and interviews with community members, Dakota, Anishinaabe and others, we're integrating more voices and experiences to reflect the many communities connected to the Mississippi River or Haha Wakpa. The curriculum itself is also reorganized and redesigned with educators in mind, featuring a more streamlined and engaging user-friendly format. Educators can learn more about the curriculum and download the teaching guide here: https://fmr.org/cultural-landscapes-curriculum
We made the downloadable teaching guide publicly available in mid-September, and we're already seeing great engagement metrics:
* 1109 views of the webpages with the downloadable teaching guide (9/15/23-now): https://fmr.org/cultural-landscapes-curriculum https://fmr.org/classroom-programs-activities
* 111 downloads of the teaching guide
* 49 views of the community narrative video Honoring Land and Community: Crystal Norcross,featuring Crystal Norcross (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota), linked in the teaching guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlsiTdmVfEQ
We integrated Cultural Landscapes presentations into community events, including a trash pick-up event at Crosby Farm Park in October 2022 and a presentation to Lexington Landing stakeholders in November 2022.
Mississippi Management Watershed Organization $500.00
City of St. Paul $500.00. FMR had complementary funding from the Mississippi Management Watershed Organization and the City of St. Paul that was used to cover project overages.
Vice Chair Paul Bauknight, Project Implementation Director, Minneapolis Parks Foundation
Treasurer Perry McGowan, CPA, CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP
Secretary Peter Gove, Vice President, St. Jude Medical [Retired]
Dr. John Anfinson, Superintendent, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area [Retired]
Ronnie Brooks, Founding Director, James P. Shannon Leadership Institute
Stewart Crosby, ASLA, Senior Associate Landscape Architect, SRF Consulting Group
George Dunn, Partner/Attorney, Tilton Dunn Gross, PLLP
Forrest Flint, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, Delta Dental of Minnesota
Dr. Kate Knuth, Founder and Consultant, Democracy & Climate LLC
Ryan Mallery, CEO, Big River Real Estate LLC
Hokan Miller, Dispatcher, Upper River Services LLC
Aubre Parsons, CPA, Wold Architects and Engineers
Susan Vento, Community Volunteer
Deanna Wiener, Realtor/Broker, Cardinal Realty
Nou Yang, Co-founder and Consultant, Courageous Change Collective LLC; Chair Chad Dayton, Consultant, Outdoor Solutions, LLC
Vice Chair Dr. John Anfinson, Superintendent, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area [Retired]
Treasurer Perry McGowan, CPA, CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP
Secretary Peter Gove, Vice President, St. Jude Medical [Retired]
Dr. Adriana Alejandro Osorio, Founding Member/Advisor, Child Friendly Governance Project
Dr. Lynn Broaddus, President, Broadview Collaborative, Inc.
Ronnie Brooks, Founding Director, James P. Shannon Leadership Institute
Stewart Crosby, ASLA, Senior Associate Landscape Architect, SRF Consulting Group
George Dunn, Partner/Attorney, Tilton Dunn Gross, PLLP
Forrest Flint, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, Delta Dental of Minnesota
Ryan Mallery, CEO, Big River Real Estate LLC
Hokan Miller, Dispatcher, Upper River Services LLC
Aubre Parsons, CPA, Wold Architects and Engineers
Susan Vento, Community Volunteer
Deanna Wiener, Realtor/Broker, Cardinal Realty