March 2024

Reprinted with permission from the Minnesota Reformer. This article was printed August 1, 2022.

VikingsVision.org will be regularly updated with information about the district’s efforts to identify needed maintenance and improvements to its buildings. Cook County Schools has launched a dedicated website aimed at keeping its residents up to date on its efforts to maintain and improve its school buildings.

10 YEARS AGO MARCH 1, 2014 v An 11-year-old Grand Portage girl discovered a famous Isle Royale radio-collared wolf dead on the shore of Lake Superior near her home on Grand Portage Bay on February 8, 2014 and her discovery caused a national stir because of the wolf ’s significance. Alyssa Spry was outside playing on a cold Saturday when she found the wolf on the frozen beach.

LINDSEY GAU, VIOLENCE PREVENTION CENTER DIRECTOR Recently in Oklahoma, Nex Benedict, a 16-yearold non-binary indigenous youth, was attacked in a school bathroom and died the following day. All 2STNBGD—Two Spirit, transgender, non-binary and other gender diverse— people deserve safety from violence, but across the country it is becoming increasingly difficult for 2STNBGD youth as they face escalating targeting that drives 2STNBGD hate.

Spoken exclusively in the Native American voice To improve lung cancer survival on reservations, A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation is pleased to announce the release of two free storytelling resources spoken exclusively in the Native American voice. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in Native American communities and is usually caught late when it is difficult to treat.

“If something is not done before next year, somebody is going to get killed. With more queer students coming into our school every year, they would probably not feel safe with the way it currently is on campus” That quote is from a student at Cook County High School (CCHS) who has been subjected to gender and sexuality- based violence from their peers. Not a month after this student shared these concerns came news of the death of Nex Benedict, a 16 year old Two Spirit student, following a transphobic assault on an Oklahoma high school campus. At the same time the world is grieving Nex, who was attacked in a school bathroom, transphobic complaints about the CCHS’s trans-inclusive bathroom/locker room policies were published in a Letter to the Editor in last week’s CC News Herald. All of this is in the context of 460 anti-LGBTQ bills entered into the 2024 legislature nationwide - 14 of which are in Minnesota (ACLU). So, the Cook County Pride Committee has entered the chat (as the kids say).