It Should Be Them
Who tell this story
Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. I want to begin first by acknowledging everything that is happening in Minneapolis right now. I have many friends and people I care deeply about in that beautiful city and I wish I was there. The situation is terrible and there isn’t really anything I can say about it that isn’t being said better by other people closer to the ground. So I want to draw your attention first to a couple things my comrade Nick Estes has posted from his podcast bunker at the University of Minnesota, where he is an Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies.
First up is THIS DISCUSSION with Vinny Dionne, from Indigenous Protector Movement, about how the Native community in Minneapolis is organizing amid the ICE invasion. Excellent stuff that you won’t hear anywhere else.
And now THIS, where Nick joins Millennials Are Killing Capitalism for a discussion connecting the ICE invasion of Minneapolis to U.S. imperialism. Again, excellent, and something no other media is going to discuss.
Now for the rest, I appreciate your attention and, hopefully, your interest and support. There is so much going on for us to do together.
I want to begin in inspiration. Just take a moment to look at the photo leading this section. I get a lump in my throat every time I see it. I find all of the photos and videos of people in the streets of Minneapolis absolutely thrilling as well. The huge crowds. The enthusiasm. The courage. So much of what is happening is horrible but also, mighty. Movements of everyday people are MIGHTY. It’s the only way things change. Anything truly good that has happened on Turtle Island while under colonial subjugation has been the result of people, everyday people, making them happen.
The murder of Renée Good and the execution of Alex Pretti – deeply inspiring, courageous people – are the horrific, ultimate and unsurprising expressions of state-sponsored violence unchecked that is not going to correct itself without massive on-the-streets resistance to it, and Minneapolis, also the birthplace of what we might call contemporary Indigenous resistance back in the 60s and 70s, is rising to the occasion. I am thrilled by that magnificent, overwhelmingly inter-tribal city’s unbowed courage, with folks from a vast array of ethnic and spiritual communities coming together in common cause in service to the world they want.
Which brings me to IndigiPalooza MT, or IPFEST for short. This festival is a collaboration between me, my friend Selya, who is the Community Engagement Specialist for the Missoula Public Library, and my friend Anna, who is the founder and executive director of Chickadee Community Services, that launched for the first time last year, headlined by former United States poet laureate, Joy Harjo. We had a lot of other people there too, and for two beautiful days we celebrated and it was transcendent.
We launched the festival last year as an effort to cover as much ground as possible to provide examples to people of our extended inter-tribal community of what Native folks aren’t just capable of, but are actually doing, with a goal to EDUCATE and INSPIRE. It was a huge success.
We are doing it again this summer, July 31- August 1. And we are doing it as a celebration of RESISTANCE.
Shortly after the inaugural event we, the organizers, began discussing how another event might unfold. We didn’t want to do a simple repeat of the first event with different presenters, we wanted to have an entirely different theme. We chose RESISTANCE 250+ because 2026 is being heralded as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We asked ourselves what this means to Native people, whose stolen land (combined with the forced slave labor of Black people) is the source of the foundational wealth of our settler colonial nation; the Declaration of Independence goes so far as to identify the original human inhabitants as “Merciless Indian Savages.”
We decided to devote IPFEST to the ways that Native people have resisted the genocide of entire communities for more than 250 years to not just survive, but thrive in the wake of all of this calamity.
We couldn’t have anticipated what is happening today in Minneapolis (and around the world, frankly, under the heel of our current administration). It’s been difficult wrestling with myself over making this post, this appeal for support, at all. Ultimately I decided it’s important. If we give up on celebratory acts then that is another form of oppression.
More than ever, we want to showcase and celebrate Indigenous resistance because we need examples of efforts that have been successful. We hope the discussions we experience will be as inspiring to everyone as last year’s event was.
This is where we are with some updates to the website….
Updated art. Our mascot this year is the Three Sisters, with art by our friend (and alum from last year’s inaugural event!) Stella Nall, and graphic design provided once again by my friend Aaron Draplin.
About page. Want to know why we settled on the Three Sisters as our mascot and symbol? Read all about it HERE.
Presenters page. Updated with all the photos and bios of the folks who have provided them so far; you may view them HERE. You may view the full list as it is so far in the graphic above. We are very excited at the wide array of thoughtful people who are coming!
There are a few things yet to come, such as:
Schedule. Details will be determined in the next couple weeks, but I can say things will kick off Friday afternoon/evening at the Missoula Public Library with at least one panel, and it will be focused on Native Journalism. There will also be a blistering rock show at Monk’s Bar later that night, with details to be announced on March 31, per our contractual agreement with the headliner (I can’t wait to share this tidbit!). The rest of the panels will happen at the library again all day Saturday, culminating with Robin Wall Kimmerer’s presentation at the Wilma that evening. Finally, Sunday will also feature a Plant, Baby, Plant event also featuring Robin, with details on that yet to come as well.
FAQ. Simply have to review the details to update them from last year.
Sponsors. The list of contributors and comrades this year is already growing. We’ll be adding that update soon as well, hopefully with robust additions following this newsletter!
Details from last year. We don’t want anyone to forget who our wonderful inaugural presenters and sponsors and comrades were. We are just re-organizing things and will re-post them soon.
“Together these plants—corn, beans, and squash—feed the people, feed the land, and feed our imaginations, telling us how we might live.”
– Robin Wall Kimmerer
How You May Help
As you can see we have huge plans and, once again, everything we do is going to be free to the public. To make that happen we need funding and no small amount of it. Venues (except the library) cost money. We pay our presenters for their time as well as travel and hotel rooms. We offer stipends to the folks who sell their wares at the market. We feed people (like our volunteers!) Promotional materials aren’t cheap. This list is long, my friends.
Last year, small donations from individuals is how we made it happen and we are hoping for – no, counting on – that level of support once again.
I know right now you are being asked for donations all the time; I certainly am. I hope if you gave last year you will again, if you are able; all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider clicking HERE to make a donation and truly any and every amount helps.
The dropdown box for IndigiPalooza should be the default, but if it says something else (like “General Donation”) you may select IndigiPalooza from the choices. It isn’t a big deal regardless what you select, it just keeps things cleaner on the back end.
If you have a foundation, or have the means for a larger donation, we are once again featuring four tiers of options, as follows:
Tobacco Level ($5000+) Donors
Sage Level ($2500+) Donors
Cedar Level ($1000+) Donors
Sweetgrass Level ($500+) Donors
Donors at these levels will be celebrated on the upcoming Sponsors page and on signage at the festival itself.
Are you interested in sponsoring an entire panel, or any specific part of the event?
We offer that too; just email Anna at Chickadee (anna@chickadeecs.org) to discuss options.
This press release from NDN Collective came out last year and it remains relevant today; it’s only gotten worse since so much federal funding has been canceled by those thugs in the federal government. The TL/DR version of it is that, as in so many things, the massive abundance of money being tossed around by philanthropists is lagging behind as it relates to Indian Country. The press release is well worth reading on its own, but also contains a link to the actual study. I urge the interested to check that out too. It’s telling and, sadly, not surprising. I mention it here because we have already encountered some hurdles related to this mindset and we absolutely will overcome them.
Finally, what comes next here is the most interesting and exciting way to support the festival in a way that will get you something meaningful directly in return….
Native American Resistance for Everyone Class
If we were to sum up what the ultimate goal of IPFEST is in one word, now matter the theme, it is this: Education. Last year, we offered a class called Native American Studies for Everyone and it was a huge success. In the three or four times it’s been offered literally hundreds of people have taken it. The initial offering of the class was a companion to IPFEST fundraising efforts, such that anyone who signed up for the class saw their full donation sent directly to IndigiPalooza MT. We are doing that again this year with a new class called Native American Resistance for Everyone, that is directly related to what will happen at the festival.
Sign up today because it begins in a week! You may register HERE!
This class is going to be great. Here are a couple things to remember.
It runs eight weeks from Feb. 2 - March 29, 2026
View the (subject to change) syllabus HERE
There are no live classes to attend; this is an online course with most text, video, and audio materials accessible via the internet
Pay what you can afford, between $50 (suggested) - $300 (if you have the means, and you can always choose more)
Now here are a few exciting things we’re doing worth noting!
None of the classes are live, but each week will feature a related discussion (usually Tuesday nights at 7pm Mountain) that are shaping up to be mostly live. Many of our IPFEST presenters are going to join us, including folks like Waub Rice, Rebecca Nagle, and Robin Wall Kimmerer … and me!
Each week we are going to have a live Saturday evening (probably) open discussion via zoom for anyone who wants to join us; Anna from Chickadee will facilitate this (she developed the entire class) and I will be joining as well
We are very excited to get this class launched.
Remember, all registration fees will be used to fund IndigiPalooza MT: Resistance 250+!
Remember, sign up today because it begins in a week! You may register HERE!
“I believe that the things that we learn about balance and about sharing and kinship and survival and dependence are not strictly Indigenous values and knowledge, they are human values and human knowledge, because we are all human and we share all these human experiences of grief and love and excitement and fear, but also because ... here we are together. Here we are together. History and events and circumstances have put colonizers and colonized and oppressed and oppressors and all of us together here, now, and our only future is a future together. As humans.”
– Ernestine Hayes (Kaagwaantaan Clan of the Tlingit Nation)
I don’t know what else to say, my friends. This has been a lot, and times are tough. I hope you have it in you to consider joining us, supporting us, supporting our wider community, our mixed-up, complicated, inter-tribal community. I am very grateful for your time and your attention, and this is only the beginning of what you’ll be hearing about this festival. I’m very excited for it. And I hope none of the links I’ve shared are messed up.
THIS! "If we give up on celebratory acts then that is another form of oppression."
Donated! Thanks for keeping the good fight alive