Somali Women”'s Proposal Approved by Commission on Health
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center
The Backyard Initiative”'s Community Commission on Health approved a proposal of the Somali Women”'s Health Support CHAT (Citizen Health Action Team) on June 2, 2011 to promote communication, understanding, and support among women of the Somali community who have children in the justice system. Their project will educate Somali families about how the justice system works, help to connect women together who have children in the system in order to reduce isolation and social stigma, and help to prevent other children in the community from entering the justice system.
The Somali women who presented at the Commission meeting spoke of the difficulty of supporting their children throughout the trial process and incarceration. They also spoke of how their cultural systems of authority, personal accountability, and discipline have been undermined and displaced in the move to the U.S. Understanding the justice system is a crucial first step to rebuilding those systems of authority and supporting their youth. The women plan to create a buddy system where each woman will be linked with another woman when they visit their children in prison and will help each other with transportation. This will create a support system for the women who are now feeling isolated and feel that the legal system is inaccessible and foreign.… Read the rest “Somali Women”'s Proposal Approved by Commission on Health”
What”'s in a Name?
By Peter Molenaar
13,000 years ago the great glacier, which had covered these parts for many thousands of years, began to recede. Giant ice boulders left among the drift created the holes which became our lakes. One such lake would come to be called Mde Maka Ska.
The people migrated northward with the receding ice. Those who remained in this neighborhood began to alter the landscape with the repeated use of fire. Forest undergrowth was reduced. Pockets of prairie and oak savannah were expanded. Buffalo befriended the curious deer.
Time passed”¦
In 1803, the United States purchased “ownership” of this area from France. In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike acquired from the Dakota the site which would become Fort Snelling. In 1817, the then Secretary of War, one John C. Calhoun, sent in an army to survey the surroundings. Having located Mde Maka Ska, the troops decided to call her “Lake Calhoun”.
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July 2011 Daves”' Dumpster
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