News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 16th 2025
Shaping a Vision for Owámniyomni, St. Anthony Falls
Community Conversation #5: A Powerful Place for Partnerships. Image by Drew Arrieta for Friends of the Falls & NACDI.
By Amanda Wigen, Friends of the Falls
Long before they were claimed as “St. Anthony’s,” the Falls were the beating heart of Indigenous societies. Called Owámniyomni, or “turbulent waters,” by the Dakota, the Falls cascaded over a 50-foot limestone drop on Haha Wakpa (the Mississippi River) and roiled through now-submerged islands at their base. Dakota and other Indigenous people came to Owámniyomni for ceremony and to Spirit Island, a sacred place destroyed by industrialization, to give birth.
When the Upper Lock on Minneapolis’ Central Riverfront closed to commercial navigation in 2015, an opportunity emerged to reimagine this historic and culturally significant landscape. What could we do with this massive structure – which in many ways is a symbol of the desecration of this place – that sits adjacent to the Falls?
A non-profit organization called Friends of the Falls was formed to create a place of healing and celebration at Owámniyomni. Friends of the Falls partnered with the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) to advise on engagement efforts with Indigenous communities and to ensure that The Falls Initiative would be centered on Native voices.… Read the rest “Shaping a Vision for Owámniyomni, St. Anthony Falls”
CHAPTER 23: AGNES MAKES A FAITHFUL DECISION
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
The name Agnes means “pure, holy,” from the Greek hagne. Going further back, the Indo-European root may be hyag, meaning “to sacrifice.” Those two meanings are about to collide in our elder Agnes, as she makes a fateful, nay, a faithful, decision to defy Brian Fleming and his ilk.
Of course, no human is perfectly pure or holy, at least not in terms of the perfection we set as a standard. But here’s another linguistic lesson, sports fans, “to perfect” doesn’t just mean to do a job perfectly. It also means to complete a task or calling in the way it was meant to be.
Agnes loved her granddaughter Amethyst, the only family member she had left. She had stood by her when she fell into addiction and sex trafficking. She had practiced tough love with her, grandmother love, mother love. Ingrid, Agnes’ only daughter had been killed in a police shooting when Amethyst was 12, and Agnes took the sad and angry girl in. Ingrid had been a single mother, working as a waitress, first at the old Denny’s on Lake Street, and then at Maria’s on Franklin. Ingrid had not been wanted by the police; they had not been shooting at her, but at a young black man as a “person of interest.”… Read the rest “CHAPTER 23: AGNES MAKES A FAITHFUL DECISION”
The End Stage
RAISE YOUR VOICE
By PETER MOLENAAR
In last month’s column the question was posed: after socialization of the production of energy, what sector of the economy should be socialized next? Patience, please. Hold your revolutionary horses.
For now, you will be served another dose of foreshadowing. It was at the Franklin Avenue Open Streets event that I became acquainted with Cecelia. Cecelia is an Ojibwe elder whose story of fortitude will be revealed in the September issue of this paper.
The end stage?
Bags of money won’t save the souls of “patriotic” militias who bow before billionaires. The belief that we are experiencing the “end stage of capitalism” is spreading like wildfire among the nation’s youth. We are told that public ownership of the main means of production is the inevitable consequence. However, at the age of almost 72 years, I might not live to see it. Indeed, one must have “revolutionary patience!”
Yet we continue to hear youthful speeches which denounce even a degree of unity with Democrats, though the definition of fascism is as follows: open terroristic dictatorship of the most racist, chauvinistic, imperialistic section of finance capital. So, dear neighbors, we must continue to deploy the “Popular Front”, even as we speak openly about the necessity of a fundamental transformation.… Read the rest “The End Stage”
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