Buju and welcome to another episode of Native Report.

I'm Rita Carpetin.

Production for Native Report is made possible by grants from the Blandon Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, and viewers like you.

On the FondeLac Reservation, Migwitch's Brew is more than a coffee shop.

It's a community hub built on conversation, connection, and a whole lot of learning along the way.

Owner Jackson Ripley traded casino marketing for espresso machines, spending years teaching himself the craft and creating a space where customers are greeted by name.

Today, he shares how Big McWitch's Brew came to life, the native partners who helped make it possible, and why keeping things simple is the key to standing out.

We're trying to be unique and stand out and, you know, like have people notice, you know, it's just trying to add something new.

Hi, I'm Jackson Ripley and you made it to Mwitch's Brew on the Fondelac Reservation.

So, every morning when I come in here, I make myself what you say a cortado, which is 2 oz of espresso and 2 oz of uh milk.

I'm I'm usually pretty talkative uh the first hour or two uh with most of the customers that come through.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm good.

What are we doing today?

I just enjoy people coming by and just talking to me and tell me where they're from, what they got going on.

Um it's not always necessarily about, you know, having multiple drinks I'm serving or uh or trying to sell them on whatever, you know, just that's my favorite part, I think.

And I've noticed that that keeps people coming back, especially when I they come through and I say, "Oh, yeah.

Hey, how how'd your day go with this?"

Or, "What happened last week when you went here?"

or you know like those kind of things are the things that um businesses miss.

Now that's something I try to incorporate because I was like I've been doing marketing for so long and interacting and personalities and like just talking with people being human I think is the best thing at all.

Well, hey there.

Well, hello.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

Good.

May I please do a maple latte?

A maple latte.

Would you like that iced or hot?

Iced.

Iced for a hot day.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

So, in 2002, I moved here from Albuquerque.

I was working in casinos and uh when I moved here, I met my wife a couple months after uh on a blind date and uh here we are like uh was it 2025 now?

So during that time period, I'd been doing a lot of uh casino marketing and did that up at Fondaloo Casino and was stay at home dad for a while.

And then during the pandemic, my wife was looking through Facebook Marketplace and she found this coffee shop for sale.

And so she said, "You want to open a coffee shop?"

And we said, "Well, we'll learn about coffee."

And so I spent those two 3 years like going to the University of YouTube, should we call it, and learning everything I could about coffee, what's right, how to do it.

Uh, you know, it's not just um it's not just grabbing a shot and, you know, there you go.

It's it's there's actually science to it, I guess.

You know, I get my coffee out of uh DreamCloud Coffee Roasters up the shore just in Two Harbors.

Um, I had met the owners, uh, Charlie and Emily, two years before I, you know, after we bought the house and it sat and it sat and I was talking to them about, you know, just things that I need to keep in mind, you know, what I needed, you know, espresso machines, ice makers, uh, you know, where what they were doing, how they were doing it, just trying to get information about what what were best practices.

And uh along the way, I was of course drinking their coffee and I was like, "Can I ask you if I get when I get when I get this up and running, can uh can I have you guys roast coffee beans for me?"

And Charlie was like, "Yeah, sure."

So, it took 4 years.

Granted, we we did the slow process of like, okay, put some money here, we'll pay for this, we'll pay for that, you know, and uh with some help of friends and family and, you know, just trying to do a little bit here and there.

We finally got up and running last year in 2024.

Friend of mine that uh my best friend, he passed away a couple years ago.

He got he passed away unfortunately before I got to open this, but he was always talking to me about, oh, you're going to open up this coffee shop.

Are you sure this is what you want to do?

and um his his words that always ring through me is uh you know well if you're going to own a business make sure you own the business and the business does not own you.

Best part about what I have going on here is I'm trying to incorporate also other tribal um members here.

Uh we're using Spirit Lake uh farms for our maple syrup which is just over in Sawyer just around the corner.

And then we also have a couple bakers uh that do baking for us.

uh Baked to Bliss by Laneany.

She does a great job with scones and muffins.

And then I also have uh the sugar diva.

She does uh gluten-free muffins for me.

So, in the future, I'm hoping that maybe uh I can move to a second location or even a third location.

Uh whether it be with on the reser within the reservation here or uh possibly in Duth.

either one, whichever I dis, you know, whichever I can move forward on, you know, whether it's here or whether it's in Duth, I'd want to keep it the same uh of what we're doing right now.

Like I don't want to complicate it more than what we already have cuz I think a lot of people uh maybe that's what happens with some restaurants or companies.

they start trying to branch out and incorporate more things into their product and who they are and then you kind of muddle what you have going on.

So I think keeping it simple is the best way.

So whatever it is in the future, uh I'm hoping that's that's what will happen.

A little bit bigger but not but the product will be the same.

I would say you just got to do it.

I mean, it it was one of those things like for me it took my wife to say, "Should we get this coffee shop?"

And then now once I'm up and running and we're going and I'm like here doing this every day, it's like now I don't know what I would do if I wasn't doing this, right?

You know, so um they've told me that like this is their highlight of their day.

They come by in the morning and they get to see me smile at them or they get to hear me talk to them about what they have going on and then they're off to do their thing for the day.

And you know, maybe I'll see him tomorrow, maybe I'll see him next week.

And from early morning curtados to the familiar voices that return day after day, Migwitch's Brew has become a place where community is brewed one cup at a time.

Jackson's commitment to staying present, supporting local native producers, and keeping things simple shows how a small shop can create meaningful connections.

As he looks towards the future and possibly more locations, the heart of the business remains the same.

Good coffee, good people, and a space where everyone feels welcome.

Vertigo is the sensation you or your surroundings are moving or spinning when they are not.

This is often a symptom of an underlying condition most commonly related to the inner ear.

The inner ear is involved in our sense of balance.

Symptoms can include loss of balance, involuntary eye movements, and nausea.

Vertigo spells can last from seconds to hours or even days and can cause falls to occur.

Vertigo can be peripheral or central.

Benign paroxismal positional vertigo or BPPV is an inner ear disorder.

We'll just call that positional vertigo for the next few minutes.

This causes vertigo when you move your head in a certain way, such as rolling over in bed or turning your head to get something out of the backseat of your car or tipping your head backward.

Positional vertigo happens when tiny stones form in the semic-ircular canals of your inner ear.

The inner ear sends signals to the brain about your body and head movements to help keep your balance.

And the tiny stones moving around can send an incorrect signal to the brain.

Maner's disease is caused by a buildup of fluid and changing pressures in the inner ear.

Ringing in the ears and hearing loss can accompany the episodes of vertigo.

Central vertigo is less common and it stems from a problem in the brain such as stroke or infection.

It tends to cause more severe symptoms and can result in difficulty walking.

Labberenthitis or vestibular nuritis is usually related to a viral infection such as hepatitis, chickenpox, or even measles.

The infection inflames nerves that are part of your balance system.

You may need to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and having a hearing test with an aiologist may be helpful.

MRI or CT scans can detect problems in your inner ear or brain.

There is no definitive cure for vertigo.

Some people have a single episode and some have many attacks over a long period of time.

You should stay hydrated as dehydration can make vertigo worse.

Try to control stress by practicing relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or meditation.

Limit caffeine, alcohol, salt, and tobacco.

Lying down in a dark, quiet room may help.

Get up slowly and move and turn slowly.

Use a cane if needed and sit or lie down as soon as you start to feel dizzy.

Bending from your knees rather than leaning over from your waist when you pick up something can really be helpful.

If symptoms worsen or come on suddenly, being seen in the emergency department is reasonable.

Talk to your provider.

Regular visits are always helpful.

Because vertigo has so many possible causes, it may take a while to sort it out.

Remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr.

Arie Bio, and this is Health Matters.

For decades, this longtime teacher and coach has helped grow and preserve a game that holds great cultural significance.

We catch up with him leading a workshop for students and later witnessed a major milestone in his career as he is honored for his contributions to the sport of lacrosse.

I'm taught that wherever I go that I speak my language.

My English name is Dan and Ham.

I'm often called Dr.

Dan.

I'm Onida.

I'm Wolfclan.

What's happening today is I'm at Bananaic School and I'm instructing the indigenous games and we do the stick game.

It's a bug out of wayin is often called the lacrosse game, but it's a lacrosse is a French word and used by the French explorers when they seen the indigenous people in the eastern coastal areas playing the game when they came across the ocean and they made a connection to their church and that name has stayed to the second for the modern state and indigenous people they they play the modern stick game as well as the wooden stick game.

And the games that we're playing today are a variety of about seven or eight different wooden stick games that are continuing to be played throughout North America.

We also play the the double ball game and the double ball game has origins to north central Minnesota and my research uh connects to uh Net Lake community and the boy fort band of Ojibway territory.

A lot of the stories go back to the game being played there.

And you have two leather balls with a leather strap that's in between them and it's called the women's game.

Even though I have a doctorate in physical education and sport pedigogy emphasis, people have called me an expert, but I don't believe in expertise because I'm always learning and finding out new ways and to share that knowledge with wherever I go.

Keep trying.

Oh, look.

It's up there.

You got it.

You got it.

Look at it.

It's up there.

That's what everybody wants to do.

Find your double ball.

I think of some people connect the indigenous games and and they say that there are no rules, but there definitely are rules.

There's rules in how you score.

There's rules on how to hold a stick and sticking.

There's rules of body contact and I think of the activity that we did was was just trying to get the double ball to rest up on top the crossbar.

And to my knowledge that the scoring when you would do that in a indigenous game that you would get three points when you would rest it up on top.

I went to uh Biji State my senior year and needed one more class to graduate and I did my student teaching at the Onidita tribal school in my home community and I think of uh full circle coming back to uh Biji and I met my future bride Susan and we got married.

We made a career and lifetime commitment to Indian education.

You of course have the boarding school era, but you have also in respect to the indigenous games.

So many of the games were taken away and not only the the games as the physical play, but the spirituality and the and the indigenous language thereof and the songs and there's so much that has gone from it.

The stick games that we're doing are about seven or eight different types of stick games that continue to be played throughout North America.

And the uh indigenous wooden game has been here and played in different capacities for time immemorial.

Tonight we have our first ever banquet.

Um this is a culmination of uh getting nominations from throughout Minnesota for uh individuals that basically are sort of legacies in the game.

And uh tonight we're inducting 12 Hall of Fame uh honores, two unsung hero award winners and a indigenous uh lacrosse award winner in addition to Dan Ninham who we're naming the award after.

Well, Dan and I have known each other for at least the 35 years that I've been doing this.

I ran into Dan up in Baiji where he had a team uh that wanted to play kids down in the cities.

And I also found out of all the great work he's been doing teaching lacrosse and indigenous games or sports of all kinds.

So he's done it down here.

He's done it all really throughout the Midwest.

And for that reason, he's being inducted tonight as being a grower of the game.

I accept it for so many other people.

I accept it for the ones who played before us.

Bango Jim.

I speak a little bit Ojiway.

I'm Onida.

Onayote.

I'm Onida.

So why do I speak the language?

Because I'm in Ojiway territory often.

And it not only makes a connection with the kids that I speak the language and make that effort to speak the language as as to what I know because you have somebody that's nonju speaking the language that's significant.

So I encourage everyone to know about the wooden sticking.

It's not just throwing the ball out, you know, we play for a reason.

A lot of the games are the creators game that makes a connection to a number of of the stick ball games that are continuing to be played and uh throughout North America.

And we we evolve.

We uh share stories.

And I don't know, I I did the uh kind of a rough multiplication of adding up how many people touch a wooden stick.

And I think it's like I don't know like 200,000 kids I connect a year.

His recognition reflects years of commitment to teaching, sharing, and uplifting a game that continues to connect communities.

As he moves forward, his influence will carry on through the students he mentored and the traditions he's helped keep alive.

I grew up in a non-traditional family, although there were things I learned.

I mean, my my dad's first language was Ojiway, and he he went to boarding school, and him and his siblings, they'd go in a closet and talk Ojiway so they wouldn't be punished.

My grandmother, she belonged to the midday and uh she helped heal my dad from he he had a traoma or some eye illness and and she helped heal that with her medicines.

And when I look back when I look back at my family line, I only have to go back about two generations and all the names are Ojiway.

Uh I'm that close to those generations.

really didn't learn traditions till late in life and since then those have become a part of my life and I'm still learning.

Never stopped learning.

Uh I think about why am I still here.

I think a very large part of is being an artist.

Um and my art lately lately I've been doing a lot of uh illustrating for children's books.

I have a couple that I want to do on my own.

So, there's something about my art is taking me and reconnecting me to my childhood through my art.

But at the same time, I'm illustrating and narrating material for young children and those will be for the seventh generation.

You know, they'll be looking at my books and they'll be learning things and that's part of why I think I'm here is is to carry those lessons in whichever way I can.

In Alaska, traditional art forms continue to thrive through artists who are dedicated to preserving cultural design and storytelling.

One of those artists share how learning this style of art has shaped his creative journey, deepened his cultural connection, and inspired the work he does today.

We're the people of the rainforest.

We're the people of the cedar and salmon.

We're the totem carvers.

Uh storytellers, you know, and that's, you know, what really drove me to it.

So, I've been doing this uh formline art for 12 years.

One day, I thought, you know, I wanted to do it.

So, I approached Mr.

uh David Boxley.

He had a lot of grace on me because I was not an artist at all.

My name is Douglas Iljas Yates and I am Haida and Simpian and the art I do is called formline or totem art.

Okay.

This one here is a eagle and a raven in the shape of a heart.

The heart is not traditional but the design is two main clans are eagle and raven.

And if you're eagle, you have to marry somebody from the raven clan and vice versa.

When we put a eagle and a raven together, we call it love birds because it's a union between two opposites, two opposite clans.

Doing the formline art is the first step of becoming a master carver.

My teacher always told me, he said, you know, it's all about the design.

Anybody could carve, but not anybody can do this formline design.

And to do totem poles, you got to do this formline design.

Being more involved in my community and my, you know, and and my culture, you know, just kind of fulfilling uh who I am.

All these paintings are crests from different clans, their family, and those are very important to our people.

The totems we carve are uh story books.

They're billboards.

They're uh honorary poles that honor human beings.

You look at those totem poles and they have all those animals on them.

People always think they're, you know, animal stories and that we're just a bunch of animal lovers.

I am an animal lover, but that's not why I do this art.

So, there are rules to this kind of art.

You know, it's not just done any old way and you have to train and learn how to do it correctly.

Being a totem culture, you could take somebody that is not an artist and you could turn them into an artist.

And that's what our culture does.

Next step that I'm going to be taking is I'm going to start carving totem poles.

And so I'm all excited about it.

My son and I are going to go carve it.

And hopefully I'll have uh my master teacher um David Boxley maybe uh looking over our shoulders and helping us along the way too.

My father's Ravenclan, but I wear killer whale cuz that's the clan I come from from my mother and um and I do the killer whale dance too, you know.

And it's so cool to see a lot of our young warrior men that are turning into master carvers.

It's awesome to teach, too.

It's, you know, every way you can, you know, to help guys in our culture um learn the farm life.

When you move away from your land for a while, you think about it almost on a daily basis cuz it's just such a beautiful place um that I come from.

It's a rainforest, you know, we have the killer whales, eagles, and all the different, you know, the best seafood in the world.

And we still gather.

You know, that's the thing about Alaska and about the natives that live in Alaska.

Our tribes didn't get shuffled around and moved around.

So, we're still in our areas that we've been in for thousands of years.

I think that really makes a big difference.

you know, no matter what race you come from, you're a human being.

We're all same.

You know, I look at stuff like by Robert Davidson and David Boxley, and those guys are are also uh cultural preservers, you know, try to help out your community.

You don't get greedy over learning and teaching.

I mean, you know, you want them to know the best stuff.

You know, you don't hold back.

I do the same thing when I teach uh native flute.

I've taught probably over 300 young native boys how to play the native flute.

And to see these little guys, you know, little middle school guys learn the native flute is just amazing.

It's important for me as an artist to represent the best I can.

You know, the Simian people and the Haida people, the people were the totem carvers.

And when you get to meet the real people, uh, you just fall in love with them.

Through dedication to his art and connection to his community, he shows how cultural traditions remain vibrant today.

His journey is a reminder of the resilience of indigenous art forms and the powerful role artists play in keeping them alive.

If you missed a show or want to catch up online, find us at nativereport.org.

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Drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show.

Thank you for spending time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian country.

I'm Rita Carpin and we'll see you next time on Native Report.