Projects currently in construction

Diversity was begun two years ago by a group of professionals from cross cultural and cross disciplinary backgrounds dedicated to using their expertise in providing resources that could educate, enlighten, and entertain communties while helping create peaceful interaction between diverse cultures. The Foundation's overriding goal is to bring people together through their own stories; stories that define humanity through their diversity and their commonality. In this world of information and technological interactions, networking people can be very effectively done through the use of digital and multimedia internet technology. The internet bridges now being built also can provide multicultuual bridges to close the gaps between people. The current projects are under construction.

Wapashas' Prairie: The Story of a Family and Community

"Without understanding Native Americans, we will never know who we are today as Americans." -- Jack Weatherford
In the summer of 1998, when the new Wabasha Street Bridge was dedicated in downtown St. Paul, Ernest Wabasha VII was asked to be part of the ceremony and say prayers on the bridge.
The poignancy of the moment was accentuated by the memory that, 135 years earlier, after the 1862 Dakota Conflict, the last of Minnesota's Dakota people had been herded onto boats at the same site, dodging gunfire from St. Paul residents as they began the final leg of their journey into forced exile.
Wabasha VII is the hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton Band of Dakota. In the mid-19th century, in the areas known as the city of Winona, Minnesota, Wapasha I, his family and the members of his band made their home. Wapasha I, regarded by some as the premier Chief of the Great Dakota Nation, was Highly respected by the French and British colonial governments, Chief Wapasha negotiated peace and trade agreements for his people prior to the advance of white settlers from the East. He received medals of honor and was given full military uniform and rank from the British. Some say that the Ernest Wabasha VII looking out over Winona Wapashas' Prairie site of his ancestors settlement and hunting grounds over 200 hundreds before Minnesota history written by white settlers.song, "Hail to the Chief," was originally composed in his honor following a great act of bravery. (White settlers later changed the Wapasha name in texts to Wabasha.)
As Ernest Wabasha stood on that bridge, his prayer was not for the steel and concrete in the bridge but for the people of the area. He prayed that we learn to respect and honor one another. He prayed that the different races might come together and remember this prayer for peace as they use the bridge. "Not too long ago," he recalled, "We were being killed for practicing our religion. Now they want us to come and pray..."
Although the Wabasha Street Bridge, Wabasha Street in St. Paul, the city and county of Wabasha, Minnesota, and the bust of Wabasha III, housed in the State Capitol, reflect major commemorations to this family, many Minnesotans are unaware of the significance of these honors and of the history associated with the Wabasha name.
Diversity Foundation has already videotaped numerous hours of interviews with the Wabasha family and other Dakota elders and their descendants and has begun the extensive research of early Winona history necessary for this story. The foundation will utilize this material and supplemental footage to help, through a Video Documentary, tell the story of this family and its contributions during this pivotal period in the formation of Minnesota.
To enhance the documentary, the foundation plans to include interactive CDs and teacher manuals so they may be included in area school and state wide curriculums. Also discussions are already underway with the state historical society and local museums.
To date the project has been endorsed and supported by the city of Winona and its mayor's office, Winona Area Schools, and several local businesses. Foundation officials feel this documentary could serve as a prototype/model for other early Native American History projects in communities around this state and perhaps South and North Dakota communities as well. It is our belief that this project will help to honor past and present Native elders, tribal chiefs, and leaders and improve understanding and appreciation of our "First People."

Dakota Homecoming: Reconciliation and Healing for Two Nations

Our second Dakota/Lakota (D/L) educational documentary and project involvement was inspired by a series of reconciliation and healing events that have been taking place across Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Canada. Over the past several years our Diversity Foundation and Productions team has had the privilege of filming and documenting a number of these activities. The primary purpose for these spiritual gatherings is to pay tribute to the D/L warriors and ancestors who often sacrificed their lives in defending their heritage, families, and ancestral homelands. Several of the smaller events have led to larger government supported reconciliation efforts. In 1987 Governor Perpich announced a Year of Reconciliation between the state of Minnesota and the Dakota People. In 1990, South Dakota Governor Michelson, did the same for his state. Our observations while filming and documenting many of these events throughout D/L country reveal the continued affects of the historic oppression by the U.S. and Canadian governments: unemployment that ranges from 50 to 85% on many reservations; substandard health care, housing, Elder care; school dropout rates, youth suicides, teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse all of which are critically above National averages in the US and Canada. In our travels to film and research these events throughout the mid west and Canada we have entered into many discussions with Tribal Leaders and Elders which has led us to envision and propose a three phase Reconciliation Project for the Dakota/Lakota people.
For the first phase of the Reconciliation project, Diversity would like to complete a documentary featuring the highlights of the various D/L reconciliation and healing events portrayed against the ongoing plight and continued struggles of the majority of the D/L reservations. This document intends to acknowledge and honor a culture and nation whose people were unwillingly removed, scattered, and thrown into disunity by holocaust like events. The Dakota Conflict and Exile of 1862 and the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 forced survivors of this once "Great (Sioux) Dakota Nation" to flee their homelands of Southern Minnesota and the Black Hills. In spite of all this, the spirit of the people has stayed alive and these healing and homecoming events have been occurring. The D/L people are still terribly divided and fragmented but today's advanced technology can begin to address this issue.Dedication Ceremonies for Stone Carved Buffalo Memorial honoring 38 Dakota Warriors hung on site (1862) in Mankato, Minnesota
Dakota/Lakota people can now develop a centralized communication system that nurtures interaction and networking between reserves and reservations. This will provide increased possibilities for a extensive multi-faceted campaigns to connect and collaborate economic and educational resources in the non native and Native communities. The documentary piece will become an awareness and educational piece to solicit public opinion and funding to help design and construct the communication system necessary.
The next step or stage is to develop an awareness of common needs and common history, through use of existing educational systems (community colleges, Reservations schools, and university extensions, etc.), the new technologies and infrastructures. We propose that Native Student Interns be trained and guided to collect, share, and analyze oral histories of their own D/L people. These Student Interns would be involved with the actual interviews, historical information gathering as well as the entire media technology process. Cultural and Media camps and Student Exchange Programs are also envisioned for this project. In addition, this history and interviews will be available to be electronically shared with the other 24 D/L reservations via regular video, C.D. Rom, Internet Web sites, teleconferencing etc.
So much of our early Native history was handed down orally and the only written records were kept by the early European traders, missionaries and explorers who passed through the area. Many of their accounts were biased and limited in scope and accuracy. Time continues to be critical in recording some of these oral accounts from Native Elders before any more pass on to the Spirit World and their information once handed down from ancestors will be lost forever to the present and future generations of Native and Non Native youth. These "Living Oral History" interviews along with each individual Reservation's own unique history will be archived and available to schools, community centers, tribal colleges, history centers, libraries, and museums etc throughout the mid West and Canada.
As the 20th Century draws to a close, the new Millennium seems to find many persons across cultures and varying religious backgrounds wanting to apologize and attempting to understand and make amends toward our Native American brothers and sisters However as so often happens after a couple days , these promises and "rhetoric of the moment" soon get diminished to back page stories and often soon forgotten by those individuals, corporations and decision-making leaders who could most affect change on many of these remote almost third world condition reservations. The third stage of this project relates directly to this desire for forgiveness and reconciliation between Native and Non Native.
We propose to use the infrastructure and common archives developed in the second phase to organize and create a unique and comprehensive "Homecoming Summit". This week long healing, economic D/L Summit will bring together Spiritual Leaders, healing ceremonies, Tribal Leaders, and Elders, public events involving Federal and State leaders, major national entertainment, workshops on business awareness, strategic planning and economic networking, etc. None of these ideas are new, each portion is currently being used in some setting. The goal of this "Homecoming" event is to consolidate and begin to develop a D/L coalition for networking and economic empowerment.

US History through the eyes of Black Minnesotans

This story as it evolves follows the historic role of blacks and other minorities in Minnesota dating back to early statehood. The project introduces many of Minnesota's civil rights pioneers as seen through the eyes of James S. Griffin, former deputy chief of police with the city of St. Paul. His knowledge of Minnesota and its racial and cultural issues dates back to his mother's early life and teaching career in Minnesota in the late 1800's and early 1900's. He grew up in St. Paul and has studied and lived Minnesota1s early history. James S. Griffin discussing Minnesotan history from a Black American1s viewpointHe was a close friend and confidante of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Gordon Parks, nationally renowned photographer/playwright. The story will also involve early civil rights leader Mr. Roy Wilkins along with Ms. Nellie Johnson, early black activist and co-founder of the Minnesota Democratic party as well as many others.
He has also made history in the area civil rights, sports, and law enforcement. Mr. Griffin was born in Minnesota and has given a lifetime of service in St. Paul1s police department where he became St. Paul's first African American sergeant, captain, and finally deputy chief of police and has served as a mentor for the current chief of police, Bill Finney. His recollections of his early days in St. Paul include stories regarding the gangster and organized crime era of St. Paul, Minnesota. "Chief" Griffin has also served on St. Paul school boards, the Minnesota Human Rights Commission, the Minnesota Historic Society Board. He was also one of the first black high school and college sports official in the state of Minnesota. St. Paul's Griffin Stadium was named in his honor in 1986. Mr. Griffin has been inducted into the State High School League Hall of Fame as well the Minnesota State Football Coaches Hall of Fame as well as the West Virginia State College Sports Hall of Fame as well as numerous other awards.
Numerous articles and stories have been written in reference to Mr. Griffin1s pioneering efforts in race relations and civil and human rights here in Minnesota as well as across our nation. Diversity Foundation already has extensive live interview footage of Mr. Griffin as well as footage of his appearances around Minnesota over the past few years. Mr. Griffin was one of Diversity's Bridging the Gap Award Winners for 1997.
His story and the stories of other Black Minnesotans need to be told to provide a non majority view of Minnesota in the context of the Nation's civil rights movement.

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