Diversity Foundation Board of Directors

Mr. Edward Lohnes Jr.,

Chairperson /CEO
Minneapolis, MN

Mr. Lohnes is currently a Case Manager with the Indigenous Peoples Task Force in Minneapolis. In addition, he is an Independent Business Agent with Primerica Financial Services.  He has served as the President of the Minnesota League of Human Rights Commissions and had served on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission for over 10 years. Also served as the president of the Minneapolis Umpires Association. He was also CEO and board member of the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) held in the Twin Cities in 1995 were over 8,000 Native Youth in Olympic style athletic competition and cultural activities.

Previously he worked at American Indian OIC & Division of Indian Works in the area of job training and client placement. He came to the AIOIC after serving over 10 years with the Minnesota State Department of Human Rights as an investigator and supervisor. Mr. Lohnes and his father Ed Lohnes, Sr., are both members of the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation of North Dakota. Both are direct descendents of early Sioux Chief Waantan from that region. Edward Jr., is also a highly decorated Marine Corp Vietnam Veteran.

Dr. John M. Taborn, Ph.D,

Vice Chairperson

Minneapolis, MN

Dr. Taborn is a licensed psychologist and President of J Taborn Associates Inc., a comprehensive psychological services firm in the Twin Cities. He is an Associate Professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Educational Psychology and former Chair of the Department of Afro-American and African Studies. His research reflects his interest in the mental health of minority groups as well as the impact of racism on personal and organizational functioning in the public and private sectors. Over the years, he has consulted with the leadership and staff of numerous businesses, corporations, public and private schools, colleges and universities throughout Minnesota and U.S. Dr. Taborn frequently serves as an expert witness by the courts and legal system in cases relating to discrimination and family custody issues.

In addition, various State and National law enforcement agencies and professional athletic corporations including the National Football League (NFL), the Minnesota Vikings and Timberwolves, etc. regularly utilize his Clinical expertise. John is also retired as a Captain with the U.S. Navy and is a Bush Leadership Fellow recipient. He has authored numerous articles on Diversity and Overcoming Racism in Education, and serves as a consultant to the Minnesota Supreme Courts Advisory Committee on Racial Bias, a Life-Member of “Who’s Who Among Black Americans” and serves on the board of directors of the Stairstep Foundation. Recently Dr. Taborn was honored by the Midwest Psychologists Association as its founder and for his Lifetime service.

 
Dr. Sandra A. Crossett, Ph.D.

Secretary/Treasurer
St. Cloud, MN

Dr. Crossett has nearly 30 years of experience in public education throughout the Midwest, 11 of that as a special education teacher and over 20 as a school psychologist. During her career she has worked in eight districts across Minnesota and Wisconsin with a variety of cultures and economic settings. She is currently employed in the Osseo-Maple Grove Public School District (MN’s 4th largest) and recently completed her third term as chairperson of the District’s Psychology Department, which consists of 17 Psychologists. Her areas of specialty in the school system involve multicultural and bias free assessment and program planning and consultation for children with autism and emotional disturbances. Recently she served on the state of Minnesota’s Committee on Public Education that helped develop and author the new criteria for educational autism spectrum disorders.

Dr. Crossett is also a licensed psychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of children and trauma and abuse victims. In addition, she is Administrative Director of Family Vision, a Twin City, non-profit Community-based agency that delivers professional counseling services directed toward family preservation and/or family reunification. Besides her work and service with the Diversity Foundation, she has also served on numerous other boards and committees involving human rights, mental health services, and groups promoting community change.

Lyle Rustad

Executive Director
St. Cloud, MN

Mr. Rustad has been the principal organizer and overall production manager in developing the Diversity Foundation, its network and services, to-date. For more than 30 years, he has worked and volunteered in organizations such as the American Indian Movement, St. Cloud Area Indian Center, North American Indigenous Games, US Youth Games, Boys Clubs of America, NAACP, and other human services, many related to youth and criminal justice programs, and most reflecting concern for racial justice. A graduate of the University of Minnesota where he studied social work, Mr. Rustad pursued graduate study in education and rehabilitation counseling at the University of South Carolina and, after serving in Vietnam, was a psychiatric social worker in military corrections. Later, as director of the 1,200-member Greater Columbia (SC) Boys Club, supervising more than 100 staff and volunteers, he facilitated its first racial integration, and inclusion of children with disabilities. He co-founded the South Carolina Child Abuse Council and the People Against Sexual Assault program.

In Minnesota, in addition to the Diversity Foundation, Inc., he was producer, director and co-founder with Dr. Tom Eiselt of Diversity Productions of Mankato. He has volunteered in support of Vietnam and Gulf War veterans, in chemical abuse prevention and recovery, in organizations serving persons with disabilities, in a St. Paul Police Department youth mentoring program, the St. Cloud Mayor’s Violence Prevention Council, the Central Minnesota Multicultural Task Force and NAACP, and in the past was member of the St. Cloud team of the Minnesota Churches’ Anti-Racism Initiative. He coordinated filming and assisted with the 1995 North American Indigenous Games, the 1995-98 Birch Coulee "Gathering of Kinship" healing events, and the 1997 dedication of Reconciliation Park in Mankato, honoring living Dakota elders and the memory of the 38 Dakota warriors hung at Mankato following the 1862 "Dakota Conflict." Rustad & Lohnes and their Diversity Foundation helped organize, along with the City of Winona the first annual Great Dakota Homecoming and Reconciliation events in 2004.  The event is now entering its 7th season & has grown annually as it hosts & invites back Dakota descendents & other Native Americans from across the Midwest & Canada!  See DF Website www.diversityfoundation.org for more details covering this event as well as other DF activities coordinated & led by Ex Director Rustad.      

Travis Zimmerman
Minnesota State Historical Society, Native American Consultant
Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Executive Director

Travis Zimmerman,

Mille Lacs Indian Museum Ex. Director and Minnesota History Society Native American liason!  where he oversees Minnesota Family Investment Program services, American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center (AIOIC)
Minneapolis, MN

As a Native youth who’s family came from the Reservation “Rez”(Grand Portage band of the Ojibwe), Mr. Zimmerman has always felt the need and purpose to help improve conditions and life for all Indian people and the commitment to serve as a “unifying liaison” between all races and cultures. After completing military service and graduating from St. John's University, he has worked in several areas of youth development, Race relations and Human Rights with special emphasis in American Indian cultural recovery and advancement. Prior to his current position, he provided family self-sufficiency and support services on behalf of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce in Minneapolis and was a lead organizer and Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (the first ever on a Minnesota reservation).

From 1995-97, as executive director of the St. Cloud Area American Indian Center, Mr. Zimmerman helped develop programs to provide services and opportunities to the urban Indian population never before served. He was instrumental in starting the annual “Unity Pow Wows” designed to create awareness and improve understanding between the Native and Non-Native populations in St. Cloud and surrounding Central Minnesota. He has served on the St. Cloud Human Rights Commission and worked with “at risk youth” as a substance abuse/Youth counselor and as a community liaison worker with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota, and at the St. Cloud Children's Home.

Louis Stanley (Lou) Schoen, Consultant

Minneapolis, MN

Lou Schoen is a consultant/writer/educator specializing in racial equity and multicultural reconciliation, following careers as a print and broadcast journalist, health agency field representative, corporate public relations executive, ecumenical social justice program director and seminary multicultural studies consultant/facilitator.  He attended Augsburg College, Columbia University (as a CBS Foundation Fellow) and the University of Kansas, and has degrees from the University of Nebraska and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

His 21st Century consulting relationships have included:

The Episcopal Church, New York, NY(principal client, 2003-9); African Assistance Program (Minnesota African refugee/immigrant service initiative), Diversity Foundation, St. Cloud, MN (advocacy/organizing/film production). He is author of After Jubilee:  Justice…or Exile? - The Church in the Global Economy (Episcopal Parish Services, New York, NY, September, 2000), chapters in Ending Racism in the Church (Susan E. Davies & Sr. Paul Teresa Hennessee, S.A., eds., United Church Press, Cleveland, 1998) and Re-Membering and Re-Imagining (Nancy J. Berneking & Pamela Carter Joern, eds., The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 1995); articles in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Anglican Theological Review; and Racism in the USA:  An Essay on Power and Identity (2005 updated through March 2010), used as a workshop handout and available at www.socialjusticeblog.com.

As a volunteer, he coordinates the Anti-Racism Network for Episcopal Province VI (eight-state Upper Midwest/West); is a member of planning teams for the Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative in the Twin Cities, the Minneapolis interfaith Discussions That Encounter, and the Minneapolis Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness; board member of the African Assistance Program and the Diversity Foundation, Clerk of Gethsemane Episcopal Church and a member of its Shelf of Hope Team; and is a member of the Minnesota Episcopal Multi-Cultural Ministries Network.

Nate Damian Emerson

349 East Lake Blvd.
Winona, MN 55987
(507) 454-7535

Career Objective:
To continue to work in Higher Education to improve processes that effect students, faculty and staff in a positive way.

Background Information:
Dedicated, resourceful, and decisive individual who successfully maintains multiply tasks in all facets of the college. Work in a multi-campus environment supporting over 3500 students. I have been an Admissions Counselor at a four-year university, a Financial Aid Director, Director of Institutional Research, Interim Director of Finance, and currently I am the Vice President of Student Affairs at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical.

Career History:
Vice President of Student Affairs
Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical
Winona, MN January, 2003-Present

Supervise 30+ full-time staff
Oversee all aspects of Student Affairs to include:
Learning Resource Center, Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrars, Institutional Research, Enrollment Services, Placement, Marketing
Chairperson of Assessment (prior 2 years)
Work with budget planning of the college
Financial/statistical analysis for the college
Human Rights Commission-City of Winona 2007-2009
Diversity committee local 861
Work with Inclusion and Diversity office of Winona State University
Serve on community task force with the Winona State and St. Mary's Universities, City Mayor, business owners and students

Interim Director of Finance 2002-2003

Supervise 20+ full-time staff in Finance and Facilities
Served as the Interim Director of Finance for over one year until the position was filled
Realigned staff and processes in the Business office and Facilities
Led staff and faculty in budget setting goals for the academic year
Completed entire budget process for the college ($18 million)

Director of Institutional Research 1998-2002
Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical
Winona, MN

Supervise 8 full-time and 2 part-time staff
Direct oversight of Financial Aid, Bookstores, Accounts Receivable, Institutional Research
Set up course evaluations with faculty for assessment
Directed on-line processes for Financial Aid
Coordinated and trained staff/faculty in assessment, course evaluations as well as the student record system

Director of Financial Aid 1990-1998
Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical
Winona, MN
Started the Quality Assurance Program at MSC-ST
One of the first 130 colleges and universities to join the Department of Educations Quality Assurance Program
Technology award from the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators
Researched and implemented a direct deposit system that allows students to receive all aid disbursements directly into their accounts
Began training program for approximately 95 work study students on three campuses
Help Financial Aid nights at local area high schools

Admissions Counselor 1987-1989
Winona State University
Winona, MN
Traveled over three state area promoting Winona State University
Meet with parents and prospective students on admissions, housing and financial aid needs
Presented programs to high school students and counselors
Organized parent nights in Chicago and Milwaukee for new students

Education:
North Dakota State University, Masters in Education 1989
North Dakota State University, Bachelors in Science & Math 1987

 Jerry L. Carter,

Journalist/Marketing/Internet Information Specialist
Annandale, MN

Mr. Carter is an Internet Information Specialist, web site designer and program specialist. He started and designed the company's Internet Help Desk. Formerly a county government reporter for the St. Cloud Times, the Duluth News-Tribune and other Greater Minnesota newspapers. His journalism experience includes coverage of city and county government, racial discrimination, socioeconomic developments, and human relations. His heritage (Spanish and Southwestern Native American) gives him the ability to enhance news stories through a minority perspective. As a volunteer with the St. Cloud Area Indian Center, Mr. Carter begin to present a more balanced account of news stories related to Native American issues for area publications.

James B. Jensen, Attorney/ Small Business Owner
St. Cloud, MN

Mr. Jensen and his wife Julie, recently retired after many years as co-owners and operators of the Wild Bird Center of St. Cloud.  Jim previously worked over 10 years in product development in the legal department at Bankers Systems, Inc., also in St Cloud.  He is a graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law, with experience in agricultural and small business financial planning. In addition he has done extensive legal work, held board memberships with non-profit agencies, senior citizen law, NSP mediation, as well as working in numerous social and environmental organizations and legal services for St. Cloud, Winona County as well as other communities around the state of Minnesota. Jim's Vita is presently being updated.

Mr. Oscar Reed,

Creator & Director of programs for youth and families challenged by poverty
Minneapolis, MN

A former outstanding running back for Colorado State University that led to a legendary nine-year career as a running back for the Minnesota Vikings that included seven NFL Division championships, along with 3 Super Bowl appearances. Mr. Reed later served 15 years as youth programs director for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. He is now director of the Community Empowerment and Prevention Program in Minneapolis, and a consultant on the circle process for preventing violence and resolving conflict. With fellow Viking legend Jim Marshall, he is co-founder of a youth and family service agency, Life’s Missing Link, Inc. He has an extensive background in the Native American restorative justice program, and in leading programs for youth development, employment and pre-apprenticeship, as well as many other experiences related to volunteerism, community Public Relations and charitable fund-raising.

Mamie Singleton

Homeland Security
Washington, D.C.

Sgt. Singleton, after 25+ years of experience serving in the patrol, investigative and administrative divisions of the St. Paul Police Department retired and began work in Washington with Homeland Security. In addition to being one of the first African American females in Minnesota law enforcement, she was also selected to serve as one of first female field training officers for 10 of those years. Prior to graduating from the St. Paul Police Academy, Ms. Singleton received a scholarship to study communication at Macalester College. She has since completed the criminal justice program at the College of St. Thomas and is continuing to pursue her Education in Business Management at the University of Minnesota.

Active in church and community, Mamie is founder (1994) and director of the Youth Initiative Mentoring Academies (YIMA) which partners adult law enforcement and community mentors with “ at-risk youth” in tutoring and aviation flight training; In addition, she’s a founding member of the Ramsey County Community Sentencing Program, co-founder of the African American Breast Cancer Alliance of Minnesota; board member of the Minnesota Association of Black Physicians and of the American Cancer Society, Advisory Board president at the Free At Last Church of God in Christ and assistant to the St. Paul Central District missionary of her denomination. The St. Paul Urban League and Free at Last church honored her with their prestigious Community Service and Millennium Awards for outstanding service. Recently St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly presented Sgt. Singleton with the City's Karl Neid award for 2002, given annually to the City's top employee who does the most for the entire community through their off-duty public service.

Betty Smith,

Mayo Clinic Medical Technician
Rochester, MN

Betty Smith was born and raised in Rochester, Minn., and has been employed by the Mayo Clinic for the past 20 years in their Transfusion Medicine Department. Previously, Betty was employed by Sears Roebuck, Rochester Post Bulletin and the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. Her other volunteer and community activities have varied from serving as Brownie and Cub Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, Methodist Hospital support group organizer, parent volunteer coordinator with Rochester Public Schools as well as teen drug abuse advisor with the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from Rochester Public Schools, and has completed many Mayo Clinic Continuing Education Programs as well as pursuing a business/marketing degree at Rochester Community and Technical College.

Smith joins our Diversity Foundation board after serving as volunteer with DF's on-going Winona-Dakota (W/D) Reconciliation and Cultural Education Program co-sponsored with the City of Winona, Minn. Betty only recently has confirmed documentation of her Dakota Native American heritage. After her mother's death in 2001, she began researching her family history and has since located and met some of her relatives at the Sisseton-Wahpeton and Spirit Lake Dakota Reservations in South and North Dakota. In her research, Betty discovered her great-great-great grandmother was a well-respected Sioux /Dakota Indian who married a French Canadian fur trader prior to the Minnesota 1862 Dakota Uprising and Exile. Betty's mother, Nora Jetty, and aunts were raised on the Spirit Lake Reservation, and educated at St. Michael's and Marty Indian boarding schools. As so many Native American men had done, Nora and her sister, Sarah, left the "Rez" and joined the Navy during WWII, working directly under Admiral Rickover in Washington, D.C. Upon discharge after the war, both ladies moved to Rochester, where they and their descendents have worked and continue to raise their families to the present day.

Betty states Diversity Foundation's work with the W/D reconciliation & educational documentary is "helping to pay tribute to our rich Native American history across southern Minnesota", which she feels "has largely been unknown, yet so important for all cultures to acknowledge & celebrate." During this past year's 2005 Great Dakota Gathering, in Winona, many of Ms. Smith's immediate Rochester and "off reservation" relatives joined, for the first time, with other Dakota and European ancestors from both on and off reservation communities all across the U.S. and Canada. Like Betty's family, many of those attending our W/D Homecomings were descendents of early Dakota who had, for generations, once lived and called Winona and Southern Minnesota their Homeland. These relatives had often lived and survived here in harmony before eventually the 1851 Treaties & subsequent US govt. & military actions and policies had forced their Dakota exile from the entire state in 1862. Betty stated she and her family were very pleased to be involved with the W/D Gathering & DF documentary & were important beginning steps toward "cultural healing & educational awareness process."

CONSULTANTS

Andrew (Andy) Paul Favorite,

Educator; Archivist, Historian,

White Earth Reservation Waubun, MN

After 25 years as an educator, primarily for Indian children or their teachers, Mr. Favorite in 1997 became the Director of Archives and History for the White Earth band of Ojibwe, building upon prior work as an Ojibwe linguist, storyteller and developer of educational resources on Native American Treaties, language, culture and values. Mr. Favorite is an enrolled member of White Earth, but also counts his descent from the Yankton Sioux “Dakota” Reservation. He also spent two years as economic development planner for the Grand Portage Reservation, and prior to his current position, served as executive director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, which seeks to reacquire properties lost or sold by the White Earth Band from its original reservation allotted under a treaty with the US Government.

Mr. Favorite earned an MA in educational psychology and studied in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at the University of St. Thomas, where he also became the first Native American ever inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame. He has worked as a recruiter, advisor, counselor, program administrator or curriculum developer at the University of St. Thomas, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, as well as Public and Native American schools throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul. From 1990-93, he served as Educational Director and Home School Coordinator for the Shakopee M’dewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Reservation. He currently serves on numerous boards and committees including the White Earth Tribal College Board of Trustees and Elder Mental Health Advisory Committee. Andy has broad expertise in the history of oppression of indigenous peoples in Minnesota and the USA, and is in high demand as an educator and public speaker.

Dr. Cynthia A. (Lindquist) Mala, 

President,  Cankdeska Cikana Community College

Cynthia A. Lindquist earned Liberal Arts Bachelor’s degree in Indian Studies and English at the University of North Dakota in 1981 and a Master’s degree in public administration (Indian health systems emphasis) at the University of South Dakota in 1988. As a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, Ms. Lindquist completed a PhD in educational leadership, University of North Dakota in 2006. She began responsibilities as President of Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College in October 2003, which is the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and her home reservation in North Dakota.. During her presidency, the college has grown tremendously and has gained a leadership role in American Indian Higher Education, partically among Tribal Colleges.

Ms. Lindquist served as an adjunct faculty member at UND Community Medicine & Rural Health, with the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She is a founding member of the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center, a non-profit advocacy organization. Ms. Lindquist serves as a member of the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Fellowship advisory board for the Kaiser Family Foundation and is also a member of the Council of Public Representatives (COPR), an advisory council to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Appointed by President Bush to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) in April 2004, Ms. Lindquist serves as the Council’s chairperson. NACIE advises and makes recommendation to the Secretary of Education and the administration on American Indian/Alaska Native education issues. Dr. Lindquist was elected & has served as President & Secretary for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) the advocacy organization for the thirty-six tribal colleges and universities.

COLLABORATORS

Prairie Island Indian Community
Crow Creek Sioux (Dakota) Reservation

Santee Sioux Reservation

Spirit Lake Dakota Nation

City of Winona, Minnesota,  City Manager Eric Sorensen & Mayor Jerry Miller 

HBC Production (Hiawatha Broadcasting Communications), Winona, MN.
 
Winona County Historical Society, Winona, MN  (Mark Petersen, Director)

Ernest and Vernell Wabasha ( 6th generation Hereditary Chief & descendant of Chiefs Wapasha I, II & III of the Lower Sioux Indian Community!  DF's Long time friends & Diversity's  Cultural Advisors with Dakota Outreach, Reconciliation & Documentary Films! (see DF website) 

Leonard Wabasha (7th generation Chief Wabasha descendant…) Mpls., Lower Sioux Reservation, MN,  Shakopee Tribal Cultural Educator & Advisor.  also Cultural Advisor to Diversity's Dakota Outreach & Reconciliation as well as both Winona & Mankato Reconciliation.

Ray Dretske,  Music Producer & Webmaster, Founder & President of Website Distributors, (formerly Vanguard Productions,) Winona, MN
 
Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, Ft. Totten, ND    Myra Pearson, Spirit Lake Chairwoman

Rodney Steiner, (In Tribute to)  Wabasha family Historian & Spokesperson, born & enrolled at Santee Dakota Reservation (Nebr)  Longtime DF Sr. Cultural Advisor, was major inspiration for Diversity's Dakota Outreach & Reconciliation. (see DF website & Rod's Link)  

Chairman Roger Trudell, Santee Sioux (Dakota) Nation (Nebr) Sr Cultural Organizer & Advisor to Diversity's Dakota Outreach & Reconciliation.  (see bio on DF website)

MAJOR ADVISORS

Daniel Pierce Bergin, Producer-Director Twin Cities Public Television

Dr. William Crozier, Retired Chair, History Department, St. Mary’s University, Winona; board member/ historian, Winona Historical Society

Jerry Dearly, Oglala Lakota, popular pow-wow MC; secondary cultural teacher, St. Paul Public Schools

Dr. Tom Eiselt, producer-director, Co-founder with Lyle Rustad of Diversity Productions, 

Dr. Gwen Griffin, Professor Dept of English, Minnesota State University-Mankato; Dakota writer/ consultant, SWST enrolled member

Marcie (Taylor) Halfe- Social Worker/ Dakota advisor & Granddaughter of Eli Taylor, Sioux Valley Dakota Reserve, Manitoba, Canada

Robin Hickman, independent producer of HBO special, The Gordon Parks Story; former executive producer at KTCA-TV, St. Paul

Mike Hotaine, former Chief, Sioux Valley Dakota Reserve, Manitoba! Internationally (Canada & US)  Renown  Pow-Wow Master of Ceremonies, Dakota historian & culture/language teacher.

David Larson, Mankato State University,  Native American Studies Director.  Dakota historian & Spirtual leader, Wapasha descendant; former Chairman, Lower Sioux Tribal Council, Morton, MN

Dr. Eldon Lawrence, Dakota historian & author, former President, Sisseton/Wahpeton Tribal College, Agency Village, SD

Skip Longie, Dakota elder & historian, DF Senior Cultural Advisor, former Spirit Lake Dakota Nation Tribal Chairman, Fort Totten, ND

Tim Longie, (In Memory of) Dakota elder advisor/historian, Member and former Chairman, Spirit Lake Tribal Council, Ft. Totten, North Dakota

Kenneth Lohnes, Spirit Lake Casino Manager, Ft. Totten Children and DayCare Council, Chr., past SL. TERO Chair.

Virginia Mas, former Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council member, Elder advisor and Dakota language teacher, Agency Village, South Dakota

Frank McKay, Dakota historian, former Chief, Sioux Valley Dakota Tribal Council, Retired Police Chief of Dakota/Ojibwe joint Police Department, Manitoba, Canada.

 Myra Pearson, current Spirit Lake Dakota Nation Tribal Chairwoman, (3rd term) formerly financial accountant, Little Hoop Tribal College; Fort Totten, ND, 

Mark Peterson, Director, Winona County Historic Society

Doris Pratt, Dakota language and Cultural teacher, Sioux Valley Dakota Reserve, Manitoba

Ed Red Owl,  DF Dakota Cultural Advisor & Historian,  Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribal planner and grant writer/consultant

Mike Selvage, currently serving in 2nd term as SWST Tribal Chair, former Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council member & former Tribal Gaming Commissioner. DF Cultural Historian & Advisor!

Albert Taylor, historian, Dakota language teacher, Sioux Valley Reserve, Manitoba

Jake Thompson, former Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council, Historian and educator @ SWST Schools, Agency Village, South Dakota

Robert Bone, (In Tribute to) Long time DF friend & Cultural Advisor!  served as 3 term Sioux Valley Tribal Chief & 14 years as Councilman and Medical Director of Sioux Valley Clinic. (Manitoba) see DF Website & link to Bob Bone!