The Wandering Naturalist

Tony Drews taught Native students in the Anoka-Hennepin school district about Ojibwe culture and language for years. He discovered how teaching students with Traditional Ojibwe games created a unique connection and excitement in the students. He went on to found Nashke Native Games which works to teach Ojibwe language through games and joy. Tony shares the work he did with Elders to find ways to teach games in the modern day, while still honoring the cultural practices of the original games, and why teaching these games is so important to him.   

Jeremy Red Eagle, Dakota and Nakoda, wanders with us to discuss his almost two decades of work teaching Dakota games to youth. He shares his story of what led him to travelling the country to learn Native American games, why it is so difficult to learn about these games, and why he thinks these games make a difference in his students' lives. 

Lacrosse is an Indigenous game with different versions played throughout North America. John Hunter joins us to discuss the history of lacrosse and what he hopes for the future of the sport. He is a Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska descendant and White Earth Nation descendant living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He is a Muscogee Creek Nation citizen through his paternal grandmother's (Alexander) family. After playing modern lacrosse in high school and college, he founded Twin Cities Native Lacrosse, a non-profit dedicated to teaching youth how to play traditional lacrosse. 

In this episode, artist Missy Dunaway discusses her work on The Birds of Shakespeare, a series of paintings and essays that will cover every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's works! This episode looks at how birds are used symbolically by Shakespeare, and the reputation corvids had back in the Bard's day.   

We are thrilled to have Dr. John Marzluff, author and professor of wildlife biology at the University of Washington join us on the podcast. Dr. Marzluff shares stories of grudge holding crows, people's strange stories of interacting with corvids, and, best of all, how you can befriend your backyard corvids!