Upper Midwest Newsroom

The Trump administration's new policies that restrict the issuance of student visas have led to a decline in enrollment at Minnesota colleges.

When COVID-19 forced schools online in the spring of 2020, Madonna Peltier Yawakie was already working in rural Montana, helping the Blackfeet Nation build its broadband network.

Nestled among the pine trees along a stretch of Big Lake Road sits a tiny blue building. If the signs are out on the roadside, the coffee kiosk is open for business.

Hoping to boost his tribe’s economy beyond gambling some 15 years ago, former Tribal Council member Earl Pendleton went searching for a project that could bring jobs and investment to benefit the entire Lower Sioux Indian Community.

Along Highway 65 on the Nett Lake sector of the Bois Forte reservation, just south of the Canadian border, the forest runs to tall red and white pine and blue spruce. Lance Hill is the realty manager for the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, and a citizen of the band. He has watched it buy back land the Bois Forte band lost more than a century ago.

On a recent hot summer day, Paul Maier, a soon-to-be 9-year-old from Barnesville, confidently strode up to the center of a big stage at the Clay County Fair in northwest Minnesota.

When summer rains brought springtime runoff level flows into Devils Lake this year, local officials found themselves in yet another emergency situation. After running from water for more than three decades - can the problems be solved?

Every July 1, hundreds of people flock to the small Manitoba town of Emerson. By noon, the town’s Main Street is decked out in red and white decor as a parade of maple-leaf-adorned vehicles honk their horns and toss candy to children

It started out as a normal fishing trip for Tom and John Connelly. The brothers put in on Saturday for what was supposed to be 10 days of paddling, camping and quiet in Quetico Provincial Park, just across the Canadian border from the Boundary Waters.

When you visit the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, you'll need some energy to not only to tour the inside exhibits, but to venture outside for a stroll on the boardwalk or the gently-sloped roof. Chef Candace Stock provides the fuel, thanks to her creative, Indigenous-themed dishes at her Salt and Scoria restaurant.