A nonprofit online news publication, Madison365 has published annual power lists recognizing Wisconsin leaders from different racial and ethnic groups since 2015. The purpose of the lists is to “highlight the beauty of the diversity across our state” and lift up role models for Wisconsin’s young people, according to Henry Sanders, Jr., co-founder, publisher and chief executive officer of Madison365. This is the second year the publication has recognized Wisconsin’s Indigenous leaders.
“Every year, people tell me we’ll run out of people to recognize. And every year, after we publish our list, I get emails and texts with more names: why did you leave out this person, how did you miss that person. And every year it becomes clear: there are more people of every ethnicity in Wisconsin doing the real work than we could ever recognize,” Sanders said.
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Quick Read By Richard Mertens Correspondent
Luke Kapayou, who grew up on the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama, Iowa, noticed as he got older that fewer people were gardening. So he resolved to keep growing traditional beans and squash, and he began to seek out other varieties both on and off the settlement.
“I don’t know, I think I believe these seeds are sacred,” he says. “It makes me want to keep growing them, and I want to make sure our kids keep growing them.”
Why We Wrote This
“Food sovereignty” emphasizes local food production and people’s agricultural and culinary heritage. For Native Americans, it’s a way to repair damage inflicted when European Americans severed them from their traditional ways.