Corrections

Daniel Yang is part of a new cohort of young leaders in the Native American community in South Minneapolis, a half-Native, half-Asian grassroots activist with a passion for public service and a special compassion for refugees. The experience of being lost, exiled and afraid is one his family knows well: Yang’s father was a Hmong refugee who, along with his Ojibwe mother, instilled a commitment to social justice and community service in his son.

In January, a small gathering of interested parents met at Migizi Communications to learn and ask questions about Bdote Learning Center, a new charter school that aims to offer Dakota and Anishinabe language immersion as a key part of its curriculum. Organizers hope the school, which would be the only school in Minneapolis to offer immersion courses beyond kindergarten, will open in the fall of 2014, starting enrollment for K-3 students (with a goal of 100 students) and then adding grades each year. 

Homeowner Caylin Crawford had been paying the mortgage on her St. Paul home on time since she bought it in the spring of 2009. Then, in January 2011, she had a snowboarding accident. Told that she would be unable to work for the next three months, she called US Bank, her mortgage servicer, to see if they could make adjustments until she was back on her feet.

Esera Tuaolo, once an NFL defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, is convinced that he’d be dead if he had come out as gay in high school. By contrast, Nick Kleidon, former player on the Breck School hockey team, and 25 years Tuaolo’s junior, did come out in high school, with no negative consequences. Tuaolo, who remains a Twin Cities resident, described "getting choked up,” when he first met Nick, standing alongside his partner, Colin.