Friends of the Falls have unveiled a new leader and renderings for Mississippi River land adjacent to St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. Shelley Buck, former president of the Prairie Island Indian Community, replaces retiring Friends of the Falls president Mark Andrew. Her appointment coincides with a Native-majority board of directors. Working with the city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park Board, the Friends will consult Dakota nations on potentially reassuming ownership of what was traditionally a Dakota sacred site. "We don't normally get people wanting to help tribes get their land back, especially land that's so important to us," Buck said of recent efforts to facilitate the land-back initiative. "Usually, the lands have been — like Spirit Island — desecrated ... looted, with our people's remains on display. So for someone to to be working to get federal land back that did such devastation to our original homelands, a site that's so important, it's a huge deal." Tap the link ...