Grand Portage receives IRRRB funding to improve the Community Center

November is Native American Heritage Month. There are four tribal nations located within Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation’s service area: Grand Portage, and por­tions of Bois Forte, Fond du Lac and Leech Lake. All are sovereign, federally recognized tribes whose people have lived in northeastern Minnesota for centuries. Each has an independent relationship with the United States and state of Minnesota governments.

Billie Isham, Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation’s full-time Tribal Liaison, works to support govern­ment to-government relations between the agency and the four tribal nations. Isham fosters partnerships related to projects that impact community, business and work­force development. Recent projects supported by agency grants include a project to upgrade the infrastructure at the Grand Portage Community Center. The funding will pay for the replacement of the outdated and inefficient heating system, indoor swimming pool liner, and decking. The center houses the Oshki Ogimaag (Young Leaders) Charter School, which provides local, quality education with an emphasis on the Anishinaabe culture to grades K-6. In addition, the center is home to a tutoring program, after-school programming, youth summer camps, fitness center, gymnasium and the Elderly Nutrition Program.

“The projects our agency supported connected to the tribal nations are extremely important to tribal families, businesses and employers located within the reservations,” said Commissioner Mark Phillips, Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation. “Parents, children and families across northeastern Minnesota and in the region’s tribal nations need high-quality childcare, robust broadband, essential services, modern infrastructure, community gathering spaces and workforce training that creates opportunities for workers and the employers.”