Jesse and I spent Sunday night and all day Monday at the Fond du Lac reservation near Duluth for a lacrosse camp put on by the Minnesota Swarm, the Native American Law Enforcement Summit and the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe. I was there to write about the camp and to take some pictures for The Circle newspaper and several other native publications on behalf of the Swarm. Jesse was there to hang out with the other native youth and her favorite all time lax player, the great Travis Hill. We had to rush back to The Cities late Monday afternoon, me for a school board meeting and Jesse for lacrosse playoffs (Eastview B beat Burnsville 6-4 to start the tourney — go, Lightning!)

Below are some pix from the camp. I’ll post links to the story when it’s done.

About 150 native journalists, multimedia artists and entrepreneurs gathered in St. Paul for the annual Native American Journalists Association Conference. It was fun to see old friends and colleagues, but bittersweet to see how shrunken the organization has become over the past four or five years. I participated in a pilot program funded by the Ford Foundation through Unity: Journalists of Color to promote entrepreneurship among people of color. I was paired with native radio legend John Gregg, who is working to start a radio station in Sisseton, SD. Also met some other really smart, entrepreneurial native people who are starting businesses or nonprofits, including Rose High Bear, Deb Krol and Priscilla Wolfe. Joining me as mentors and faculty in the program were Rod Colon, Jodi Rave, Julie Sandidge, Doug Mitchell and Alli Joseph. Read more about the program and its participants here.

During the weeklong NAJA conference (hey, did I mention that we designed the conference logo?), we celebrated the life of our friend Minnie Two Shoes with her family, visited, laughed and told stories into the early morning hours.

Take a look at the videos below to see what the student journalists produced at the conference, as well as coverage of some of the speakers at the gathering from Paul DeMain’s Indian Country TV.

The final cut of the student project at the conference

Ojibwe writer and language teacher Jim Northrup speaks on the Power of Words

Michael Burgess, former executive director of NAJA and current chairman of the Comanche tribe, addresses the conference attendees

Photo courtesy of Nerf

The N-Strike Stampede Blaster, the first fully automatic dart gun, is just what I need to survive the zombie apocalypse. See it in action here. Coooool.

It must be Day to Disparage Newspapers (What are they?)

From one of my favorite new comics, Scenes from a Multiverse:

Hat tip to Charles Apple at www.visualeditors.com and to Jim Romenesko at www.poynter.org

Our honors grad

For once, we got pictures posted pretty quickly. Here are scenes from Katie’s Eastview High School graduation tonight, at which I was able to hand her her diploma. I’m still coming down off the high. After I handed her the diploma, we fist bumped, then hugged. I held it together better than I expected — no real tears. Katie helped by making funny faces at me during the ceremony from her seat in the audience.

The rest of the photos are included in the slideshow below. Or click here to go to our Flickr feed and look at all of the sets.

Class of 2010

Tonight is Katie’s big night, graduating with the Class of 2010 at Eastview High School! I can’t believe this day is here already. We’ll be going out to dinner with my dad and stepmom, then over to the ceremony. I get to hand Katie her diploma and speak on behalf of the School Board at the ceremony. I am very honored. Laurie has spent the past 36 hours at the school decorating for the all-night senior party. We haven’t seen much of her these past couple of days. She designed all of the signs and some of the cooler decorations you’ll see in the slideshow below. [SPOILER ALERT: SENIORS, DO NOT LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS UNTIL AFTER THE PARTY]

If you can’t attend the ceremony tonight (rain is chasing us indoors, so there is limited seating), you can watch it live here at 7 p.m. Central Time.

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SPOILER ALERT

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Jesse with her Presidential Award

Jesse received the Presidential Academic Award at Falcon Ridge Middle School on June 3. She also performed before the ceremony with the percussion ensemble. More pictures in the Flickr slideshow below.

Here are some photos of Katie, Breanna, Kayla and Brett as they get ready to head to the 2010 Eastview High School prom at the International Market Square in Minneapolis on May 29.