IN-DEPTH

Nancy Swanson prepares to place a handful of tobacco in the Mississippi as part of a sunrise ceremony on Wednesday, May 1 to commemorate the beginning of American Indian Month. The ceremony concluded with a special tribute to missing and murdered indigenous women.

5/6/2019, 7:10am

Remembering the women the world forgot

By Dylan Miettinen

According to a report released last May by the Urban Indian Health Institute, there are more than 5,700 cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the U.S. Of those, only 116 are logged in the Department of Justice’s missing persons database. 

Geography undergraduate student Cole Anderson poses for a portrait in the skyway between Blegen Hall and the Social Sciences Building on Thursday, April 18. Anderson's geography classes are in Blegen Hall and his advisor's office is in the Social Sciences Building, but he can't use the skyway because there aren't automated push plates to open the doors.

4/29/2019, 1:05am

Day-to-day life differs for those with disabilities at the University

By Audrey Kennedy

Cole Anderson uses seven elevators to get from his apartment to his first class of the day. He’s usually forced to wait to get in elevators because they’re too full —  often, he sees able-bodied people crowd in while people with mobility aids, like those with scooters or wheelchairs, are left waiting outside. Other times, he gets stuck between buildings, watching students use the single-person-wide ramp in the West Bank Skyway as a walkway.

Blake Downing poses for a portrait outside Appleby Hall on Saturday, April 13. Downing lost his mother when he was 14 which impacted his mental health when he moved to a new high school and eventually away from home to attend the University of Minnesota. He now meets regularly with seven other students in Appleby Hall as part Student Counseling Services which helped introduce a support system into Downing's life that he says has been "life changing."

4/15/2019, 12:58am

'I am not alone': UMN students' silent grief

By Michelle Griffith

Blake Downing is graduating from the University of Minnesota in May and preparing for graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley. In addition to the stress of graduating, he's shouldering an additional burden: His mom won't be there to see him accept his diploma.