BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Sandra Berlin was born in 1959 on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. She is an enrolled member of the White Earth Indian Reservation, although she has never resided there. She is the mother of four children, two boys and two girls, and has three grandchildren that live in Washington State. Sandra went to Northwest Technical College in Moorhead and earned a Legal Secretary degree. She also attended college to learn about music recording law and later to a beauty college. She likes to consider herself a "recovering hairdresser."

She is currently a field organizer for the Minnesota Indian Ecumenical Ministry. She is also a founding member of the Justice Circle in Moorhead, as well as being co-chair of Northern Plains Voices. She writes a monthly column in the Forum about Native American issues. She has been a volunteer in numerous organizations in Fargo-Moorhead during the 14 years she has lived here and her goal is to provide healing in Native American communities.

In this interview, Sandra Berlin discusses her role in the Justice Circle, the struggles and rewards facing that organization, and the effects that she and her fellow Circle members believe they have had on race relations in the Fargo-Moorhead area. She also describes the issues and difficulties facing the Native American population today, and the release of the Civil Rights Report ("The Status of Equal Opportunities for Minorities in Moorhead, Minnesota") in January of 2000.

Sandra Berlin was interviewed on April 25, 2002 by Melissa Anderson and Greg Roller

SAMPLES FROM THE INTERVIEW

ON THE RELEASE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS REPORT:

"Although [there was] a lot of negative stuff...when the report was released, the day it was released [on] January 31st, we had a community that was...there waiting, I think there was 250-300 people that were...waiting for the Minnesota Advisory to come and actually hand the report out and there has never been a community that's been...waiting for the report...The police department was there, education [faith community and city leaders]. Everybody was...waiting for it... I...spoke at that time, too, telling [people] that we need to look at this [together] and not to be defensive... [We need to] sit down and talk about what was in the report...do it in a [respectful] way...look at the issues and , you know, find solutions together as a community..."

ON HER WORK:

"...my goal is [to bring] healing in the Native communities.... In my own life I have had to go through a lot, and I still do, a lot of struggles...to find that healing, find some kind of reconciliation within the communities, especially through the churches in the Native American communities, [to] look at the issues, concerns that are out there and...bring about healing. [I assist in] forming new relationships and [networks at statewide and local levels, and developing] specific goals at [each level]."

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

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