Diversity Foundation of Minnesota Inc

The Diversity Foundation of Minnesota (DF) is a Non-Profit "All Volunteer" organization primarily serving Native (Dakota) Reservations across the Great Plains,  with dedicated efforts to "Right Historic Wrongs", making amends for US Govt's many historic Injustices & Intergenerational Trauma, suffered by our Original Dakota People,  who for millenia had lived & called Southern Minn. their "Ancestral Homeland" until 1851, when US Government's unscrupulous treaties, forced the Dakota to small SW Minn. prison camps (aka reservations) where further broken promises & starvation led to aftermath of the 1862 US-Dakota War, Mankato's Execution of "38 Dakota Warriors", with 1700 prisioners held outside over winter at Ft Snelling POW,  until spring 1863, when US soldiers herded 1300 Dakota survivors onto overcrowded boats & exiled to SD's Crow Creek POW & other destitute locations,  where majority Dakota descendants continue to struggle under "near 3rd World" living conditions yet today. (See "Crow Creek the Forgotten People") 

Since 1995, Diversity Foundation (DF) volunteers have been filming & documenting hundreds Video hours Native elders "untold" stories & little known chapters of American history.  DF has also helped facilitate, film & photograph numerous Euro-Native American "Reconciliation" events across Southern Minnesota (ie Mankato, Winona, Rochester, Twin Cities, Wabasha, Pipestone etc) DF was also invited to document Native elders stories & events at many D/L Reservations across Great Plains & Canadian Dakota Reserves.  Fundraising continues to be an Urgent need for DF to hire media technicians & editors to complete DF digitizing, editing & transform these "Living History" Video recordings & over 60,000 photos, into a series of historic/educational documentaries available for a wide variety of Native & non-Native audiences (ie schools, colleges, families, media & history centers, broadcast documentaries etc)  

Beginning in the late 1990's DF's CEO Ed Lohnes (Spirit Lake Dakota) & Ex Dir Lyle Rustad partnered with late Santee elder Rod Steiner in facilitating humanitarian relief drives across southern Minn. communities, churches, schools & colleges, delivering 30+ semi loads used beds, furniture, clothes, food & other household items, out to SD's Crow Creek, Santee & other economically disadvantaged Dakota tribes. 

Also in 2002, DF begin organizing "Used Toy" drives across southern Minnesota communities ( Dakota's Ancestral Homeland) when Rod and his Chief Wabasha family relatives invited DF out to film "Crow Creek's 1st Dakota Memorial" at Ft Thompson's Big Bend Dam.  Over the past 2+ decades, DF has begin partnering with Minnesota's USMC "Toys For Tots" program, delivering "Toys & Hope" to thousands of disadvantaged Native Youth & families from Dakota/Lakota Reservations across the Great Plains, where the majority these Tribes had no TFT alternative.   

DF was fortunate in 2019, when National USMC TFT Commander designated Diversity Foundation as one of USMC's 800 National TFT Coordinators,  where we delivered TFT to 15,000 impoverished Native Youth. In 2021,  DF's USMC Native TFT added Minnesota & Wisconsin Chippewa Tribes, increasing DF's Native Communities & youth served to 26,000. We have since added others including the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma Youth. This past 2024 Christmas, DF delivered Toys & Books to over 45,000 youth from 29 Tribal schools & Reservations across Great Plains. (2 Toys & 1 Book per child)    Also during 2020 Covid19 Pandemic,  South Korean President Moon Jae-In's Govt donated over million KN95 masks, shields & sanitizers to US Dept. of Veteran's Affairs & Don Loudner's National American Indian Veterans (NAIV) to Express South Korean's Appreciation to the Legendary Navajo Nation's "WWII Codetalkers" (& other Tribal Codetalkers) who helped USMC defend South Korea during WWII & Korean War.  It was a Great Honor when Commander Loudner contacted DF to help organize & deliver over 100,000 Covid-19 KN95 masks to Navajo Codetalker families & our Great Plains Reservation's Military Veterans, elders & their families.  Mr Loudner, a Korean War Veteran, Co-founded & served as Commander of National American Indian Veterans (NAIV) passed away in 2025, at age 92.  DF filmed & has produced a Donald E Loudner Sr Memorial Tribute Video, attached below.       

See DF's Euro-Native American Reconciliation Programs & Native TFT photos attached below