Woodland Heart launches Menominee youth cultural arts program

Menominee families have a new youth arts option this summer as Woodland Heart School of Song and Dance began building cultural programming centered on Menominee song, dance and visual art. The Indigenous-led nonprofit is still in its pilot phase, but it is already mentoring a small group of youth while developing three core efforts: 2-D art, traditional dance and a documentary series to preserve tribal songs and stories.

Woodland Heart is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with tax ID 33-2617278, and its stated mission is to strengthen tribal identity and artistic expression among Indigenous youth, especially the Menominee. The organization says it was created to give the community “a place of belonging,” and that its work is meant to be more than learning dance steps or singing melodies. It says the program is meant to connect young people to Menominee language, traditional songs and dances, and local harvesting practices tied to hunting, fishing and gathering.

That approach places Woodland Heart inside a broader Menominee effort to keep culture visible and practical for young people. At the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena, the third annual Honoring Indigenous Education Round Dance on March 1, 2025 drew more than 700 community members, including youth, families, students, educators and elders. Keshena Primary School and Menominee Tribal School have also created regalia closets so students can borrow ribbon skirts, shirts and other regalia for powwows and cultural events, removing a barrier for children who want to participate.

The new nonprofit also fits alongside language work already underway through MENOMINI yoU’s Wāqsecewan Language Campus, which hosts community open houses tied to language revitalization. Woodland Heart says its programming is part of the same long-term effort to build brighter futures through language and culture, with song, dance and arts serving as tools for identity, self-determination and everyday use.

That larger context carries weight in Menominee County, where the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin traces its origin story to the mouth of the Menominee River and its cultural museum says the tribe historically occupied more than 10 million acres across what is now Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Against that history, Woodland Heart’s youth classes and mentoring are being framed not as a side activity, but as another local institution aimed at passing culture to the next generation in visible, usable ways.