The Great Lakes Lifeways Institute is joining forces with Indigenous nations in Minnesota and Ontario to build three elm bark community lodges as part of a growing effort to bring traditional lodges back to the region.

The lodges are among the first traditional lodges built in Minnesota in more than 100 years.

The institute has been working to build the lodges with the Prairie Island Indian and Lower Sioux communities in Minnesota, and the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario just south of the southern tip of Lake Huron.

“These grassroots projects brought together dozens of people, created powerful collaborative synergy between diverse communities and nations, all to create and reestablish traditional spaces for healing, growth, learning, teaching and even birthing,” said Great Lakes Lifeways founder and executive director Kevin Finney, in a recent Facebook post.