The woman referred to as the “heart and the backbone of the Mendota Dakota community” has announced her retirement.

After 32 years of volunteer work with the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community, Sharon Lennartson has announced her retirement as tribal chair. Her spirit name, Wakiya Waste Win, translates in English to Good Thunder Woman, reflecting the positive power one brings in their daily life.

When Lennartson, 78, first became involved with the organization, there were only a handful of members, few community events organized and little in the organizational coffers.

Members of the community said she built a robust organization, created a community food shelf, began hosting language classes and started cultural events like a regular inipi — a sweat lodge, prayer and feast ceremony at the historic Hypolite Dupuis House in Mendota — as well as an annual wacipi, or pow wow.

“She is the backbone and the heart of the community,” said Rita Chamberlain, a volunteer and honorary member with the Mendota Dakota tribe. “Everybody respects her and her wisdom. Without that, I don’t know what would happen to the tribe. She’s like the glue.”

Honorary member Samantha Walker, who said she also holds lineal roots to the Mendota Dakota people, is currently completing a master of legal studies program in indigenous peoples law at the University of Oklahoma.

The reason she enrolled? Sharon’s encouragement, she said.

Walker was helping catalog items at the office when Sharon planted the seed in Walker’s mind.

“She said, ‘It seems like you really have a knack for this. You should do something about it.’ I felt called, that I needed to do more, beyond just giving my mind,” Walker said. “She places such a fire in the belly of everyone she touches, to uplift and to make change in the community around them.”

Mary Kay Kennedy, also an honorary member of the tribe, agreed with Walker’s reflections. Kennedy has been volunteering with the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community for more than a year.

“She is a ball of energy that once one thing ends, she goes to the next thing on her list,” Kennedy said. “I think the native name Good Thunder Woman really captures the spirit of who she is.”

For her part, Lennartson said she felt fulfilled to look back on what she has been able to build within the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota tribe, that her passion for preserving Dakota culture, protecting the future of the tribe, and building lasting relationships within the community has been the foundation of her efforts.

“I love my community and my people,” Lennartson said.

The tribe has not yet announced Lennartson’s replacement.

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Sharon Lennartson’s retirement party

What: Members of the community will celebrate Sharon Lennartson and her decades of service to the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community. Her book, “Stolen Culture, Traditions, and Heritage,” will be for sale.

When: Wednesday, May 28. Set up will start at 3 p.m. Potluck from 4-6:30 p.m.

Where: St. Peter’s Church, 1405 Sibley Memorial Highway in Mendota Heights

RSVP: Rita Chamberlain at ritacham56@gmail.com

Today is Monday, May 26, the 146th day of 2025. There are 219 days left in the year. This is Memorial Day.

Today in history:

On May 26, 1940, Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.

Also on this date:

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the Montana Territory.

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Today in History: May 25, George Floyd killed by Minneapolis police

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924, which barred immigration from Asia and restricted the total number of immigrants from other parts of the world to 165,000 annually.

In 1927, the Ford Model T officially ended production as Henry Ford and his son Edsel drove the 15 millionth Model T off the Ford assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan.

In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee was established by Congress.

In 1954, an explosion occurred aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Rhode Island, killing 103 sailors.

In 1967, the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in Moscow following the SALT I negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. (The U.S. withdrew from the treaty under President George W. Bush in 2002.)

In 1981, 14 people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.

In 2009, California’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban but said the 18,000 same-sex weddings that had taken place before the prohibition passed were still valid. (Same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in June 2015.)

2009, President Barack Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2011, Ratko Mladić, the brutal Bosnian Serb general suspected of leading the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, was arrested after a 16-year manhunt. (Extradited to face trial in The Hague, Netherlands, Mladić was convicted in 2017 on genocide and war crimes charges and is serving a life sentence.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Sportscaster Brent Musburger is 86.
Singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks is 77.
Actor Pam Grier is 76.
Country singer Hank Williams Jr. is 76.
Celebrity chef Masaharu Morimoto is 70.
Actor Genie Francis is 63.
Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 63.
Musician Lenny Kravitz is 61.
Actor Helena Bonham Carter is 59.
Actor Joseph Fiennes is 55.
Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone is 54.
Singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill is 50.
Singer Jaheim is 47.

Buzzing after the Frost’s triple-overtime win Saturday night that gave Minnesota a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-five finals series against Ottawa, Taylor Heise needed to sleep.

It came remarkably fast and was remarkably sound.

“I slept very peacefully last night,” the Frost forward said.

Heise, who has a goal and six assists in two playoff series, said she and linemate, and former Gophers teammate Grace Zumwinkle usually have a non-alcoholic cocktail before games. But on Saturday, Heise had hers when she got home.

“I had a little Sprite and grenadine and it was great, put me right to sleep,” Heise said Sunday from Xcel Energy Center, where the team had an optional skate and received treatment for Monday’s potentially series-ending Game 4.

The Frost won the PWHL’s inaugural Walter Cup last season and are 3-0 in playoff series so far. But Minnesota has never clinched a playoff series at home. Winning it all again in front of Frost fans, Heise said, would be “a life-changing experience.”

That will be on the table in Monday’s 4 p.m. puck drop at the X.

“I don’t want to jinx it, by any means, (but) it would be life-altering,” said Heise, who hails from Lake City, Minn., near Red Wing. “Even some of us not from Minnesota know how important that would be.”

The recipe for that won’t be as simple as grenadine and Sprite. It would be impossible for this series to be closer at this point; all three games have ended in overtime with a 2-1 score.

The only time the Stanley Cup Final has had each of its first three games go to overtime was in 1951, when all five games between Montreal and Toronto went to OT.

The last time it happened in an NHL postseason was 2008, when Minnesota and Colorado went to overtime in the first three games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series, each game decided 3-2. The Wild led 2-1 before losing the next three games.

Forward Katy Knoll won Saturday’s game when she collected a shot that hit her in the torso and backhanded it to the near corner before Charge goalie Gwyneth Phillips — Knoll’s former teammate at Northeastern — could slide into position.

Asked Sunday if she had a bruise where the puck hit her, Knoll said, “Thankfully, my equipment did its job. It didn’t hurt, really.”

Britta Curl-Salemme scored both goals in the Frost’s 2-1 win on Thursday.

“Everyone on the two great teams in the finals wants it so bad, and I think that’s a (reason for) the low scoring,” said Ottawa forward Emily Clark, who scored the overtime winner in Game 1. “We’re seeing great goalies, great teams with depth on both sides. It’s fun hockey. We’re having a blast. So we’re excited that there is another game ahead of us.”

The recipe for winning this series will be more complicated than grenadine and Sprite, but the Frost have the advantage of having already done it.

“Lots of hard work, lots of dedication to the things we do well,” Heise said. “But also playing simple and fast. When we do that, we’re very successful. We’ll get our rest and come out with even more energy than we did (Saturday).”

PWHL FINALS

Who: Frost lead Ottawa in best-of-five series, 2-1
What: Game 4
When: 4 p.m. Monday
Where: Xcel Energy Center
TV/Radio: Fan Duel Sports Network North

Minnesota Frost center Taylor Heise models the team’s new home uniforms, unveiled Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024.
Minnesota Frost wing Grace Zumwinkle models the team’s new uniforms, unveiled Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (Courtesy of PWHL)

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Spend long enough in the major leagues, and the road trips start losing their novelty. You visit the same ballparks in the same cities. You stay at the same hotels and eat at the same restaurants.

But the road trip the Twins will kick off on Monday is anything but routine.

“It’s going to be as interesting of a trip as we’re going to have all year long,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The guys, I doubt most of them have even thought of it for one second. We know it as a staff. But we’re looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a nice challenge.”

This swing will take them first to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Rays before a cross-country flight to Seattle and then a four-game series in Sacramento, Calif., to finish it off. They’ll play in two cities that they’re not accustomed to — Tampa rather than St. Petersburg, and Sacramento as opposed to Oakland — and at two ballparks that typically host minor league games.

“We keep calling it the ‘Minor League Road Trip,’” starter Pablo López said.

And that it is.

When Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida last October, it tore up the roof at Tropicana Field and displaced the Rays, who this season are playing their home games at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training home.

“I remember seeing it live, and I remember seeing pictures of it immediately after it happened,” said Baldelli, a former Rays player and coach. “You feel a lot of emotions. You feel, mostly, disappointment and sadness and all that.”

Because of the displacement, the Rays have wound up in a stadium that does not have a roof. As a result, Major League Baseball shuffled the schedule to avoid potential weather issues during the potentially rainy Florida summer.

The Twins were initially supposed to host the Rays in Minneapolis this week, but their scheduled series here was flipped and will now take place over the Fourth of July weekend. That decision left the Twins with an extra-long road trip that includes travel between Florida and Washington.

López said he has been told to expect a flight that is nearly six hours long, and he already has plans for his teammates during it. Like he did last year during an off night in Detroit, López plans to host bingo, inviting those interested to the back of the plane. He’s planning on holding the game during hours two through four of the flight.

An off day in Seattle will precede a three-game series against the first-place Mariners before the Twins head south to Sacramento to take on the Athletics at their new home. The Athletics moved to Sutter Health Park this season and intend to play there for the near future before moving to Las Vegas down the line.

“There’s some curiosity of what it’s like,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “I know hitters, it’s a bandbox. I think we’re going to be a little excited to get some balls in the air there.”

Typically used to host the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, the Twins aren’t expecting the park will be similar to a major league facility. But they can handle a few minor annoyances for four days.

“It’s going to be quite the experience,” López said. “It’s going to be interesting to see the set up. It’s going to be interesting to see the layout, the fans showing up. … Obviously playing a big league game in those parks is definitely going to feel weird and different, but it’s 60 feet, six inches.”

Buxton joining trip

Byron Buxton is still day-to-day with a concussion suffered last week, but the center fielder is making the trip, a good sign for him and the Twins.

Buxton and Carlos Correa collided last Thursday in Baltimore. Correa returned on Friday and Buxton, Baldelli said, is “getting closer.”

“He ran (Sunday) out on the field,” Baldelli said. “We’re going assessment by assessment right now, but I think he’s ready to get back and play. But we need all the doctors to put all the check marks down and make sure that he’s ready. We have to make sure he’s good to go.”

Unlike Buxton, Matt Wallner (hamstring) is not making the trip to Florida, though his return on this road trip seems likely should his rehab assignment continue to progress well.

Briefly

Chris Paddack will start Monday night’s game in Tampa. … The base that Harrison Bader stole in the 10th inning on Sunday was the 100th stolen base of his career.

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