The Prairie Island Indian Community opened Island Peži on Saturday. PIIC has its own cannabis regulatory ordinance with the state’s cannabis market opening in 2025.
From Post Bulletin by Rebecca Mitchell June 29 2024
PRAIRIE ISLAND, Minn. — After over a yearlong wait since the state of Minnesota approved recreational cannabis use, hundreds of people stood in line for the opening of the first recreational cannabis dispensary in Southeast Minnesota.
The Prairie Island Indian Community opened Island Peži with flower, pre-roll, vaporizer and edible products on Saturday, June 29. The name Peži means grass in the Dakota language. The store, near Welch and Red Wing, Minnesota, sits at 6030 Sturgeon Lake Road, adjacent to the Dakota Station convenience store and Treasure Island Resort & Casino.
On Saturday morning, people steadily joined the long line wrapping the parking lot towards the casino. A few people wore T-shirts with phrases such as “want to get high,” “welcome to marijuana country” and “enjoy cannabis.” The store prepared for 12 hours of customers throughout the day, along with food trucks, music and products for sale outside the store.
“With the supply in Minnesota being super new, it’s challenging to find some partners, so for us being able to do tribal trade with White Earth is huge. A long time ago tribes used to do that and our people used to do that is trade back and forth. So we think it’s very awesome that we have the opportunity to go back to that,” said Blake Johnson, president of CBH, Inc. a PIIC corporation created to manage the tribe’s cannabis-related economic development interests.
White Earth Nation, which opened Waabigwan Mashkiki in August 2023 in west-central Minnesota, supplies the flower products. The Red Lake Nation’s NativeCare was the state’s first recreational dispensary to open. Minnesota law allows tribes to sell cannabis products as of 2023.
While Island Peži is regulated through the tribe’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, Johnson also thanked the businesses represented in the store, such as Carpe Diem, Nebula and Slay Beverage. He said they focus on partnering with Indigenous, Black and women-owned businesses. Dakota people also “view cannabis as a medicine,” Johnson shared with the Post Bulletin.
The store opened a few days early for staff training, including working with customers and answering questions about the products. Customers Christy Childs and Seanna Wildrums, of the Prairie Island Indian Community, said staff were welcoming and helpful. People must be 21 years old and above to enter the store, and cannabis cannot be consumed on the property.
On Friday, the store had 580 customers. A limit of 15 people are allowed in the store at a time. People remarked on the beauty, the light and airy nature and the “calm vibe” of the store.
“We’re just excited to be open and be able to have a place in Minnesota now that has cannabis for the people of Minnesota and the surrounding states,” Johnson said. PIIC has its own cannabis regulatory ordinance with the state’s cannabis market opening in 2025.
After visiting a dispensary in Las Vegas, Childs said the Prairie Island store is “way more inviting.” Both Childs and Wildrums were looking for lower dose flowers and hope to come back for CBD roll-ons to help with muscle pain.
“Listening to people in line it felt like they were very excited also about this,” Childs said.
As an additional economic business for the tribe, Johnson said the dispensary sales will support health care and education. The store also accepts online orders for pick-up at the store.
People who traveled from Minneapolis had to navigate poor road conditions due to the state’s flooding. A flood warning remains in place for the Mississippi River near Red Wing with the river cresting this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The high water levels on area rivers also closed County Road 54 between 185th Street in Hastings and 200th Street. A detour to the casino is in place from Highway 316 to 200th Street East.
Island Peži is set to be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. While talking with people in line, Wildrums said said the community-based store includes people from PIIC and people traveling from nearby cities.
“I feel like it brings in people from the Prairie Island Indian Community and then also people from surrounding areas like Red Wing, Hastings, Cities,” Wildrums said. “So people that are out of town … I hope they have a great feeling like we did.”
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