First Nations Development Institute Awards $432,000 to Support 24 Native Youth Programs

LONGMONT, Colorado (October 26, 2016) – First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) today announced the selection of 24 American Indian organizations and tribes to receive grants through its Native Youth and Culture Fund (NYCF) for the 2016-17 funding cycle. The grants total $432,000.

First Nations launched the NYCF in 2002 with generous support from Kalliopeia Foundation and other foundations and tribal, corporate and individual supporters. The NYCF is designed to enhance culture and language awareness, and promote youth empowerment, leadership and community building. To date under this fund, First Nations has awarded 328 grants to Native youth programs throughout the U.S., totaling $5.55 million.

These are the 2016-2017 projects:

1. Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Poplar, Montana, $18,615 – The grant will support activities in the Fort Peck Language and Culture Department Summer Program, including field trips, medicinal plant digging, cultural activities, and language lessons in both the classroom and within ceremonies.

2. Bad River Housing Authority, Odanah, Wisconsin, $20,000 – The “Baaga'adowe (lacrosse)” project returns a sporting tradition to Bad River. Mentors, players and others will reintroduce baaga'adowe to the community. The program will include training in the history, language, team-building, values and technical skills of the sport.

3. California Indian Basketweavers Association, Woodland, California, $10,000 – "Awl Yeah" (Youth Engaging in Arts History) will engage youth in learning about traditional basketweaving from elders, including gathering, preparation and storage of materials. Youth will create videos of their experience and share them through social media.

4. Cheyenne River Youth Project, Inc., Eagle Butte, South Dakota, $10,000 – This project will engage youth in traditional art mediums such as drum making and beading while providing them with professional development to help turn their artistic ideas into businesses. It will also engage elders who will create art with the youth while sharing their wisdom and traditional knowledge.

5. Chief Joseph Foundation, Lapwai, Idaho, $18,900 – "Riding in the Roundup" gives reservation youth an opportunity to learn about traditional Nez Perce culture and the historical and cultural significance of the horse. Tribal elders will share their knowledge and hand down traditions to the youth through the creation of traditional dress and regalia.

6. Dzil Dit L’ooí School of Empowerment, Action and Perseverance, Navajo, New Mexico, $20,000 – The "Strengthening and Reclaiming Diné Culture and Tradition through Kinaaldá (Puberty Ceremonies)" project will provide important rites of passage for both boys and girls, connecting youth culturally and spiritually to their history and place, supporting holistic wellness, and reinforcing bonds between youth, elders and family.

7. Four Directions Development Corporation, Orono, Maine, $20,000 – Under the “Wabanaki Marketplace Youth & Culture Program,” students will develop products to sell online, attend small-business and financial capabilities workshops, and connect with others in Maine and beyond with whom they can share the beauty and richness of Wabanaki art.

8. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, Wisconsin, $18,250 – In the "Waatebagaa (Changing Leaves) Gathering," tribal elders will engage numerous tribal youth in learning traditional Anishinaabe autumn activities during a two-day event. Conservation officers will also demonstrate procedures for utilizing treaty-reserved rights, as well as safe harvesting skills. This program aims to increase tribal youth knowledge in harvesting and protecting natural resources and environmental stewardship, while promoting natural resource careers.

9. Ho-Chunk Nation, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, $14,630 – In the “Digital Storytelling Pilot,” students will learn to understand their own identities and what it means to be Ho-Chunk through the creation and publication of an online story that discusses an object from their own homes. These stories will utilize museum terms, Ho-Chunk terms, historic information and cultural knowledge about their chosen objects.

10. The Hopi School, Inc., Hotevilla, Arizona, $17,380 – The “Hopitutuqaiki Summer Arts Program” serves students in the areas of Hopi language, arts and crafts, and values and culture. This project develops basic Hopi language skills for children ages 4 and 5 through daily preschool activities in the arts and academics, and field trips that bring together classroom and cultural ideas.

11. Keres Children's Learning Center, Pueblo de Cochiti, New Mexico, $20,000 – The “Across the Generations: Elders to Children” program serves children ages 2.5 to 7 and involves elders who are helping identify traditional knowledge, practices and beliefs to develop into lessons for the classroom, cementing intergenerational relationships traditional to Cochiti. This is a crucial step in reclaiming the education of children and revitalizing the language. Cochiti elders will also continue to build the library by recording books in the Keres language.

12. Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Pembroke, North Carolina, $20,000 – Under the Lumbee Chapter’s "Unlocking Silent Histories" project, youth will produce short documentaries that capture, represent and revitalize disappearing cultural knowledge, traditions and languages. The program is designed to develop youth leaders who use the film production and technology skills they acquire to teach new groups of youth. Unlocking Silent Histories is a nonprofit that opens spaces for Indigenous youth to critically analyze how they are represented in the media and to creatively express their perspectives.

13. Ogallala Commons, Inc., Nazareth, Texas, $10,200 – This grant supports Community Internships for Native Partners 2016. These internships can range from four to 10 weeks and are available for students who are sophomores in high school to college and graduate students, or adults looking to build new skills. Interns are exposed to experiences essential to living in the Great Plains, such as supporting local food production, stewarding natural resources, learning and sharing local history, youth engagement and entrepreneurship, community celebrations, public speaking, fostering a sense of place, and career-path development.

14. Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, $20,000 – Working with Dina Kagan, an award-winning local filmmaker, the “Pascua Yaqui Youth Filmmaking Project” will teach youth the basic skills of documentary and narrative filmmaking. They will produce three short films on the subject of their choice and will also record several Pascua Yaqui elders sharing Native legends and myths, creating a compilation of all recordings to be preserved at the reservation library. A longer narrative film based on one of the stories will be produced and screened on the reservation and at the Native Eyes Film Showcase.

15. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Nixon, Nevada, $20,000 – The “Cultural Summer Day Camp” is designed to teach elementary youth Paiute culture and heritage through language immersion and through classes on traditional Paiute dances, songs, games and construction of traditional clothing.

16. Quileute Tribe, La Push, Washington, $20,000 – The "Quileute Youth Telling the Quileute Story" project will provide tribal youth with new skills in the field of video production. Youth will complete 64 hours of workshops provided by area television professionals. They will apply the skills they have learned to create a series of videos and documentaries that capture Quileute history, culture and contemporary life, and which will serve as means of preserving and documenting the history and traditions of the tribe.

17. Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, $20,000 – “Brave Girls,” a project of the Leadership Institute at the Santa Fe Indian School, develops leadership skills and provides mentoring opportunities for the young women who are part of the Student Living Program. Community partnerships assist in serving and educating the young women with professional guest speakers and mentors who further their leadership development.

18. Santo Domingo Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico, $19,705 – The "Pull Back to Launch Forward" project will utilize approximately 30 Native youth ages 13 to 21 as mentors to 50 youth ages 9-12 in teaching the traditional practice of bow and arrow making, traditional hunting, and other cultural practices.

19. Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Reservation, Suquamish, Washington, $14,320 – The Suquamish Tribe's Sports and Recreation Department, in collaboration with the tribal language program and the Natural Resources Department, will provide two one-week-long cultural day camps for youth ages 8 to 14. The culture camps will be based around the theme "the teachings of the Longhouse” and will introduce youth to Suquamish language and culture.

20. Tewa Women United, Española, New Mexico, $20,000 – The "Butterfly Wings" project will implement an innovative and comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health education by strengthening and expanding the core components of the A'Gin Healthy Sexuality Body Sovereignty Project. It will serve girls and young women from the Tewa-speaking pueblos of Nambé, Ohkay Owingeh, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara and Tesuque.

21. Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, Porcupine, South Dakota, $20,000 – Lakȟotiya Škiŋčiyapi develops the leadership skills and cultural knowledge of high school students in order to help mentor elementary and middle school children in athletics and health. Mentors are taught Lakota vocabulary, athletic and health information, and will learn about how the ehaŋni Lakȟol wičhouŋ was bound with physical activity. Youth will also develop personal success plans for their future, including education, job, language and culture goals, and healthy lifestyle goals.

22. Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association, Belcourt, North Dakota, $20,000 – The “Artistic Renewal and Preservation Native American Dance Troupe” provides an opportunity for Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa youth to learn traditional dances, create traditional regalia, beadwork and moccasins, and showcase their artistic skills through performances in the community.

23. University of Arkansas / Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, Fayetteville, Arkansas, $20,000 – The grant supports the Native Youth in Food & Agriculture Summer Leadership Summit III (2016). The summit encourages, supports and provides education and development to Native youth, with the intention of developing the next generation of food leaders in Indian Country.

24. Utah Diné Bikéyah, Salt Lake City, Utah, $20,000 – The "Building Native American Youth Cultural Awareness and Leadership" project aims to engage, motivate and train local Native youth in documenting, mapping and archiving traditional knowledge and activities across the Bears Ears landscape. Working with tribal elders and spiritual leaders, the project will provide exposure and training for Ute Mountain Ute youth in the methods and applications of utilizing traditional knowledge and mapping cultural values.

About First Nations Development Institute

For 36 years, using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own – be they land, human potential, cultural heritage or natural resources – and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.firstnations.org.