Ihduwiyayapi: Advancing Indigenous
Early Childhood Education
2021 – 2029
About The Program
The American Indian College Fund (College Fund) has supported programming in Indigenous Early Childhood Education (IECE) since 2011. The Ihduwiyayapi Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education program centers on building Indigenous strengths-based systems of care and learning in Native communities, the College Fund is guided by five domains that are critical to IECE across tribal communities. These domains are:
The Ihduwiyayapi: Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education program at the College Fund supports engagement with tribal college and university (TCU) partners to build the capacity of their early childhood education degree programs and improve teacher education.
The term Ihduwiyayapi can be translated from Dakota to “they are getting ready.” Its meaning conveys that those involved in the programming are preparing themselves and their programs for what will come next, they are preparing a foundation for the advancement and future of Indigenous Early Childhood Education.
This program encourages TCU grantees to participate in and support the following six-part program components:
2024 Ihduwiyayapi: Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education Program Convening in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Ihduwiyayapi
They are getting ready.
Grantees 2024-2027
Aaniiih Nakoda College (Ft. Belknap)
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Little Priest Tribal College
Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
Nebraska Indian Community College
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Tohono O'odham Community College
Grantee 2023-2025
College of Menominee Nation
Grantees 2023-2024
Aaniiih Nakoda College (Ft. Belknap)
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Little Priest Tribal College
Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
Sitting Bull College
Tohono O'odham Community College
Grantees 2022-2023
College of Menominee Nation
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Navajo Technical University
Stone Child College
Sitting Bull College
Ihduwiyayapi 2021-2022 Pilot Program
The Ihduwiyayapi: Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education program partners with tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) to build the capacity of their early childhood education programs and improve teacher education through family and community outreach, enhanced child developmental pedagogy, pathways development, enhanced capacity, and engagement in national conversations about ECE best practices and lessons learned.
The program piloted in 2021 through $600,000 and $350,000 grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Heising-Simons Foundation, respectively. The Bezos Family Foundation has since committed a $5.3 million grant over four years of a broader $11.3 million program plan.
Grantees 2021-2022
Pilot Cohort
Blackfeet Community College
College of Menominee Nation
Diné College
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Little Priest Tribal College
Navajo Technical University
Northwest Indian College
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Stone Child College
Related Blogs
Sakhíb naúŋžiŋpi “Standing Together”
By Dr. Chris Fried, Professor and Co-Project Director and Dr. Derek Stewart, Professor and Co-Project Director The Sitting Bull College early childhood education program was awarded the Ihduwiyayaypi: Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education grant from the...
Building the College of Menominee Nation’s Capacity through Culture, Community, Connections, and Collaboration
In the spring of 2022, the American Indian College Fund awarded the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) the Ihduwiyayapi: Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education Grant for its teacher education program, which is a community-centered and multi-faceted approach to early childhood education that builds on CMN’s current capacity to teach and train early childhood educators to graduate with the skills to be fully equipped to teach the Menominee Nation’s littlest learners.
Finding the Trail Left for Us
How do we reclaim what Indigenous education is in our communities? This is the question that Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Child Development program is pursuing. Here are four lessons we have learned along the way. A post by Govinda Budrow, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Ihduwiyayapi Project Administrator.
