Nanitin Adeeshtłʼóół Weaving Strands of Knowledge: Native Arts and Culture Grant
2023 – 2026
About The Program
The American Indian College Fund’s Nanitin Adeeshtłʼóół Weaving Strands of Knowledge: Native Arts and Culture Grant Program supports TCUs in carrying out their cultural and community missions by providing place-based, culturally grounded learning opportunities in traditional and contemporary Native arts knowledge and skills for students, staff, faculty, and community members that will make an impact for future generations. TCUs provide Native arts programming based in place, traditional knowledge, language, culture, and community teachings to ensure that Native arts reach the communities they serve. TCUs have a responsibility as tribal and community learning institutions to provide resources and develop a new generation of Native artists, culture bearers, and knowledge teachers.
Goals of the program include:
- TCUs contribute to the advancement and innovation of Native arts by utilizing TCU Native Arts Curriculum and Credential Development Grants to increase academic learning opportunities.
- TCUs support visibility and health and thriving Native communities through community-based capacity-building programming.
- Supporting visibility and awareness for two-spirit and LQBTQ+ students, high school equivalency students and their families, elders, students and community members with disabilities, and student veterans and their families.
- Providing a supportive and respectful environment for wellness and mental health through Native arts as a form of healing, self-care, and expression.
- Guidance and feedback from cultural knowledge teachers and consultants to support the development and implementation of Native arts community workshops
Program Gallery
Grantees
Native Arts Curriculum Development Grants:
Aaniiih Nakoda College (Ft. Belknap)
Bay Mills Community College
Blackfeet Community College
College of Menominee Nation
College of the Muscogee Nation
Diné College
Fort Peck Community College
Haskell Indian Nations University
Iḷisaġvik College
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Little Big Horn College
Little Priest Tribal College
Navajo Technical University
Northwest Indian College
Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
Red Lake Nation College
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
Salish Kootenai College
Sinte Gleska University
Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Stone Child College
Tohono O'odham Community College
United Tribes Technical College
White Earth Tribal and Community College
Related Blogs
Connecting, Learning and Growing: Native Arts Convening
The American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) hosted a Native Arts convening in Seattle, Washington in September, 2018. Seven program Administrators of the Restoration and Preservation of Traditional Native Art Forms and Knowledge Grant participated in the Native Arts convening from the College of Menominee Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Leech Lake Tribal College, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sisseton Wahpeton College, Sitting Bull College and United Tribes Technical College.
Place-Based Learning as a Framework for Building Native Student Success
This is a collaborative series developed by the College Fund’s Environmental Sustainability, Native Arts and Early Childhood Education program initiatives. This is the first blog of a six-part series focused on place-based education.
Navajo Rug Weaving: Learnings from the Loom
Bridget Skenadore, Project Officer of Native Arts and Culture at the American Indian College Fund, had the opportunity to participate in the Heard Museum’s Navajo rug weaving workshop in November 2017. In her job capacity she has had the opportunity to learn about Traditional Native Art forms from the upper-Midwest and with this opportunity from the Heard Museum she was able to learn about a Traditional Native Art form from her culture.
Traditional Native Arts Sister Site Visit: Sitting Bull College’s Skirt-Making Workshop
This weekend, Denise McKay, a Tribal Elder from Fort Yates, North Dakota, brought me to a point in my life that inspired me to look differently at life and my surroundings. Listening to her stories, how she spoke about her mother with love, how she cradled everything that was taught to her, and how she spreads her knowledge to anyone who wants to learn put such a joy in my heart and my soul, I felt as if I would burst when I told my family.
