The St. Paul, Minnesota-based Northwest Area Foundation has made a two-year, $1 million grant to the American Indian College Fund for the Tribal College Leaders in Community Innovation Project. This competitive awards program will honor five tribal colleges conducting programs contributing to vibrant and healthy communities. The award areas will focus on children and families; health and wellness; financial literacy and entrepreneurship; or citizenship.
Ilisagvik College President Pearl Brower was presented with a Proclamation of Support for the Uqautchim Uglua (language nest) Program by Alaska’s North Slope Bureau Mayor Charlotte Brower. It will provide an additional $153,000 in funding for the program, which is also a participant in the American Indian College Fund’s Sacred Little Ones program, funded by the Kellogg Foundation.
In November I had the opportunity to attend my first professional gathering as the new President of the American Indian College Fund. Combined with my attendance at my first meeting of the Board of the Native Ways Federation during the annual National Congress of American Indian conference in October, this event helped me understand the importance of charitable standards of performance for organizations that are raising money in Indian country.
Growing up in an urban environment was not easy for us. A lot of nights we weren’t sure whether or not we would eat dinner. It was in the Eastside of London Ontario, Canada where the struggle of survival and the knowledge of the “real world” began. We were not exposed to our culture other than at powwows; we were not familiar with our traditional languages, nor did our family participate in ceremony. As adults we understand the power of ceremony, culture and prayer; this is something that we agree is beneficial if it is present every day.
Growing up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in south central South Dakota was a real experience. I have seen things that people only get to imagine as they read a book. Heck, some people in this country do not even know where South Dakota is.
For me, this time of year means travel. It means recruiting for a program I care deeply about – the University of Colorado Upward Bound Program. My trips begin with a flight to a small town like Durango, Colorado or Fayetteville, North Carolina or in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sometimes I fly all day just to end up on a little commuter plane with two-seats on each side of the aisle, and fly through turbulence to land in a different place in a new state.
“You are what you eat” is a food saying I have already used on my blog, but for this particular post I felt I should use it again to jump into the thought. November is Native American Heritage Month and I felt I should do the term some justice in this blog to show my pride. I am Tohono O’odham and I have a rich heritage.
Louise Erdrich, 58, a celebrated writer, poet, and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, has won the National Book Award for her novel, “The Round House,” the second of a planned trilogy, set in her native North Dakota about an Ojibwe boy and his quest to avenge his mother’s rape.
went to work for the Blackfeet Tribe fresh out of high school. I planned to work for just a year, and then go to college. That year turned into 22 years. I went to college for the first time in my life just short of my 44th birthday. Had it not been for the Blackfeet Community College, I might not have ever gone to college. True, I had to start commuting 50 miles round trip again, but the upside was that my husband agreed to join me. He hadn’t ever gone to college either.
spent summers with family in Kaibab. When my aunt would speak Paiute to me, I did not understand at the time that she was trying to teach me the language. I did not know what she was saying to me and I would ask my cousin to translate. Her reply was that I needed to ask my aunt what she was saying to me.
