Fort Belknap Community Economic Development Corporation

Our project exemplifies how Native stewardship, traditional ecological knowledge & conservation partnerships will restore ecosystems, strengthen cultural identity, & support biodiversity.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Naedc is in the 2nd year of implementing a youth leadership initiative. Which is focused on creating more opportunities for the youth to learn, gain or acquire Aaniiih and Nakoda cultural-based knowledge, skills, and ways of being, in order to help empower them to live healthier lives. On the Ft. Belknap Indian reservation there is one cultural camp hosted on the North end. We want to in collaboration with other tribal programs serving our youth, provide and host a cultural camp on the South end of the reservation. August 2022 was the 1st annual Wasay Wakpa cultural camp in Lodgepole, MT. This year we plan to host cultural camps in LodgePole again plus in the Mission Canyon, outside of Hays, MT. The Cultural camp creates a space for all youth and their families to come together outdoors and to engage in various cultural-based activities such as making arts & crafts, native games, storytelling, ceremonies, traditional ethno botany, language building, poetry, and talking circles.

Travel Scholarship to attend NAFWS Annual Conference

Tribal Tourism Initiatives

Create three conservation areas at tribal bison fields & American Prairie Reserve's Antelope Creek campground and post wildfire rehabilitation areas in the Little Rocky Mountains for the reintroduction of native grasses & medicinal plants to help control soil erosion, improve water quality and increase wildlife habitats.

Tourism-related economic development

This project will increase the amount of community dollars spent at the Red Paint Creek Trading Post & Pantry, by upgrading the distribution vehicle & trailer to transport more food pallets and allow families the ability to stretch their monthly food dollars & purchase more food & critical items locally.

The ultimate purpose of the project is to create a new tipi & cabin campground, which includes a cultural & education village located on the southern end of the Fort Belknap reservation.

This project will create a vessel for local gardeners to deliver their produce to the store which would help increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables leveraging the findings of the food sovereignty assessment which called for more availability of such.

The kitchen project will help increase the knowledge of the different types of food preservation available, by utilizing NSF equipment to process locally grown produce. Also, to create an environment that supports residents in the Lodge Pole and other communities on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

The grant purpose is to 1) upgrade and maintain our existing recreational trail system and to create new trails to enhance our visitor experience. We will renovate our RV park office into a cabin rental and relocate cabin from Peoples Creek 2) Area Schools and Aaniih/Nakoda College will utilize these trails for outdoor classrooms in identifying native plants and medicine. Tourism dollars can then be spent at home creating economic development as well as developing and encouraging private entrepreneurs. 3) The trails will provide our tribal residents with a healthy option in our fight against diabetes, obesity and unhealthy hearts.

This project will increase local control over data on the local food system. This project will increase data driven knowledge and create community plans based on data collected from a community food sovereignty assessment.

The purpose of this grant is to create an alternative way to ensure healthy and fresh produce for the residents of Fort Belknap. A community garden has already been established, however this can only be accessed for a short growing season. A greenhouse will ensure fresh produce would be available longer. Having fresh produce year around is a needed resource that has been non-existent before. Fort Belknap is experiencing a high rate of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Fresh organic produce will ensure healthy eating habits and lifestyles prolonging lives and a better way of life on Fort Belknap.

The ultimate purpose is to develop a trail maintenance program that would consist of tribal trained youth in conservation and environmental methods. We also can utilize this to leverage more volunteers from Montana Conservation Corps and Americorps for additional workers to construct even more trails. This will provide a classroom effect for learning and training purposes for the area schools and the tribal college. It will serve as a health component for the tribal residents and the Tribal Health Department.