Awarded Grants

General Operating Support

This project will enable Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance to increase the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe's capacity to continue work on their Tribe's carbon project and manage four University of Michigan graduate students to carry out a tribal land focused cooperative research project in partnership with First Nations.

Conference sponsorship to support an event being held to Honor and Celebrate the Return of Ancestral Corn Seeds to the Navajo Nation in May 2023.

Our program is designed to provide a safe space for the community to come learn about traditional Haudenosaunee agricultural methods of planting, growing, harvesting, seed keeping, food preparation, food storage, tool making, and crafting.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Ojibwe immersion education is vastly different from monolingual English education. Ojibwe immersion educators often have to develop and create their own curriculum, resources, and assessments. Monolingual English schools have access to a plethora of resources, from classroom visuals (posters) to a wide variety of published curriculum to assessments. Therefore, Miin is working to create a network of all Ojibwe immersion schools and programs to support each other. One of the ways Miin is doing this is by providing a professional development training. Many times immersion schools are connected to a monolingual English school, and they have mandatory professional development training for the teachers. However, this professional development is geared towards Western Education of monolingual English speakers. The professional development training which Miin will provide is specifically designed for Ojibwe immersion educators, and is developed with Ojibwe-centric self-determined pedagogy grounded in Ojibwe language, worldview, and spiritual lifestyle. The training will be on Ojibwe language assessments and development. All of the immersion programs have asked for help with development and use of Ojibwe language assessments. The second part of our project is to continue to nurture the community of Ojibwe immersion educators which spans from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario. This will be done by providing the opportunity for them to meet and collaborate in-person. Miin will host a begining of the school year networking event, with a keynote speaker. Thus, allowing for educators to meet and deepen their connections across the schools and communities. These connections will help to provide a support system for the school year.

General Operating Support

This project will create multiple opportunities for tribal members to learn how to garden, engage in traditional food harvesting, and how to preserve foods. We will utilize traditional knowledge keepers and master gardeners to share information about food systems, restoring our relationships with foods, and increasing tribal members' food sovereignty.

This Project will create economic connections between Tribal food producers (fishermen, farmers, ranchers) and Tribal institutions by generating information on product needs and Tribal production capacity. It will also leverage existing storage and transportation capacity of Ziibimijwang Inc to link producers to Tribal institutional consumers.

Building off of previous First Nations awards, we plan to increase value of tribal caught salmon by utilizing technical, economic, and relevant social media leverage for tribal product branding to control shifting post-covid, retail-direct to-the-consumer markets.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) In January 2023, Saad K'idilyé hosted a multi-day strategic planning session to create a comprehensive plan for the organization. Completion of this plan was integral not only for clarity on how to expand programming but also provide clear direction of future funding needs. A major concern for the organization is sustainability. In addressing our funding approach, the attending group identified online giving as a great feasible revenue stream. Saad K'idilyé has laid the ground work to create an online presence through their website and multiple social media accounts but have been unable to remain consistent with online engagement. All staff time is dedicated to maintaining programming. The planning group recognized there is a missed opportunity to engage online giving through their website and social media and proposed that the organization hire a website/social media coordinator. This position would work with Saad K'idilyé to produce consistent content and inspire followers to support the organization. Funding from First Nation Development Institute would allow Saad K'idilyé to work towards sustainability and follow through on suggestions made in our strategic plan.