Awarded Grants

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Kahua Imua translates into two equally important meanings - fortifying a strong foundation and embracing the potential of future generations. We believe a strong foundation begins with family lifestyles, a commitment from parents and grandparents to prioritize Hawaiian culture and language in the home, and a confidence in cultural identity that extends beyond the conventions of our modern, urban lives. After generations of oppression, there needs to be a conscious and powerful shift in the way we raise and educate our children, the true wealth of all cultures. As children grow their resource base and skill, they become the powerful foundation which we need to progress our nation. Kahua Imua equips families with the knowledge, resources, and tools to re-prioritize Hawaiian culture and language in the home.

This project will increase tribal environmental asset control on or near Native lands.

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.

This project responds to the critical food shortages by further developing the capacity for elders and community members to grow food. It utilizes a combination of demonstration and on-site assistance to successfully develop new gardens. Impact data will include food grown and changes in participant attitudes toward fresh foods.

This project will help create educational food gardens that are sustainable and beneficial to the land through the utilization of local resources. Community members will have the opportunity to learn the process of site preparation, planting, nurturing, harvesting, and preserving of traditional and non-traditional foods that relies on harvested rainwater.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The PNW Canoe Journey takes place every year and some of our board members suggested we attend the festivities in July. By building a kayak, we will be able to not just attend, but participate. This grant will allow us to not only build a traditional watercraft, but bring our local Attuan’s together and learn a traditional skill.

This project will create access to nutrition and other disease prevention and health promotion services for our Elders and work to reduce hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition of our older adults. It will also promote socialization and the overall health and well-being of our Elders.

The project will increase the presence of language in the community, and number of Kalispel language speakers helping to revitalize and retain the Kalispel language, creating language connections in the community and within families where language may have been lost. The curriculum and learning path will be shared with tribes.

This project will enable Quechan Indian Tribe to increase their capacity to continue their existing drought mitigation efforts.

This project will create a pilot ʻāina momona plan to cultivate and increase indigenous food access for the Native Hawaiian Community within the North Shore of Oahu. MLEF will also leverages feedback and lessons-learned from the pilot year to inform cultivating 10-acres of native food systems in the next 5-years.