Awarded Grants

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The organization’s roots are within the heart of Indian country. Approximately 40% of the population lives below the poverty line three times the US average of 13%, there are no grocery stores, mostly dirt roads, many homes still have no running water or electricity in their homes. According to the 2011 Draft Water Resource Development Strategy for the NN, "Families, which haul water for domestic purposes, spend the equivalent of $43,000 per acre-foot of water compared with $600 per acre-foot for typical suburban water users in the region. This Navajo water hauling cost is $133 per thousand gallons. This water is among the most expensive in the United States for a sector of the population that is among the poorest." Further the report states, "Per capita water use on the reservation ranges between 10 and 100 gallons per day depending upon the water system and the availability of the water supply. By comparison, the average per capita use for 80 neighboring non-Indian communities in the Western United States is 190 gallons per day." The work is in the arid southwest where water is scarce and in high demand. Billions of dollars are spent on transporting water from one watershed to another (Central Arizona Project, Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, and more recent the Western Navajo Pipeline Project). There is visible desertification, springs and wetlands are drying up, perennial streams are being threatened, and food production is oppressive. Climate change has magnified the need to act. The organization will bring focus back to the land and water. The organization will demonstrate that we DO NOT have to live in a food desert, that our land does not have to erode, and that our land can infiltrate the rain and our soils can be healthy enough to grow healthy vegetation for ourselves and animals. We can grow back to helping one another as we have in the past to achieve sustainability. We can heal ourselves by healing the land.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The inception of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center stemmed from the imperative to bridge ancestral pedagogy with contemporary scientific knowledge, yielding an educative and indispensable experience crucial for our historical and cultural comprehension. This grant opportunity addresses the recent acquisition of buildings by the Pueblo of Zuni from the Zuni Public School District (ZPSD), wherein the Museum has been selected to relocate to the former ZPSD Central Office. This transition necessitates financial assistance to establish a welcoming and enlightening ambiance, counteracting the neglect the area has endured since the school district's departure. The locality's present state, marked by graffiti and broken windows as expressions of community frustration, coupled with neglected landscaping, precipitates impending security concerns such as break-ins and pest infestations. Our proposed initiatives include the installation of artistic metal screens on windows, designed with emergency egress considerations, alongside the implementation of an advanced surveillance system to vigilantly monitor the premises and its environs. These additions are projected not only to safeguard the Museum, its staff, visitors, and assets, but also to contribute to the overall security of the neighborhood. In our novel setting, we are acutely attuned to the significance of language preservation, fueling our intent to cultivate a conducive learning environment and re-envision our exhibitions to facilitate intergenerational dialogues.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The Ochethi Sakowin Camp was a birthing place for our people. A (re)birth of ancient and new ideas and ways forward. I remember when the camp first closed in 2017, I felt a spectrum of emotions: I was sad, angry, hurt, embarrassed, confused, loved, joyous, and was deeply grieving. I felt like it was just over, that was it, an abrupt end to the biggest awakening in my life. Over the last six (6) and a half years there has been a processing period, as well as a grieving period. All that has been generated out of the Water is Life movement, and the dream of what could have been and could still be, has shifted the world in ways that are currently unfolding and also waiting to be shared and are continuously reverberating. We know that our future ancestors will benefit from the ways we stood up in those moments. We no longer wish to ask for permission to uplift and revitalize our lifeways. We know the health of our people depends on reclaiming and uplifting our practices around birth/postpartum/end of life and death and we're determined to share those teachings we're learning from our Elders with the rest of our community members.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The Oceti Sakowin Writers Society began with retreats at the Oak Lake Field Station near the Minnesota border in Brookings County, SD. When we became a Native-run, Native-led 501(c)3 the staff and leadership envisioned moving the retreat around to the communities and reservations of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate. This has provided a logistical challenge for an organization still building staffing and organizational capacity. With this grant, we would be able to research and build relationships with new venues allowing us to do a rotation of He Sapa, Mni Sose and further East. Access to the land is the primary aspect, however this is gatekept by settler colonial institutions and Western capitalism. Money for staffing, venue deposits, fundraising and awareness would go along way in ensuring the sustainability of our annual retreat for Oceti Sakowin writers.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The Cahuilla Language and Archival Collection Preservation Project aims to further the goals of the current archival project and language preservation initiatives at Malki Museum. Over the last 5 years we have aimed to focus on furthering the Cahuilla Language learning and programs that are taking place hosted at Malki Museum. This has come in the way of teachers taking various language classes to improve their knowledge of the Cahuilla Language. We have also been able to focus on hosting smaller numbers of enrollment classes over the 2022-2023 years to serve the Morongo Band of Mission Indians tribal members and their families. This funding will assist in the research and purchase of a transcription program. It will also assist in the hiring of a contracted employee to input and develop the transcription program to our needs. We would like to begin transcribing into readable text several historical recordings that we have in our collection at Malki Museum. We would also like to purchase an additional a manual projector to assist in future Cahuilla language classes. The second goal within this project is the further development of our Archive and Collection Capacity Building initiative that we have been working on during 2020-2023 as part of a 5 year plan developed with our Executive Board Members and staff. With previous funding from First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) we were able to hire two consultants to help plan for a new archive and library facility at Malki Museum. This information has been developed into a report of findings that detail: the layout, budget, professional contacts, and fundraising ideas for the project. This report was completed between July 6, 2023 and August 8, 2023. It is currently under review by our Executive Board Members and staff. The hiring of an archival professional through this round of grant funding from FNDI will assist in preparing our collection for moving into a new building when the building project is completed (projected to be completed in 2025-2026). The contracted employee will work to clean, organize, label, and rehouse the collection of artifacts, photographs, documents, and books that are housed at the museum. With these tasks completed the collection will not only be up to date in its storage systems but will also be ready for temporary housing and for movement into the new archival facility.