Awarded Grants

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The Warm Springs reservation consists of 3 districts. Agency area which serves the community through IHS, Shops, the museum, casino, gas stations along with the family grocery store “Macy’s Market”. Seekseequa is approximately 23 miles south of Warm Springs agency area with approximately 300 residents and has 1 fire station as a meeting area. Simnasho is approximately 27 miles north of the reservation and has a large elder population along with a longhouse and one market/gas station combo “Three Warriors Market”. Simnasho district has approximately 400 residents. Gas and reliable transportation can hinder our youth wanting to learn and participate in art classes being provided in the agency area. Not all of our people possess college degree’s but hold a plethora of knowledge that can’t be taught in a classroom. Some of these are passed through generation to generation whether it be traditional or an art learned and practiced. I believe Tananawit will bring out that inspiration to teach our youth through art fairs. Most art fairs consists of but not limited to: Bead work, weaving, raw hide work, medicine pouches, painting, drawing, moccasin making. Etc. Limitations in teaching can vary form limited supplies, transportation, venue, work space. With these rural outreach art fairs I can work with culture bearers who reside in these areas and gather at the community venues.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Peoples Food Sovereignty Program was created through the need requests of traditional foods and medicines of the local tribal community living on the Flathead Reservation. There are approximately 6800 CSKT Tribal members living on the reservation, we support 1500 of those members and a grey area of 65+ other federally recognized tribal households on the reservation. We have implemented different programs to meet the needs of these community households and have expanded our capacity and improved efficiency each year. We are working to create a farm to further the capacity and resources of our program.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) Our current Executive Director (ED), Jewell Arcoren, has been involved with Wicoie for over a decade either as a Board member, advisor, parent, or in administrative and primary leadership roles within the organization. The current Director is planning on leaving the ED role in November 2023, Wicoie’s Board understands that succession planning is a risk management strategy that will ensure the sustainability of the organization. As such Wicoie’s governance committee has identified that they would like to promote from within the organization and have offered the position to their current Program Director, Fawn YoungBear-Tibbetts and the position has been accepted. Wicoie believes in mentoring younger leaders and this funding would allow the opportunity to hire and train the incoming Program Director earlier and offer a smoother transition for the Executive Director position.

General Operating Support

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) In our community, we were lacking speakers; we lost a lot of our elders who's first language was Aaniiih or Nakoda. In the Aaniiih Language today, there are no known first language speakers and multiple second language learners. In Nakoda, there is around 4 first language speakers and multiple second language learners. There is a need for language preservation here. If we don't learn and preserve it now our language will be lost in the future. Our unique languages are part of our identity as Native people.