Impact Stories

We are often asked what impact we are having in Native communities. We can provide statistics, reports and formal findings, of course, but sometimes the words of our grantees speak loudest. Here are some of their stories taken from our Indian Giver newsletter:

Growing the Cahuilla Language One Fluent Speaker at a Time

The Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians launched the Cahuilla Language Program in 2019, with fluent adult speakers mentoring future adult teachers online once a week. Because teaching the language to younger generations is a high priority for the tribe, a preschool curriculum was also developed at that time. This year, First Nations helped grow the program with a $50,000 grant from the Native Language Immersion Initiative.

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Preparing for Land Back With the Native American Land Conservancy

Elizabeth Paige (Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians) is the education and stewardship program manager for the Native American Land Conservancy (NALC). With the support of First Nations Development Institute’s California Tribal Fund, Paige and the NALC is protecting and restoring sacred sites and areas, providing educational programming, and conducting scientific studies on cultural, biological, and historical resources on sacred lands.

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Amplifying Native Communities Through the Power of Digital Storytelling

Recognizing the power of storytelling, First Nations works to write, produce, and share stories through our own communications channels. With support from the Bezos Earth Fund, we’re elevating stories of the climate and workforce development efforts of our community partners through our Climate Change and Environment Justice project. This fall, we created the Digital Storytelling Toolkit to provide an overview of the components of stories, including the role of the storyteller and the importance of being personal, authentic, knowledgeable, and relatable.

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Strengthening Native Communities Through the Native Fundraisers Community of Practice

First Nations Development Institute’s Native Fundraisers Community of Practice (or NFCOP) is a community of Native fundraisers, trainers, and facilitators who come together with a collective purpose of peer learning. In this video, NFCOP Program Associate AJ Garcia explains how the community approach makes the concept and practice of fundraising easier and less daunting for Native nonprofit professionals.

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Going Mobile with Red Cloud Renewable

Since 2008, Red Cloud Renewable has trained over 1,100 Native individuals from more than 70 tribes on how to build and install solar furnaces, roof panels, water pumps, and lighting at its 10-acre campus on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Thanks to support from First Nations’ Green Jobs in Indian Country project, the organization bought a 16-foot towable trailer and has taken solar training on the road.

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Creating Green Jobs at Hōlani Hāna

Hōlani Hāna, established in 2009, is a pu’uhonua (cultural refuge) in East Maui with a vision of elevating the well-being of families and communities through the perpetuation of Hawaiian values, practices, and landscape. Hōlani Hāna is one of 10 tribes and Native nonprofits to receive support to augment green jobs in their communities, as part of First Nations’ Green Jobs in Indian Country project.

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Troubled Waters: What the Aleut Community is Doing to Restore Health to the Bering Sea

Native fishermen from the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island make a living catching halibut in the Bering Sea, but they are competing with large-scale industrial fishing. With First Nations’ help, the tribe is providing more equitable access for fishermen by bringing more Indigenous voices and knowledge to the fishery management process.

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One Native Group’s Fight to Protect Sacred Land From Destructive Lithium Mining

People of Red Mountain is a grassroots organization of traditional knowledge keepers and members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe. The group is fighting hard against a proposed lithium mine in Thacker Pass, Nevada, an area in Humboldt County estimated to contain the largest-known lithium deposits in the United States.

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Returning the People’s Land to the Tongva Community

The Gabrieleno /Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians is reclaiming one acre of its land through its Tongva-led nonprofit, the Taraxat Paaxaavxa Conservancy. The public announcement of this land reclamation was officially made with a story in the Los Angeles Times titled, “After nearly 200 years, the Tongva community has land in Los Angeles County.”

 

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The Yuchi Language Comes Home

Since time immemorial, languages have been passed down in the home, from parent to child. It is how languages survive ― and cultures thrive. And it is for this reason that in Halay Turning Heart’s home, only the Yuchi language is spoken. “We have three kids, ages 6, 4, and 2, and we are raising them to be first-language speakers,” says the administrator of the Yuchi Language Project (YLP), a community-based, nonprofit organization in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, launched in 1994 by her father and YLP’s executive director, Dr. Richard Grounds.

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Stocking the Pantry: How the Oneida Nation is Fighting Hunger on the Rez

The Oneida Emergency Food Pantry was launched in 2017. Its mission statement is simple: “We are an engaged community that fights hunger together.” Initially, the pantry served 12 people daily. Today, the pantry serves more than 700 people a month and receives around 200,000 pounds of food donations a year from many sources.

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‘Our Foods Are Beautiful!’

First Nations community partner YAKANAL, a New Mexico-based international program, is reconnecting Indigenous people to their land and traditional agriculture. “The goal of restoring healthy Native foods allows the community to rely less on processed foods and can provide a sustainable source of income for Indigenous farmers,” explains Dr. Shelly Valdez, YAKANAL co-founder and CEO of Native Pathways.

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Oneida Nation Trains More Butchers to Fortify Its Protein Supply Chain

The Oneida Nation has welcomed eight new butcher apprentices. A plumber, a physical therapist, and other tribal members of all ages and walks of life came together for a cumulative eight-day training ― both online and onsite ― to learn how to safely and respectfully process meat to feed the Oneida community.

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Ke Kula ‘o Pi’ilani: A One-of-a-Kind Hawaiian Immersion School

On the island of Maui, Hawaiʹi, there exists a school like no other: Ke Kula ‘o Pi’ilani, the only private, independent, and nonprofit Hawaiian language and culture immersion school in the world. Behind the school is a powerful river that flows through the entire island out to the sea. It is the perfect setting for a curriculum focused on the four themes of fresh water, heavens, land, and ocean.

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Hunkpati Processors: Local, High-Quality Beef

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of South Dakota built a brand-new, state-of-the-art meat processing plant, Hunkpati Processors, to provide a local, high-quality protein source for its community. “This project has brought great cultural pride to our people,” says Tribal Chairman Peter Lengkeek.

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'$pending Frenzy' Returns! Plus, a New App!

After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, First Nations’ popular financial skills program for teens and young adults called “Spending Frenzy” has resumed in-person events. First stop: Central High School in Gallup, New Mexico, where students learned about the importance of financial planning.

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The Historic Malki Museum: ‘We’re COVID-Safe!’

The Malki Museum is the first museum in California founded by Native Americans in 1964. During the pandemic, the historic Malki Museum, located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Reservation, adopted robust COVID-safety measures and messaging to get visitors back to the museum―and used this opportunity to teach the Cahuilla language at the same time.

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‘Ačaam (Singing) Together’

To help bring its community together during the pandemic, the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI) created a musical instruction program taught via Zoom, using traditional musical instruments. It aimed to teach participants the Tribe’s language and culture centered around the seasons.

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Native Youth Business Plan Competition Fosters Culture, Opens Doors

For Victor Corpuz (Laguna), presenting a business plan before a gathering of Native business leaders and entrepreneurs provided not only a skills-building exercise, but an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the ingenuity of Native people. This article recaps Victor’s experience and showcases this inspiring event.

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Guided to Learn, Inspired to Thrive

With support from First Nations’ 2021 Gather Food Sovereignty Grant, the O Makuʻu Ke Kahua Community Center is hosting a new curriculum of workshops designed to help community members invest in their own food systems, feed their families, and thrive through challenges.

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Tribal Retreat Provides Creative Space for Oceti Sakowin Writers

This year, the Oak Lake Writers’ Society annual Tribal Writing Retreat shifted to a virtual format, welcoming even more Oceti Sakowin writers and expanding the reach of this first-of-its-kind writers’ platform.

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The Code to Better Health

In the past year, with funding coming in part through First Nations’ Fertile Ground Advocacy Campaign, Tribal Nations Research Group has been able to invest in food policy to improve the local food systems and food economy of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa community.

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Bringing Fresh Foods to Zuni

After multiple stops and starts, a construction-slowing pandemic, and new funding and partnerships, Major Market is boosting capacity to deliver quality food.

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Checking in with the Sicangu Lakota Oyate

Rosebud Economic Development Corporation has grown their food system from a barren garden on a hill into an award-winning vision that is a prototype for communities nationwide.

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Connecting the Birth World to the Earth World

Roberta Eaglehorse-Ortiz is finding support for growth through First Nations’ Native Fundraisers Community of Practice.

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Lakota Artists Boost Economy, Community & Cultural Traditions on Pine Ridge

For the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce, the goal is to bolster the local economy and improve the quality of life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This past summer, with the help of funding from First Nations Development Institute, the chamber discovered the powerful role art can play in this economic development, while bringing people together and keeping Lakota traditions alive.

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Social Value, Greater Healing: Art for the Upper Sioux

When the Upper Sioux Community in Granite Falls, Minnesota, sought funding from First Nations through the Native Arts Initiative, its goal was clear: increase access, awareness and inter-generational transfer of Dakota arts. Throughout its year-long arts project, the organization met its objective. And in doing so, it showed how the arts can unite people, strengthen community and foster healing.

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Passing Down Art and History at the Tulalip Tribes

Generations ago, art was everywhere in the Tulalip culture, represented in its tools, clothing, food and ceremony. After years of outside stressors chipping away at the tribes’ artistic soul, the Hibulb Cultural Center is working to bring art back. Since 2011, the center has invested in culturally-significant educational programming. And now with funding from First Nations’ Native Arts Initiative, it is bolstering its classes, reaching more people and fostering even more pride in the craftsmanship and elegance of Tulalip art.

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Akwesasne Project Benefits Hungry Kids

The Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club has been dedicated to the youth of its community since 2001. It provides many services through after-school programming. One service it is committed to is its food and nutrition program. The “Iawekon Nutrition for Kids” program received support from First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) under its “Nourishing Native Children: Feeding Our Future” Project that was generously supported by the Walmart Foundation.

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Bishop Paiute Tribe Expands Nutrition Education

The Bishop Paiute Tribe’s Food Sovereignty Program has been working to expand its garden-based nutrition education projects to encourage healthy food and lifestyle choices. With funding provided by First Nations Development Institute and the Walmart Foundation, the program greatly expanded its community outreach … to both children and parents.

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Boys With Braids & REDCO Make a Healthy Foods Connection

One of First Nations Development Institute’s grantees under its recent “Nutrition Education for Native American Communities” grant program is the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), a tribally-chartered corporation of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. REDCO’s Community Food Sovereignty Initiative received the funding from First Nations as part of First Nations’ Nourishing Native Foods and Health program area. The nutrition education program was generously supported by the Walmart Foundation.

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California Native Youth Share Legacy, Build Knowledge

In Santa Rosa, California, Indian culture is being cultivated and shared, thanks to the business savvy of a new generation, and a project with the motto “Selling education and creating opportunity.” Teens at the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center are taking part in Tribal Ambassadors Through Business, an initiative that teaches young people business skills through both online courses and the opportunity to open and run a museum store, showcasing and selling Native arts and crafts.

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Cochiti’s Return to Native Foods Brings Better Health & Economy

In Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, young people are returning to farming and reigniting a passion for their Pueblo ancestry. Thanks to the Cochiti Youth Experience, they are embracing quality food and what it means to their culture, sustainability and future.

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CRITFC Buoys Tribal Fishers & Columbia River Salmon Culture

A resource for fishers and a respect for salmon have been at the heart of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) in Portland, Oregon, for close to 40 years. Formed by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe, CRITFC provides a unified voice in managing fishery resources and exercising the inherent sovereign powers of the tribes.

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First Nations Reaches Northernmost Alaska by way of Iḷisaġvik College

Barrow, Alaska, is a very long way from Longmont, Colorado, where First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) is headquartered. Nonetheless, one of First Nations’ grant programs is having a positive effect in the northernmost point of Alaska.

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Hawaii Organization Farms Farmers and Drives Change

Something amazing is happening in Waimea, Hawaii. Native Hawaiians are returning to farming, and driving long-term change for society. Families are coming together, and children are being raised in a culture people take pride in. It’s all part of a vision of Mike Hodson, president of the Waimea Hawaiian Homesteaders’ Association.

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Impact! Cultivating Food & Culture at Nambé Pueblo

“If we didn’t have our culture, we wouldn’t be a pueblo. We would just be another town.” This is why the Pueblo of Nambé in New Mexico is ingraining its rich heritage in every crop, and growing pride with every harvest. “It’s an investment in not only food sovereignty, but in the future of our people,” said Nambé Farm Manager George Toya.

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Spotlight on Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

In Zuni, New Mexico, Zuni children and teens are getting opportunities to explore their heritage, an experience that is increasing their self-esteem and helping them see new opportunities for the future.

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Strategically Investing in the Hopi Ways

“Helping the Hopi stay Hopi.” While the statement is simplistic, it is the prevailing motive behind The Hopi School and its efforts to increase capacity, incorporate strategic planning, and bolster arts programming. With the help of funding from First Nations’ Native Arts Initiative, this Native-led school in Northern Arizona is taking steps to both solidify and strengthen its infrastructure. And it’s doing it at a critical time when Hopi culture is becoming increasingly diminished.

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Sustaining Culture and Livelihood in Remote Igiugig Village

In Igiugig, a small village of only 69 people on the Kvichak River in southwestern Alaska, resources are scarce. Food must be flown in, and strategies to keep the village – and the culture of the Yup’ik Eskimos, Aleuts, and Athabascan Indians – flourishing must be seized. Here, with the support of First Nations Development Institute, this close-knit tribe is finding new ways to develop sustainable food sources, and creating opportunities for young people to succeed.

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Thunder Valley CDC is Helping Transform Pine Ridge

The people of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate are undergoing a revolution. After surviving generations of colonization, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people are rising up from the weight of colonial legacies and building upon the work of their Indigenous ancestors to create a brighter future. On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota, the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation is helping lead this transformation.

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Training Brings an ‘Ah Ha’ for Sheep Grower

TahNibaa Naataanii of the Navajo Nation lives on the land where her family has raised sheep as part of their traditional life and culture for hundreds of years. Just south of Shiprock, New Mexico, and the Four Corners area, about half an hour away, is Table Mesa. That’s where you’ll find Naataanii tending to her sheep. She takes pride in being able to raise her Navajo churro sheep and use the wool in both traditional and new ways to provide a living for her and her daughter.

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