What's New In the Community: February 2014

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HONOR THE

EARTH GRANTS OVER $120,000 TO INDIGENOUS PROJECTS

CALLAWAY,

Minn. – Honor the Earth, in collaboration with the Headwaters Fund,

the Indigo Girls, Medicine for the People and a number of individual

and institutional donors, announce grants of $120,000 to Indigenous

grassroots organizations across North America. In this grant cycle,

Honor the Earth has been able to support organizations working in

restorative agriculture, honoring traditional cultural practices,

protection of sacred sites and in opposition to destruction of water,

land and life.

Organizations

include: Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture, on the Hopi reservation, for

working in restorative agriculture and to initiate hands-on learning

projects and hosts workshops that support Hopi youth and community to

develop skills and capacity in rebuilding sustainable communities.

The

Horse Spirit Society, supported for their organizing against the

Keystone XL, and water healing with regards to uranium mining in the

Black Hills. The grant also went towards support for the Big Foot

Memorial Ride, an educational and spiritual reaffirmation of Lakota

history, culture and commitment to future generations.

Honor

the Earth was able, through the Fall Indigo Girls Benefit concerts in

Minneapolis, Madison, Wis. and Bayfield, Wis., to provide funds to

support a number of grassroots and tribal governments in the region,

particularly the Bad River Legal Defense Fund, for the Bad River

Chippewa working to defend the watershed from the GTAC Taconite

mining proposal; and Ron Plain, an Anjiwaning Anishinaabe man who was

involved in Idle No More blockades and works to draw attention to the

chemical contamination of his first nation – surrounded by 63

chemical companies and creating toxic contamination of Anishinaabe

people.

As well,

Honor the Earth was able to support the Idle No More movement in

Canada and the Mi’qmag nation in the Maritime Provinces in their

opposition to the fracking of their territory by Southwest Resources.

The 2013 Fall-cycle grants are being allocated to a number of

organizations including: Cheyenne River Youth Project: Winyan Toka

Win (Leading Lady) Garden; Dakota Resource Council: This

Is Mandare; Earth Lodge Movement; Fort Berthold Community

College: Honoring the Bottomlands; Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture; Horse

Spirit Society: Big Foot Memorial Ride; Idle No More Campaign of the

Polaris Institute; Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign of the Polaris

Institute; Medicine Wheel/ Yellowbird; Metis Horticulture &

Heritage Society: Foundations for a Regional Seed Library; Native

American Educational Technologies: Harvest Educational Learning

Project (HELP); Nez Perce Tribe Water Resources Division: Solar for

Sustainability; Owe Aku: Moccasins on the Ground Tour of Resistance;

Ponca Youth Mentorship & Garden Project; Pooenadu Organic Farms;

Prairie Dust Films (LLC): Crying Earth Rise Up; Bad River Tribal

Legal Defense and the Penokee Hills Education Project; Red Cliff Band

of Lake Superior Chippewa: Mino Bimaadizwin Farm Expansion; Rio

Grande Community Development Corporation: Southwest Uranium Mining;

T’sou-ke First Nation: Wui,cist,Cen,tol; To Lani Enterprises, Inc.:

Revitalizing Local Navajo Corn Production Markets and Traditions;

Waikiki Hawaiian Civic Club & Ahahui Siwila Sawaii – Kapolei –

Pupuhi Kukui – Malino Ke Kai; Western Energy Justice Project; White

Earth Land Recovery Project.

For more

information about Honor the Earth and our upcoming environmental

justice and Indigenous economics advocacy, visit www.honorearth.org ,

email info@honorearth.org, or call 218-375-3200.

IHB OF

MINNEAPOLIS RECEIVES $25,000 TO ENGAGE COMMUNITY ON FOOD ISSUES

EAGAN,

Minn. – The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for

Prevention selected the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis for

$25,000 in Community Engagement Innovation funding. According to IHB,

this financial support will be used to host World Cafe community

conversations with people about local, urban farming and food issues.

“We

are very pleased that the Center for Prevention has decided to

support our initiative,” IHB Program Manager Lannesse Bakers said.

“This funding will help support our efforts to ensure that

community members are helping to design and drive strategies that

will promote urban farming and healthy food in our community.”

Engaged

and involved community members are a key component to creating a

healthier Minnesota. In recognition of this, the Center awarded

funding to 18 projects that will be shaped through community input

and participation. The funds, which total nearly $450,000, will be

used to help organizations engage community members in authentic and

culturally relevant ways.

“People

matter when it comes to creating community change,” Center

director Janelle Waldock said. “We know that efforts to change

community health are more sustainable and successful when the people

who are most impacted by the change are involved in the process.”

Information

on each program and its accomplishments will be updated periodically

on www.preventionminnesota.com. Additional information on the Indian

Health Board of Minneapolis initiate can also be found at

indianhealthboard.com.

TIWAHE

FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $400,000 MCKNIGHT INVESTMENT

MINNEAPOLIS

– The Tiwahe Foundation Board of Directors and Seventh Generation

Endowment Committee is pleased to announce McKnight Foundation’s

$400,000 investment in American Indian philanthropy. This grant will

support grant-making, operations and represents the largest gift for

our endowment campaign. The $300,000 will be leveraged as a

two-to-one endowment matching grant for our $6 million endowment

campaign.

"Campaigns

like ours do well when they receive stimulus from matching dollars to

move us toward our goal,” Seventh Generation Endowment Chair Laura

Waterman Wittstock said. “Tiwahe made good beginnings because

funders like the McKnight Foundation saw the value we will bring to

the community, one that goes beyond funding alone. We are grateful

for such belief in the Tiwahe mission."

The

Seventh Generation Endowment Campaign will secure the grant-making of

our American Indian Family Empowerment Program Fund, ensure operating

support, leadership development programming and organizational

development and capacity building. Tiwahe’s AIFEP fund has a solid

track record of grant-making success with over 600 grants totaling

more than $1 million have been awarded to individuals and families.

The

Foundation envisions itself as a culturally knowledgeable

philanthropic leader serving as a national model for Native

philanthropy and self-determination. With the support of the

community we will increase philanthropic resources, leadership and

capacity for American Indians in Minnesota.

“We

are making a long-term investment in the American Indian community,”

Neal Cuthbert, Vice President of Program at the McKnight Foundation

said. “Building a grassroots foundation that is led, managed and

directed by American Indians with a focus on strengthening leadership

through grantmaking to individuals is groundbreaking work. We are

proud to provide lead funds for the endowment and support the

capacity building efforts of Tiwahe.”

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