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.”
