Nonprofits  December 4, 2018

Native needs: Local nonprofits support indigenous initiatives at home and abroad

Native American individuals, tribes and businesses contribute $1.5 billion a year to the Colorado economy. Still, needs persist on Indian reservations for energy, clean water, jobs, education, protection of indigenous culture, tribal sovereignty and more. That’s where several nonprofits based in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley come in.

CNAIS

The Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder works to improve educational access for Native American students. It also collaborates with the university on researching issues facing indigenous peoples in the United States and around the world, and offers graduate and undergraduate certificate programs in native and indigenous studies.

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For Native American students attending CU-Boulder, the center’s calendar includes a welcome event, a series of films and panel discussions, a conference for graduate students, a native student graduation including the awarding of a colorful blanket, and space for events and socializing.

CNAIS faculty and students reach out to indigenous communities, museums, historical societies, elementary and high schools, and the general public.

In autumn 2019, according to its website, the center will launch the First Peoples Investment Engagement Program, designed to coordinate collaboration between indigenous individuals and investors “to address the unique social and environmental impacts of corporate development in Indigenous communities, while preparing students to address the pressing social responsibility challenges facing today’s businesses.”

All that — plus efforts for student recruitment and retention — is done through fellowships, grants and other forms of support.

Native American students at the University of Colorado Boulder show off their tribal finery for their May 2018 graduation. The university’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies offers them cultural resources and space for events and socializing. CNAIS presents grads with a blanket to honor their accomplishments and honors those who have completed its certificate program. Photo courtesy Glenn Asakawa, University of Colorado Boulder

First Nations/Oweesta

Founded in Virginia as First Nations Financial Project in 1980, Longmont-based First Nations Development Institute assists Native American communities, tribes and other nonprofits with economic development by awarding grants as well as providing technical assistance and grants.

Seizing on the Mohawk word “oweesta” meaning “money,” First Nations also established First Nations Oweesta Corp., which communications director Randy Blauvelt said was incorporated specifically to help Community Development Financial Institutions serving reservations and other tribal communities. Oweesta facilitates micro lending for small businesses and startups, providing lending capital to smaller reservation-based ventures and helps them get certified.

Through Dec. 15, First Nations is soliciting donations that will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the National Endowment for the Humanities to help revitalize the Dakota and Lakota languages in North and South Dakota. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Sitting Bull College are leading the effort; the college in Fort Yates, N.D., is a grantee of First Nations Development Institute under the Native Language Immersion Initiative. The college and the tribe have partnered to establish “Lakhol’iyapi Wahohpi” — “nest” in the Lakota Language, a preschool language-immersion program dedicated to teaching the youngest members of the tribe to speak their native languages.

“Whether it’s $10 or $100, we’ll actually match that and double their impact,” Blauvelt said.

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To donate

CENTER FOR NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES
1330 Grandview Ave. 491 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
303-735-4595
colorado.edu/cnais

FIRST NATIONS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
IRST NATIONS OWEESTA CORP.

2432 Main St., second floor
Longmont, CO 80501
303-774-7836
firstnations.org
oweesta.org

NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND
1506 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80302
303-447-8760
narf.org

TIYOSPAYE WINYAN MAKA
1245 East Lincoln Ave.  #722
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970-290-0353
tiyospayewinyanmaka.org

TREES WATER AND PEOPLE
633 Remington St.
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970-484-3678
TreesWaterPeople.org

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Native American Rights Fund

With branch offices in Washington, D.C., and Anchorage, Alaska, Boulder-based NARF has provided legal assistance to tribes, organizations and individuals around the nation since 1971. It has focused on tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, protection of natural resources, education, religious freedom, and issues surrounding subsistence hunting and fishing.

Donald Ragona, NARF’s director of development and house counsel, said a big recent focus has been on voting rights; it’s currently working with a number of tribes in North Dakota who felt their votes were being suppressed when the state ruled that voters needed a street address — which don’t exist on many reservations. It’s also been involved in representing three of the five tribes that are suing to preserve national-monument status for the Bears Ears area of southeastern Utah in the face of Trump administration efforts to reduce the designation and open up a culturally important area to oil and gas extraction. NARF has also worked with the Rosebud Sioux tribe on the Fort Belknap reservation in North Dakota as it faces issues related to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

As for donations, Ragona said, “We’re a law firm. We run on money. It’s not like we can go distribute clothing. We always look for donations to support the work of the program attorneys working here and allow them to do the best work for our clients.

“Litigation and expert witnesses cost money, and the American judicial system is expensive. A lot of the issues we take on aren’t adjudicated overnight; some cases take 10, 20, 30 years.”

Tiyospaye Winyan Maka

A merger of two Fort Collins organizations, Tiyospaye Crisis Center and Winyan Maka, the combined name in Lakota translates to “Extended family of women of the earth.” Its mission, according to its website, is to “address the multitude of issues facing the Lakota and other indigenous people by merging traditional wisdom and values with contemporary regenerative practices, particularly in the building trade. Our mission is to promote alternative housing and energy, nutritional and educational sovereignty for indigenous women and their families.”

Thanks to a collaboration with CSU and Engineers Without Borders, Tiyospaye is working to build an Indigenous Wisdom Center at Slim Butte, S.D., as part of an Oglala-Lakota cultural and economic revitalization initiative. An unusual facet of the project is that the building’s foundation is being built with recycled tires, so director Christinia Eala said she’s looking for “anyone who can help me raise $10,000 to buy a tire cutter.

“We’re going up there Dec 1-4 with Engineers Without Borders to try to get at least three more layers of the foundation set up before winter, and we really need volunteers to help us build this in the spring and summer of 2019.”

The nonprofit also regularly seeks donations of windows, doors, sandbags and electrical and plumbing equipment. Monetary donations often are used to help Native Americans such as Lakotas or Dene in Northern Colorado “who need gas money or tires to get home or help to pay their bills,” Eala said.

Also in the works is a fundraising concert, she said. “We just need something to bring people together, because there’s too much divisiveness in this country.”

Volunteers for Fort Collins-based Trees, Water and People lay conduit for a 20-kilowatt solar array to help power KILI-FM 90.1, a radio station licensed to Porcupine, S.D., that serves the Lakota community. KILI, which started broadcasting in 1983, is the first American Indian-owned radio station in the United States. Photos courtesy Trees, Water and People

Trees, Water and People

Fort Collins-based Trees, Water and People designs conservation projects on tribal lands in the United States and Latin America, aimed at creating economic opportunities for local people while also improving and protecting the environment.

According to executive director Sebastian Africano, a current project is a STEM education initiative with the Poudre School District for elementary and high school students. The “solar suitcase” curriculum customizes a portable solar-voltaic generator system for tribal use.

“It has all the components that can light an assembly room, but the kids have to put it together,” Africano said.

TWP develops a job-training program, partially funded by NARF, that provides solar furnaces to heat homes on reservations in winter as well as power to other off-grid locations, Africano said.

“So besides money, we could use in-kind donations of solar-energy equipment,” he said. “All of that helps us do our work.”

TWF plants 30,000 to 35,000 ponderosa pines in South Dakota each year for restoration of burned areas and watersheds as well as windbreaks and climate-change mitigation.

Its collaboration with Colorado State University includes helping with a mock legislative session for Latino youth that emphasizes decision-making, negotiating and public speaking, as well as a research project with CSU’s Geocentroid Department “to create maps that tell the story about inequity,” he said, “those that do and don’t have energy access.”

Native American individuals, tribes and businesses contribute $1.5 billion a year to the Colorado economy. Still, needs persist on Indian reservations for energy, clean water, jobs, education, protection of indigenous culture, tribal sovereignty and more. That’s where several nonprofits based in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley come in.

CNAIS

The Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder works to improve educational access for Native American students. It also collaborates with the university on researching issues facing indigenous peoples in the United States and around the world, and offers graduate…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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