Native communities long have experienced genocidal and assimilation policies and practices. The fund supports efforts to ensure that the civil, legal, political and religious rights of American Indian’s are secure, and that native heritage and self-determination is respected and defended.
Migizi Communications received a $10,000 grant for education.
The Native Youth Alliance received a grant of $5000 for creation of a youth council.
Phillips Indian Educators receive a $10,000 grant to improve policies and outcomes.
MIGIZI Communications, Inc. has been serving the American Indian community in Minneapolis for thirty-five years, promoting the well-being and success of Native Americans through its focus on media, education equity and youth development. The organization was founded to train Indian journalists to counter the misrepresentations, and inaccuracies about Native People promulgated in the major media through First People Radio, the first nationally distributed Indian radio news program in the country. The next iteration of MIGIZI’s work was to put the tools of communication in the hands of Indian youth to improve their academic performance and self-esteem.
Today, MIGIZI carries out its mission through four major program areas: Native Academy which provides academic support and postsecondary preparation to Indian middle school and high school students; First Person Productions that trains Indian youth in new media production skills giving them an opportunity to share their stories and those of the Native community with a global audience; Native Youth Futures that provides youth with entrepreneurial training so that they can contribute to the growth of a vibrant Indian small business sector; and Education Equity work to inform decision making and change the educational policies and practices that have condemned generations of Indian people to poverty and diminished life chances.
MIGIZI Communications, Inc. has been serving the American Indian community in Minneapolis for thirty-five years, promoting the well-being and success of Native Americans through its focus on media, education equity and youth development.
The Fund of the Sacred Circle (FSC) supports Native leadership working to ensure that indigenous cultures are honored, American Indians are treated with fairness and equity, and that the sovereignty and self-determination of Native people is secure.
WI Indian Educators and their allies are working for the elimination of race-based Indian nicknames, logos and mascots from WI public schools. Their work includes providing education to k-12 school board members, administrators, social studies and history teachers, and community members providing the rationale for change and assist in complaints that have been filed. They will work to defend Act 250 from constitutional challenges and legislative attempts to amend or appeal the law.
Phillips Indians Educators (PIE) is a network of Indian educators based in Minneapolis. PIE's constituents are educators, students, parents and the larger Indian community. They focus primarily on Minneapolis public schools with the aim of making district policies and practices more sensitive to Native American students needs and improving Native American students' educational outcomes. PIE is refining the Memorandum of Agreement to have greater impacts for Native American students over the next five years.
Anishinaabe O'de is a grassroots organization rooted in the traditions, spirituality, language, and values of the Anishinaabeg. This planning grant will support the organization to strategize ways of changing the juvenile justice system and strengthen their board. The focus is to connect youth to their traditional culture and language serving as a foundation for their well-being.
The White Earth Land Recovery Project is a multi-issue Native American organization based on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.
The Indigenous People's Green Jobs Coalition was formed to ensure that indigenous people have a voice in the new green economy. The Indigenous People's Green Jobs Coalition will launch and sustain an effective state-wide movement that will result in the development of training programs, legislation, funding and awareness of the need to create healthy sustainable communities in this emerging green economy for Indigenous people.
