Grants

1999 Discretionary Fund Awards Recipients

Ringing Rocks Foundation completed the first cycle of its Annual Discretionary Fund Grant Program in June of 1999. The Grant Committee awarded $33,765.50 to 12 organizations that operate around the world. The grant committee was made up of three members of the Foundation and two members of the Native American community. The grants ranged from $1,500 to $2,500 to promote indigenous projects across the globe.

Amigos de Sian Ka'an A.C. — Quintana Roo, Mexico

The Salud Ambiental (Environmental Health) Project is based in Chumpón, one of the most important Mayan Ceremonial Centers, and is designed to revalue the ancestral knowledge of the local shamans and herbalists and spread this knowledge in the Mayan communities, especially to the youth. The project includes workshops to learn to make homemade medicines using regional plants, knowledge exchange between regional shamans (h-menes), and teaching herbalism.

EcoNatura/The Nature Conservancy — Caracas, Venezuela

EcoNatura staff has developed a Conflict Resolution Program that involves select Pemon indigenous communities and governmental agencies present in the eastern sector of Canaima National Park. Conservation and community needs have been identified through participatory workshops with the indigenous communities and INPARQUES and other governmental agencies. The current phase of the project is to go into the field to compile the necessary information for the development of environmental education and community outreach tools based on the cosmo-vision of the Pemon indigenous community.

Foundation for Shamanic Studies — United States, Canada, Siberia, Tuva, Nepal, Brazil, and Peru

• Inuit Program©: Several Inuit tribes requested the help of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies to revive their traditional shamanic practices. FSS had documented what Inuit shamanic practices had been continued in secret during the period of repression by missionaries and others, and as a result of that research was able to share the previously gathered information with several groups.
• Living Treasures of Shamanism Program©: This program seeks out the last great shamans in threatened indigenous cultures, documents their work, and supports them with a lifetime stipend to honor and assist them in preserving and transmitting the healing and cultural knowledge of their peoples.
• Tuvan Shamanism Program©: FSS located a Tuvan shaman who had a tremendous amount of unpublished material of great importance to his people. Designed to preserve knowledge of Tuvan shamanism and shamanic healing, this program will help him to transcribe, edit, and publish his materials in both Tuvan and Endglish.

Heiltsuk Dha'Yaci Society — British Columbia, Canada

The Dha'Yaci Society wishes to document the traditional knowledge and healing practices regarding the use of medicines, counseling, and rituals being utilized in their healing camps. They are developing a healing model that incorporates the Heiltsuk view of wellness, and will form the basis of healing for their youth camps, family healing camps, men's camps, and isolation camps. Because of modernization, time for Heiltsuk families to spend several weeks a year on the land harvesting traditional foods has been lost, and the impact has been felt most in the youth. This project rebuilds traditional camps and develops programs to heal the wounds of the community.

Hesquiaht Rediscovery Society — British Columbia, Canada

Learning from the strength and wisdom of traditional Hesquiaht knowledge and culture, the Hesquiaht Rediscovery Society believes it is the key to not only the future well-being of Hesquiaht youth, but also of youth from other diverse backgrounds. The Hesquiaht Rediscovery Society's main activity is the operation of wilderness camps in traditional Hesquiaht territories, which teach the youth traditional activities, values, and language skills.

The Humanity Foundation — United States

The project's mission is to collect, translate, and disseminate the myths, legends, and folk tales of indigenous cultures, thereby preserving traditional narratives while encouraging understanding and erasing cultural bias most modern peoples have toward these often marginalized peoples. The project will begin by publishing the collected and translated stories on their web site, and then will hopefully be able to obtain funding to publish the stories in book form. In addition, the Foundation publishes a journal, entitled humanity, which contains both fiction and non-fiction by and about other cultures.

Indigenous People's Arts & Communications Council — United States

IPACC was begun by a group of Native American community members in Missoula, MT in 1997 as a community volunteer group to support and promote Indigenous arts and artists. The current project need is transportation funds to allow traditional ceremonial elders for gatherings in the local urban area. Workshops by indigenous artists and musicians will also be conducted to allow Native youth to create musical instruments as well as art and craft projects.

Na Na Kila Institute — British Columbia, Canada

Located in Kitamaat Village, British Columbia, Canada, The Na Na Kila Institute seeks to design and implement policy and programs relating to the sustainability, protection, and renewal of all resources as a basis for community-based development. They foster change in the community through Cultural Rediscovery, Community Development, and Conservation Projects to preserve the Kitlope Watershed and the Kawesas Valley. The current program focuses on monitoring environment indicators to manage the resources that the tribe now controls and incorporates traditional Haisla knowledge, as well as scientific method.

The Smithsonian Center for Asian Pacific American Studies — United States

The traveling exhibition, Kaho`olawe: Ke Aloha Kupa `a I Ka `Aina, an exhibit about the Native Hawaiian community, will bring to a national audience this little known story of Native peoples making their voices heard. Kaho`olawe is one of the eight major islands in the Hawaiian island chain, and although it was once home to a thriving Native Hawaiian community, the island ecosystem was nearly destroyed between the 1850s and 1990. A grassroots movement led by Native Hawaiians has reclaimed the island and is restoring its natural and cultural riches.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — United States

The African Voices Project is a blend of permanent exhibits and outreach programs where the voices of Africans and African-American communities tell the story of the continent, the people and their cultures. African voices will satisfy a great need for an accurate portrayal of the diverse cultures that have built the African continent. For centuries, curators, scientists, and researchers have told the African story from their perspectives. In contrast, the African Voices Project uses the words, experiences, and contributions of the African people to uncover its dynamism.

Santa Fe Forum — United States

Due to the Healing the Spaces at Santa Fe Indian Hospital Project, in May of 1998, the Santa Fe Indian Hospital had its first indigenous ceremony in the 21-year old hospital that treats nearly 100,000 Native Americans annually. The program is renovating the public spaces in the hospital to make them more inviting to the Native Americans that use the facility, as well as using these spaces as a platform where traditional events, such as drumming, singing, dancing, flute playing, talks by ritual runners, medicine herb specialists, and traditional healers may occur. The program also helps encourage tribal people to reconnect with traditional lifestyles and traditional healing practices.

Tibet Child Nutrition & Collaborative Health Center — Tibet

This project collaborates with traditional Tibetan physicians from Traditional Medical Hospitals in Lhasa and Nagchu to provide health education that encourages better sanitation and hygiene practices to combat the major causes of childhood illness, to re-educate Tibetan villagers in harvesting and cooking droma, an indigenous root that grows wild in Tibet, as well as in using traditional herbal preparations to prevent and treat disease.