Grants

2002 Grants awarded to 9 organizations totaled nearly $49,000

American Indian College Fund — United States

This grant expands the Fund for Cultural Preservation and Perpetuation (as described in the 2001 grant award), as the number of both colleges and college students has continued to grow. Uses for these funds by the tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) include developing buffalo managers and restoring the buffalo to Native lands at 10 TCUs; conducting language immersion pre-schools, summer camps for youths and adults, and expanding tribal language curricula at 26 TCUs; preservation, conservation, and cataloging of archival materials, as well as acquisition of new materials at 3 TCUs; and construction of new museums or cultural learning centers at 9 TCUs for the viewing of cultural and historic objects and for hosting tribal events.

The City, Inc. — United States

The Lowanpi (They sing him) Project is a specialized service of the Oshkibug program which hosts spiritual leaders in the south Minneapolis Indian community to perform healing ceremonies and to offer spiritual advice and counsel to the urban Indian community. The Native reservation is 250 miles away from this area, and many of the more than 25,000 members of the urban Indian community do not have the means to participate in activities held there. The Lowanpi program proposes to bring traditional healers in from the reservation and host four traditional cultural ceremonies based on the four seasons and the ceremonies and traditional activities that are attached to each. Community members of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area would be invited to participate and to have access to these spiritual healers while they are available.

The Clay Studio — United States and India

This grant will be used to bring Indian ceramic artist Jagdish Pandit and educator/translator Minhazz Majumdar to Philadelphia for a four to six week residency. Jagdish Pandit is a traditional ceramic craftsman from the state of Bihar in northern India whose works range from small festival oil lamps to monumental votive animals and figures. Because these objects are vessels of communication with the gods, the work of artists like Jagdish is instructive, transcendent, and instrumental in daily spiritual practice of the indigenous people. The residency will give Jagdish an opportunity to work with clay bodies and glazes not available to him in India, and Minhazz will have the opportunity to speak about Indian ceramics, crafts, and culture to local classrooms. This will provide an exchange between traditional and contemporary artists, as well as between Indian and American people, and will present a chance for a wide audience to learn about the role the arts play in traditional Indian spiritual practices.

Kitlope Nu-Yum Rediscovery Society — British Columbia, Canada

The Kitlope Nu-Yum Rediscovery Society (KNRS) conducts summer camps with provide the youth with numerous cultural activities such as nightly talking circles, basketry, canoeing/kayaking, traditional signing and drumming, as well as food sustenance activities such as food gathering, fishing, smoking, and canning fish. In the winter of 2001, the KNRS staff reported that the life jackets and kayak paddles for the Rediscovery camp program had been stolen. Since both the Kitlope and Kemano are accessible by punt or jet boat, certified life jackets are required for youth and staff. As part of the Rediscovery camp experience, youth are taught how to kayak as they go on day excursions to traditional harvest and hiking sites. As parts of the Kitlope estuary are only accessible by kayak and the shallow waters prevent punt travel, the kayak paddles are needed to complete the camp experience. Therefore, the grant will go to replacing these stolen items so that this year's camp will be possible.

Na Na Kila Institute — British Columbia, Canada

This project of the Haisla people will go towards the maintenance and revitalization of their traditional Xa'islak'ala language. At this time, the Xa'islak'ala language is mostly spoken by elders 60 and above, and as these elders pass on, there are fewer fluent speakers available as teachers. In response, the Haisla people propose to develop materials and promote community institutions that encourage various social activities (ceremonial, sports, social, work, media, and classroom) to again become Haisla-speaking situations. The project will begin with reviewing and editing a set of five previously prepared Haisla language lessons, and will then work on a CD-ROM and various cassette tapes for language learning. In addition, a series of community initiatives are planned to re-introduce the use of Haisla language in community settings, such as Haisla-speaking sports teams, traditional greetings on telephones, the Haisla phrase of the week, Haisla street signs and bilingual community signs, tapes with phrasebooks for personal and family use at home and in vehicles.

PET Southern Star & Associates Aotearoa, New Zealand

The current program maintains a community vehicle for use by the community to access sports, health facilities, funerals, and bathing in mineral pools by the elderly. Support is also provided for an annual Arts and Crafts Exhibition which supports indigenous artists. In addition, funds are needed to facilitate this organizations full participation in local, national and international laws and policy making which affect the lives, culture, education, and health of indigenous people worldwide. As the globalization movement expands, indigenous peoples are disadvantaged by not understanding or participating in the political arena. Since this is where policy is made with respect to the lives of the constituents, this is also where sweeping change may be affected as regards multi-national corporations and their actions in the local community. Funds will be used for each of these activities.

The Program for the Educational Training of Bilingual Teachers of the Peruvian Amazon (PFMB) — Iquitos, Peru

This is a teacher training program for indigenous students and teachers who are taught general pedagogy as well as to teach their own tribal language and indigenous knowledge, traditions, and science as part of the primary school curriculum in their home villages. The PFMB's mission is to preserve Peru's rich cultural and biological diversity by providing intercultural and bilingual education for its diverse population of Amazonian students and teachers, hence ensuring the survival of their respective cultures. The current project funds the eight program specialists' travel to Iquitos for 5 months in order to advise the students and teachers in curriculum development, teacher training, and processing data to coincide with his or her cultural specifics. During student field work, these specialists are available for consultation in their home communities.

Rock Art Research Institute

The Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) wishes to supplement and expand an existing public outreach project which provides pertinent information to those people who own, manage, or subsist on land which contains indigenous rock art in South Africa. Included in this Land Manager's Pack is information on the management, maintenance, and conservation of rock art. The packs are mailed to relevant people or are distributed by researchers in the field. The current pack will be redesigned to be more appealing to the public, will be printed on more rigid material, and will be translated into at least two indigenous languages. These materials have been demonstrated to reduce vandalism and exploitation of rock art sites where they are available.

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian — United States

The NMAI George Gustav Heye Center in New York will be highlighting indigenous cultures from Mexico through exhibition presentations and programming. The NMAI is planning to present a Day of the Dead festival in October which will include a collaboration of indigenous artists from Mexico and New York City that will highlight how indigenous cultures of Mexico view life and death. This festival honors the commitment to the large Spanish-speaking audience, and offers the public at large a chance to learn more about the indigenous communities in both countries and how their traditional beliefs and culture survives in a contemporary world. Program participants will direct the building of a Day of the Dead altar in the rotunda area. Workshops by Native artists will be conducted to create various offerings for the altar, including paper flowers, paper cut-outs, and masks. When the altar is completed, the celebration will begin with a dance presentation by Danza Mexica (Azteca) or the Cetilizli Nauhcampa Quetzalcoatl in Ixachitlan group.

Tiospa Zina Tribal School (Red Shield, Inc.) — United States

At the upcoming 21st annual Sun Dance, additional funds are needed for several items which exceed the community's financial capacities. Funds from this grant would provide for a large water tank for both drinking and bathing purposes, lease and daily cleaning of portable toilets, and travel funds for several of the intercessors and singers for the ceremony. The organizing group has generated funds to cover construction of the Sun Dance arbor, tools, garbage removal, and food supplies for the families of the Sun Dancers. It is to be noted that the Sun Dance provides a traditional healing opportunity for local traditional practitioners who have a genuine concern for their families which are not being treated by any local medical facility. The Sun Dance provides a singular opportunity for the community to experience physical, emotional, and psychological healing for their mind, body, and spirit.