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Native American Advised Fund
For the Generations to Come...Native American Advised Fund
Photography:Lee Marmon © Allan Houser Inc.
Advisory Committee: [Standing] Joseph Aguilar (San Ildefonso Pueblo), Luci Tapahonso (Navajo), Marita Hinds (Pueblo of Tesuque), Beverly Morris (Aleut), Jhane Myers (Comanche, Blackfeet), Nocona Burgess (Comanche), Andrea Hanley (Navajo). [Seated] Emily Haozous (Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache), Christina M. Castro (Jemez/Taos Pueblo), Kathryn Harris Tijerina (Comanche).
Not Pictured: Stephine Poston (Sandia Pueblo) and Porter Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo).
The Native American Advised Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, was established in 1993 with a gift from the late Allan Houser (Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache), a humanitarian and one of the world's great artists. Grants are made from the fund based on the recommendations of an advisory committee. The majority of members of the advisory committee are drawn from the local Native American communities.
The purpose of the Native American Advised Fund is to enhance Native lifeways now and for future generations in New Mexico by promoting a spirit of sharing and supporting community initiatives. The Fund supports efforts that emphasize the commitment to Native core values: community, language, culture, and environment. Since 1997, the Native American Advised Fund has granted over $200,000 to 50 different tribes, schools, and organizations.
The Fund will operate in perpetuity, benefiting this and future generations. Only the income from the fund is used to make grants.
Native American considers grants in the fall, corresponding to the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s fall competitive grant cycle.
Native American Advised Fund Grant Awards 2017
Fall
Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women: $600
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture - Laboratory of Anthropology: $3,700
Native American Social Work Program (NASWP) Advisory-Development Committee: $1,700
New Mexico Kids Matter Inc.: $4,000
RESOLVE Violence Prevention: $1,600
Santa Fe Indian Center: $2,000
Spring
Changing Woman Initiative Birth and Wellness Center: $2,000
Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE): $2,000
Indigenous Nations Library Program, UNM: $1,000
Native American Student Services for SFPS: $2,200
Pueblo of Pojoaque/Tewa Language Immersion: $1,200
Tewa Women United: $1,000
Native American Advised Fund Grant Awards 2016
Fall
Indian Arts Research Center/School for Advanced Research: $2,000
New Mexico Kids Matter: $2,000
Reel Indian Pictures/New West Media Foundation: $1,000
Santa Fe Indian Center: $3,500
Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA): $1,000
Spring
Axle Projects, Inc. - $500: to support E Pluribus Unum: Dinétah. Axle Contemporary will visit chapter houses, local business, schools, and other gathering places on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, creating a portrait of the community. The Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, AZ will host an exhibition of all the images. The project catalogue will be distributed free to all participants, as well as being offered for sale.
Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute - $4,000: to support the farm that provides environmental and agricultural education to about 1,000 participants, including 400 youth. Seventy percent of the population served is Native American.
Native American Student Services - $5,000: to support The Art of Academics through Native Connections, a summer youth program for k-8 students to increase academic proficiency while bringing traditional and cultural knowledge in an urban education setting.
Native American Advised Fund Grant Awards 2015
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture - $2,000: to support a joint internship program between MIAC and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Students from IAIA will gain job experience and hands-on skills while the museum receives much-needed informed assistance.
Tewa Women United - $5,000: to support TWU’s Environmental Justice project which engages youth and elders in sharing traditional ways of conservation and preservation combined with modern permaculture methods.
Honor Our Pueblo Existence - $3,000: The Buwah Tewha Project at Santa Clara Pueblo revives a traditional lifeway—the making of bread by the women on baking stones. This grant will support Phase 2 of the Buwah Tewha Project which involves the building of the kitchen where the dough for the bread will be prepared. The NAAEF funded Phase 1 of the Buwah Tewha Project in 2014 completing construction of the building where the baking stones live. This revitalization of a traditional lifeway also holds great potential for economic opportunity and development, as well as the obvious health and dietary benefits.
Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority - $1,000: The Owe’neh Bupingeh Project of the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority is a mud plaster training project. The project aims to preserve tribal culture through the renovation of homes in the tribal plaza. The mud plaster training is required of each family in order to maintain the new mud plaster exterior of their home. To date, 34 homes have been restored. This return to the traditional mud plaster has revitalized a multitude of homes around the plaza at Ohkay Owingeh and returned life to the pueblo by drawing people back to their traditional homes.
Santa Fe Indian Center - $4,000: This is the second consecutive year of funding for the Santa Fe Indian Center. The Center is building a sense of community for American Indian people in Santa Fe. It works to assess and to serve their needs—immediate and long-term. The SF Indian Center hosts the hugely popular Indian Summer: American Indian Community Day in Santa Fe, as well as a critically important Emergency Assistance Program. Presentations on topical issues and access to a comprehensive resource list are also offered.
Native American Advised Fund Grant Awards 2014
Santa Fe Indian Center - $5,000 to engage the American Indian community in Santa Fe and to assess and to serve their needs and interests.
Impact Personal Safety - $2,600 to teach Native people ages 6-92 skills to prevent and to defend themselves and their communities against violence through collaborations with schools, pueblos and nonprofits.
Museum of New Mexico Foundation - $2,500 This grant, in collaboration with the Community Leadership Fund, is in support of the Allan Houser sculpture exhibition at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.
Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) - $2,500 Honor Our Pueblo Existence is revitalizing a Pueblo life-way practiced by the women. Situated at Santa Clara Pueblo, but built for use by the Northern Pueblo communities, HOPE is building a ceremonial Buwah, or “Holy Bread House”. Santa Clara Pueblo once had such a house in the main village, where the women would gather to prepare the blue and white corn flour and to bake paper-thin bread on heated stones. The unleavened bread was ancestral food that was a main food source which was also used for religious ceremonies. Piki (paper bread) makers from the Hopi tribe have generously donated the baking stones while potters from neighboring Pueblos have provided the bowls needed in the preparation of the bread.
Pueblo of Picuris - $3,000 The 100% Natural Lump Charcoal Project is currently underway at Picuris and is an economic development initiative that would commercially market a recycled charcoal product. A primary goal of the project is to lessen the poverty rate amongst the 360 tribal members. The 100% natural charcoal is produced using waste tree thinning harvested on Pueblo land. This thinning is critical in reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfire.
SFCF provides grants to eligible applicants so long as funds are available, without regard to the race, creed, color, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, disability, country or place of origin, ethnicity or citizenship status of the applicants.