2024 Native-Led Organizing Awardees Announcement
Serving a five-state region, SJF allocated a significant portion of funding to major urban centers like Seattle and Portland in the past. The 2024 Native-Led Organizing Grant expanded its scope to intentionally include rural, small-town, and reservation organizing communities in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, particularly emphasizing those directed by and supporting LGBTQ+ and 2 Spirit individuals. This year we are excited that 13 out of the 20 grantees are first time grant award recipients with SJF.
SJF has deep appreciation of the panelists representing tribes in the northwest, each bringing valuable experience as leaders, executives, administrators, and organizers. A special thank you to the applicants, scoring panel members, and grant recipients. We have faith that you will steward this funding responsibly to benefit our Indigenous relatives in innovative and dynamic ways.
We pay homage to our Matriarchs for guiding our focus areas and scoring the applications. We affectionately refer to them as auntie, gram, and mom.
The awardees include:
Center Pole, Garryowen, MT
The mission of the Center Pole is to build knowledge, justice, sovereignty, opportunity and prosperity in Indigenous reservation communities and preserve and protect Indigenous ways.
Center Pole is a 25-year-old Indigenous grassroots community-support organization located on the rural Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. Founded by Crow elder Peggy Wellknown Buffalo, who was given an accolade by his Holiness the Dalai Lama for her work in her reservation community, Center Pole is dedicated to community healing and spiritual values through the lens of energy sustainability, food sovereignty, spiritual and artistic practices, and net zero living. Center Pole is run by the reservation community, for the reservation community and led by a committee of Indigenous elders.
Indigenous Idaho Alliance, Boise, ID
To give our people something to be proud of. To give knowledge, songs, and gifts. In our way of life we need to stand up and move forward in a good way. As a family we will strive to be better. We will remain together for many generations.
Gathered in This Place, Seattle, WA
Our mission is to build community, foster solidarity, and nurture our 2 Spirit, IndigiQueer relatives while addressing the challenges of homophobia and transphobia.
This funding will support the development of a 2Spirit, Indigiqueer teaching toolkit for Native community members in the Seattle area and beyond. This toolkit will include a physical bentwood box containing literature (poems, books, stories), traditional knowledge items, plant medicines, art, and more.
Native American Reentry Services, Tacoma, WA
Native American Reentry Service’s mission is to address barriers faced by Native people who find themselves struggling to transition from a life of incarceration to one of healthy and productive freedom. Our goal is to support successful reintegration into Native American/Aboriginal reservation and urban communities and reduce recidivism through Native American/Aboriginal traditional means.
The UPRISE Collective, Beaverton, OR
Our mission is to open spaces and provide support for people with targeted identities to engage in social uplift within our own communities.Using the word targeted is intentional. It places the onus back on the systems of white supremacy that have created the conditions that cause the institutions we operate within to intentionally target, harm, and/or erase us. Targeted includes Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer, Trans, Two-Spirit, Indige-Queer, trauma survivors, Sick, Disabled, and poor community members.
Columbia River Institute for Indigenous Development Foundation, Warm Springs, OR
The mission of the Columbia River Institute For Indigenous Development is “to preserve, share, revitalize, and advance the Ichiskin Language and Culture of the Mid-Columbia River Plateau.” Our youth outdoor adventure programming encompasses the Paddle to Puyallup and Wánapa (On the River). Both are culturally centered around Ichishkín language and total 26 nights and 27 days of immersive experiences to nurture cultural and environmental awareness focused on Mid-Columbia River Tribal Communities.
Maqlaqs Paddle, Fort Klamath, OR
Maqlaqs means “People” in the Klamath Modoc language, and Maqlaqs Paddle asserts the importance of free-flowing rivers to Indigenous people and the planet. Its mission is to support our people in reclaiming our waterways, strengthening connections with our lands and waters. Our goal is to restore the well-being and health of the Ewksiknii coy Modoknii Maklaks peoples and their lands and waters. The health of our people and our homelands’ minds, bodies, and spirits is crucial to restoring Maklaks peoples, places, and spirits.
Indigenous Roots & Reparation Foundation, Wenatchee, WA
The Indigenous Roots & Reparation Foundation is a newly formed Indigenous lead nonprofit working towards securing funding for our annual projects and operational funds. In 2023 we are hosting our 2nd annual Huckleberry Camp and 3rd annual Indian Hemp Field Trip. With these events, we provide support to the Native American/Indigenous community members to travel to our homelands and participate in the traditional practices. IRRF provides food, gas cards, lodging and more for these events.
Blue Sky Minds Nonprofit, Mazama, WA
Blue Sky Minds Nonprofit supports the growth of an equitable, sustainable, and economically thriving food system in the Okanogan region, including Colville Reservation and Okanogan County. We cultivate community collaborations through facilitating gatherings, sharing resources, and outreach. We are a community organizer for our local food system stakeholders, bringing everyone together to create change and social justice within our food system. Blue Sky Minds founder and director, Maria Hines, is a two-spirited Indigenous woman from the island of Tarama. She has lived experience working within food systems in Washington for 25 years and is dedicated to our community in the Okanogan. Our vision at Blue Sky Minds is to eliminate hunger, by ensuring that every single person has close access to culturally relevant, locally grown, nutritious food. We aim to create a sustainable and sovereign food system that supports farmers, and the community and protects the land in the Okanogan region.
Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Pullman, WA
We exist to carry on time-honored sustainable, environmental practices in the tradition of the Nimiipuu by facilitating and organizing tribal youth and adults in activities for the protection, enhancement, and promotion of mother earth and the Nimiipuu culture.
Cattail Rising, Olympia, WA
Our mission is to support the success and well-being of Native American children and youth by providing immersive educational experiences which support and nurture their cultural identity and sense of belonging.
Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women, People and Families, Seattle, WA
MMIWP Families is a grassroots, Indigenous family and survivor-led organization that works to provide prevention, healing & education for communities & impacted families, through unity-building frontline action and culture. We raise awareness about MMIWP through education, prevention and outreach initiatives, including healing community events, workshops, and justice campaigns.
KHIMSTONIK, TOPPENISH, WA
KHIMSTONIK is dedicated to reclaiming and promoting the stories of the land by fostering a shared web of knowledge and collaboration among individuals, families, communities, and governments. We strive to restore Indigenous sovereignty, cultural heritage, and environmental resilience through meaningful partnerships, education, and advocacy.
Common Good Missoula, Missoula MT
Common Good Missoula (CGM) is an alliance of member organizations in Missoula including faith communities, neighborhood associations, nonprofits, unions, healthcare centers and Indigenous-led organizations who work together to build broad-based non-partisan civic power. We are a multi-issue organization with our campaign areas emerging from the pressures shared by community members, with priority being given to the needs of the most vulnerable and those who have been historically oppressed.
Two Powers Land Collective Incorporated, Bozeman, MT
With a deep respect for ancestral knowledge and a profound understanding of the interconnectedness between individuals and the Land, we strive to create a welcoming and safe environment for all. Our mission is to facilitate healing and resilience by reconnecting individuals with their cultural heritage and the healing power of the Land. The Ponokamiita Initiative is a culture-based model of resiliency, that will be illustrated through the offering of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) at the Two Powers Land Camp. Our approach expands beyond the Western concept of resiliency, which focuses on the individual, to include both the individual and community.
Indigenous Cannabis Coalition, Kamiah, ID
ICANNC serves Indigenous communities through advocacy, education and promotion of First Nations cultures and economies in the Tribal Hemp and Cannabis industries. The Indigenous Cannabis Coalition (ICANNC) provides Indian Country with the needed education, advocacy and technical assistance needed to overcome the negative stigma associated with the hemp and cannabis plants to forge a new, greener pathway in medicinal and fiber industries to heal our people.
Unspoken Words: A Native Podcast, Billings, MT
Our mission is to create a safe environment to share our experience, strength and hope so that all members of the recovery community have an online resource to access. We promote healing through cultural teachings, healthy copings skills, and through the Wellbriety movement. We encourage individuals to address their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing on a daily basis in order to move forward in good way.
Longhouse for the People, fiscal sponsored project of BLM Jefferson County, Port Townsend, WA
Longhouse for the People (LFTP) is a grassroots project sowing the seeds for decolonization on the Olympic Peninsula by building a traditional Chemakum longhouse on Chemakum ancestral lands. We seek to revitalize our culture, re-establish governance, and reclaim our sovereignty. Conceived by Chemakum Matriarch Naiome Krienke and powered by a growing network of collaborators, we model Indigenous land stewardship as an alternative to extraction, cross-cultural connection as an alternative to blame/violence, cultural revitalization as an alternative to settler-colonial white supremacy, and reciprocity as an alternative to individualism.
Montana Two Spirit Society, Missoula, MT
The mission of the Montana Two Spirit Society is to advocate, educate and build community among Native and Indigenous peoples, including 2SLGBTQ+ and allied communities, by sharing our two spirit histories and cultural traditions. Our vision is to reclaim our two spirit traditions and heal past wounds as a way to create healthy Native and Indigenous two spirit communities
Young Warriors Society, Nespelem, WA
The Young Warrior Society: We are an indigenous led community alliance based on the Colville Confederated tribal homelands in North Central Washington. We are inspired by the spirit of Unity to embolden environmental and racial justice by providing education of our rich collective cultural heritage. We offer services and support to empower our intergenerational/inter racial communities with awareness to grow strong leaders through connection to culture, food sovereignty, artistry, healing and building healthy relationships.
