A NEW INSTITUTE GIVES VOICE TO NARRATIVES FROM LATINX, INDIGENOUS, AND IMMIGRANT VOICES IN ARTS AND CULTURE FIELD

The Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) launches today! Conceived of by non-profit regional and national arts organizations - Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), and PA'I Foundation - ILI is a newly formed, paradigm-shifting personal and leadership development program for artists, culture bearers, and other arts professionals.

For First Peoples Fund, ILI represents a way to tangibly practice intercultural work with our partner organizations as a means of building solidarity, building capacity, and building healthy social narratives for organizations of color across our nation. First Peoples Fund participates in conversations as part of a larger national and international field of activity; together, the ILI is an opportunity to author new models for equity built through genuine equality, adaptive practices, and the creativity of our shared communities.

From hundreds of applicants, 30 fellows were chosen to participate in a year-long, interactive leadership development activities. They represent different geographic locations ranging from Michigan, Hawai'i, Rhode Island, Georgia, New York to California and other places. "ILI is an opportunity to meet and work with a diverse group of culturally grounded emerging and master artists engaged in arts and social justice work across the nation," says Vicky Holt Takamine, Executive Director of the PA'I Foundation.

Carlton Turner, Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, offers key insight about this initiative: "In this political moment when our country's leadership is skewing male and white, ILI represents a space for leadership development where narratives from indigenous, native, and immigrant voices are central. Our future rests in our ability to honor all voices as significant contributors to the fabric of society. ILI also nurtures an intergenerational space for that conversation to grow."

For this first year, the program dates will take place in Jackson, Mississippi (March 23-28, 2017), September in Lakota Territory (western South Dakota), and Hawai'i (early 2018). Four key goals are for fellows to:

• Build stronger collaborations and solidarity in the field of arts, culture and social change
• Promote traditional and contemporary practices and establish other ways for participants to work within existing structures and to create new structures
• Advance the skills and capacity of fellows to pursue cultural equity and sustain their work in a changing environment
• Impact the language, shift the attention and endow greater resources in multiple sectors to support transformative practices of the participants

Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota), President of First Peoples Fund, offers insight into the transformative intention of ILI to impact language by defining "culture bearer." She explains, "A culture bearer is an individual who has dedicated their life to passing on the ancestral knowledge and tradition-based arts ecology of a land and its people." She adds, "All the fellows may not be culture bearers but the partners deem it important that they be open to learning about indigenous-based practices that are rooted in the very land where they live and work."

ILI BACKGROUND

The ILI founding partners first met in 2004. Citing their own experiences as leaders within the arts and culture field who regularly participated in programs designed to support one's personal and professional development, the partners recognized that while most of these programs provided important skills and connections, they also largely reinforced dominant cultural norms, modes of learning, and ways of being and interacting that were sometimes out of sync with their commitment to cultural equity and to change-making in and with their own communities.

"As we grew and as we built trust over time, we developed a shared analysis of the need for a leadership program of, by, and for the artists and culture bearers in our communities. We spent many years discussing the concept among ourselves and with a wide range of allies who helped shape the incubation of ILI leading into the 5-day pilot experience we hosted in San Antonio in the fall of 2015," said Maria López De León, President and CEO of NALAC.

In defining the program as an "Intercultural Leadership Institute," the partners are making an important distinction. Cross-cultural approaches emphasize comparing two or more distinct cultures. Intercultural approaches, on the other hand, stress the shared grooves of social memory, co-habitation, and mutual accountability while allowing adherents to challenge dominant norms as well as honor and find solidarity in the differences of their histories, traditions, identities, and vocabularies.

2017 - 2018 ILI FELLOWS

Adam Horowitz NM

daniel johnson MS

Kim Pevia NC

Alayna Eagle Shield ND

Eli Lakes GA

Kiyoko McCrae LA

Angie Durrell CT

Gabriela Muñoz AZ

Lula Saleh MN

Arturo Herrera MI

Graciela Sanchez TX

Nijeul Porter CA

Betty Yu NY

*Hillary Kempenich ND

Priya Bhayana MD

Bobby LeFebre CO

Jonathan Clark TN

Shey Rivera Rios RI

Cassius Spears RI

Jumana Salamey MI

Tara Gumapac HI

*Chadwick Pang HI

*Ka'iu (Elizabeth) Takamori HI

Tish Jones MN

ChE Ware LA

Kaisha Johnson NY

Vicki Meek TX

Cristal Chanelle Truscott TX

Kanoelani Davis HI

*Wesley May MN

*FPF Alumni, Trainers & Grantees

ILI SUPPORTERS

The Intercultural Leadership Institute has been made possible thanks to generous support from American Express, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Southwest Airlines, and Surdna Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the general funding partners, members, donors, and volunteers of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, NALAC and PA'I Foundation

Late last month, FPF president Lori Pourier traveled to Honolulu where she attended the PA’I Foundation’s 2017 Mo’olelo Storytelling Festival. The festival included mo’olelo, a form of Hawaiian storytelling and a hallmark of the pre-contact Native Hawaiian oral tradition, as well as Native American and Tex-Mex story-telling traditions.

The sold-out festival at the Doris Duke Theater, Honolulu Museum of Art was supported in part by an Our Nations’ Spaces grant from First Peoples Fund, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.

“It was a fun-filled evening of theatre, spoken word, music, song, and dance. We are especially grateful that we were able to share the evening with our partners,” says kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine, who leads the PA’I Foundation and is a First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award honoree.

Along with Lori, Vicky is one of the founding partners of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Others in the group of ILI founders include Carlton Turner of Alternate ROOTS and Maria De Leon of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture— both members of FPF’s board of directors. The four ILI founders met in Honolulu to put the finishing touches on the exciting new program, which launches in Mississippi in March and comes to Lakota Territory in September. (Much more about ILI in the next eSPIRIT.)

Lori was also in Hawai’i to support the PA’I Foundation and another longtime partner, Artspace Projects, in the Ground Blessing Ceremonies for their joint project the Ola Ka ‘Ilima Artspace Lofts. Artspace, along with Lakota Funds, is FPF’s partner on the Rolling Rez Arts mobile unit and the upcoming Oglala Lakota Art Space on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

One final, important thread to weave in: 2016 Community Spirit Award honoree Lynette Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota) traveled from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation to join Lori on her journey and take part in the festival and ceremonies.

“We hold our partners close to our hearts at First Peoples Fund,” Lori says, “together we make much more possible.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

In January, Marsha Whiting (Chippewa Cree, Sicangu Lakota) joined First Peoples Fund’s staff to fulfill a role ideally suited to her — Vice President of Operations and Programs. Bringing Marsha onboard was one of the first steps First Peoples Fund took in implementing their newly drafted Strategic Assessment and Direction.

Marsha spent seven years at First Nations Development Institute as Senior Grants and Program Officer. In this position, she oversaw grant administration and was a member of the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative Program team. At home, staying connected to the Denver Indian community through volunteer work was important to Marsha as she continued the longstanding family tradition. These life and professional experiences prepared her to take on a job of great significance with First Peoples Fund.

“The programming is amazing—the work that’s being done is so groundbreaking,” Marsha says. “It’s just exciting to hear about some of the events going on. Very impressive.”

Beginning in the spring of 2015 and continuing to November 2016, First Peoples Fund engaged in a strategic planning process with partners, advisors, trainers, artists, staff and the board of directors. This journey resulted in the Strategic Assessment and Direction. It leverages our guiding principle on how change happens, the importance of upholding culture bearers in Native communities, and supporting individual artists. We deeply value these artists and culture bearers, recognizing their power to build Indigenous arts ecologies.

The year 2017 is also one of “investing in our own,” expanding organizational and program development to strengthen abilities and uplift the Collective Spirit®. To grow national Indigenous arts ecologies one artist and one community at a time. Of equal value is “to respect the pause” by going within, investing in internal staff capacity and internal processes and systems that will allow us to sustain the organization.

We begin with an assessment. It’s the driver that allows models to be adaptive. Assessment is the first step in any new effort, development or initiative, whether internally or externally. In the assessment, we have begun to tighten our own weave by establishing stronger criteria and processes for bringing on new staff. The process of hiring the new Vice President of Operations and Programs is one strand in the weave to strengthen the organization's capacity. This position has an organizational focus on internal systems, procedures and capacity building, freeing up First Peoples Fund president Lori Pourier to lead growth and development while managing external partnerships.

“We’re really excited to have Marsha join us here at First Peoples Fund. “She brings outstanding experience and expertise that are helping us continue to meaningfully grow our organization’s ability to effectively honor and support Native artists and culture bearers.”

— Lori Pourier, President First Peoples Fund

In this position, Marsha is responsible to implement the Strategic Assessment and Direction, creating the internal framework to support the direction while integrating values and purpose into all levels. The internal framework will also maintain consistency with how the organization functions as a collective, and with a strong foundation in criteria and holistic assessment.

Focusing on the balance between “the head and the heart” of artists and culture bearers, we continue to innovate, evaluate and create transformative processes within to uphold the Collective Spirit®. The VP of Operations and Programs position is the next step in that journey.

Change takes time and requires strong relationships, long-term commitments and investment. Going forward, we want to deepen our programs and commitments. We value systems, methodologies, language and approaches, knowing consistency across programs strengthens connectivity and leverages impact. These elements tighten the weave within our work.

First Peoples Fund is deepening its systems of internal accountability to ensure culture bearers are guiding us every step of the way as we grow and assess programs by involving them more with community work, especially as FPF engages in a greater way with community development and organization. This process is a significant focus in 2017 as we strengthen our internal model-building processes.

“As I have gotten familiar with First Peoples Fund through the interviewing and hiring processes, I’ve been really impressed with the mission,” Marsha says.

The values, systems, and programs make First Peoples Fund a distinguished nonprofit in Marsha’s eyes. When she read the Strategic Assessment, she knew it was unique. Marsha has worked with nonprofits that were just starting out and didn’t have the infrastructure she’s experienced since she began working with First Peoples Fund.

The Strategic Assessment impressed Marsha, who says being able to work from that document is a wonderful prospect. She’s looking forward to actualizing the Assessment and laying out a plan for the organization to achieve objectives in it. A big part is working with the staff collaboratively, using the models outlined in the Assessment. This position is ideal to utilize Marsha’s skills in organizational systems.

She made the move from Denver to Rapid City, but it’s not her first time there. She makes a few trips a year to Rapid City for the Black Hills Powwow, and also to visit family on the Rosebud Reservation.

Three generations of Marsha’s family are currently working in the nonprofit sector. Her mother and brother work at the American Indian College Fund, and her daughter works at First Nations Development Institute. Marsha has been connected to many American Indian nonprofit agencies in the Denver area through volunteering, serving on advisory councils and boards of directors, and through employment.

In 2008-2009, Marsha was a Leadership & Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship Development (LEAD) Program fellow. She has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration.

It was 11 years ago that Marsha knew it was time to make a career transition from her importing and graphic design work. “I found I was spending more and more time volunteering within the intertribal Indian community in Denver where I was born and raised,” she says. “I was enjoying it a lot more than my job. I made the transition to working in a Native nonprofit because it reflected the values of giving back to the community instilled in me from my Lakota grandparents. They had always been involved with the community and really set a great example for our family.”

Sherry Salway Black (Oglala Lakota), FPF chair of the board of directors, says, “First Peoples Fund is so fortunate to have Marsha Whiting join us. She brings knowledge and skills that will complement and supplement our staff capacity at a critical time. The board looks forward to working with her as a member of the senior management team.”

The Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) announces their 2017-2018 inaugural fellows today.

Conceived of by non-profit regional and national arts organizations - Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), and PA’I Foundation - ILI is a newly formed, paradigm-shifting personal and leadership development program for artists, culture bearers, and other arts professionals.

Its purpose is to give voice to arts practitioners and advocates who are less represented in the dominant culture of the United States, including those whose lives reflect the traditional heritages of African Americans, Native Americans, native Hawaiians, Latinx culture, and other communities and cultures throughout the U.S.

A warm welcome to the first cohort of ILI Fellows:

Adam Horowitz * Alayna Eagle Shield * Angie Durrell * Arturo Herrera * Betty Yu * Bobby LeFebre * Cassius Spears * Chadwick Pang * ChE Ware * Cristal Truscott * daniel johnson * Eli lakes * Gabriela Muñoz * Graciela Sanchez * Hillary Kempenich * Jonathan Clark * Jumana Salamey * Ka'iu (Elizabeth) Takamori * Kaisha Johnson * Kanoelani Davis * Kim Pevia * Kiyoko McCrae * Lula Saleh * Nijeul Porter * Priya Bhayana * Shey Rivera Rios * Tara Gumapac * Tish Jones * Vicki Meek * Wesley May

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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Founder of the Legacy Cultural Learning Community in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Dana Tiger (Mvskoke) is best known for her watercolors and acrylic paintings that hang in galleries, universities, Native institutions and state buildings nationwide. In 2011, she was honored as a Community Spirit Award recipient, and in 2017 was awarded a Cultural Capital fellow. She lives in Muskogee with her family.

THE COMING WEATHER.

As a summer storm rolled in, legendary artist Jerome Tiger left his finished canvas to dry on the drawing board. It was his last one.

Dana Tiger was only five years old when her father passed. She turned to his art as a way to get to know him. Under the guidance of her uncle — renowned painter Johnny Tiger, Jr. — she came to know the richness of her culture and the bounty of its artistic tradition. But she didn’t know if she had it in her to carry on her father’s legacy. Dana’s children could paint. Her uncle. But could she?

Now, it’s a dream come true to have her people appreciate what she’s done. Thoughts that she wasn’t good enough stayed with Dana until her accomplishments and good feelings overcame them. Perhaps that’s why she paints the hearts of strong women. She paints that determination.

RAINWATER.

The past few years, Dana has grown more in touch with nature, how things grow and how chemicals in water affect paint application, so she decided to catch rainwater from the roof of their family's Tiger Art Gallery to use in her work.

When Dana’s uncle passed, she couldn’t paint. But not long after, she learned of her daughter’s pregnancy. She began to paint again using the rainwater — a source from nature, a strength in her work. Her grandson was born nine months after her uncle’s passing. One life began as another passed.

THE STORM CLEARS.

Now Dana is excited to work with her community on a circle of activity — immersing youth in their culture, art, traditions, food-ways and songs with a yearlong project supported by her Cultural Capital fellowship. Throughout the process of growing a garden that includes pumpkin seeds brought over the Trail of Tears by her people, they’ll have bow-making, singing, sculpting and harvesting. The circle comes around with an art show for the youth to display and sell their original work to further their success.

The Tiger family of artists continues to honor the legacy of Jerome Tiger.

A clear sky after the storm.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Another storm has risen for Dana with the recent passing of her mother, Margaret (Peggy) Tiger. We honor her life with these words from Dana.

"My mother showed me what determination was. If she was fearful, I never saw it. Her mind was brilliant, her drive for learning was her pure pleasure. I will live the whole rest of my life feeling her love and strength." - Dana Tiger

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Traditional woodcarver, painter and jeweler, David R. Boxley (Ts'msyen) is a past Community Spirit Award honoree. He often partners with his father to travel around the world with their dance group, Git-Hoan Dancers, and for raising totem poles. A well respected artist and prominent leader of his generation, David is a 2017 Cultural Capital fellow. He resides in Metlakatla, Alaska.

Drawing lessons at age four. Carving at six. David R. Boxley was the first of his generation to hold a traditional potlatch in his village. He doesn’t take the privileges given to him lightly. His life and his art are dedicated to bringing back his People’s culture, to saving their language for this generation and the next. His work lives and breathes a connection into their past, present and future.

David has big shoes to fill. His father, David A. Boxley, is a well-respected artist and culture bearer in their community. He’s passing his strength and wisdom on to his son so David R. can live and grow and think his culture.

It’s been a rewarding journey. Along the way, David was commissioned to carve and raise his grandmother’s memorial totem pole, and create the Tsimshian house front for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Center. He and his dad collaborated on a totem pole for the National Museum of the American Indian. But as he’s worked to help revive his people’s traditions, David has found it difficult to educate his own tribe on the sheer amount of masterpieces their ancestors created that are now scattered around the world. It’s time to bring them home.

He’s preparing to go out and find the great art of his People. With his Cultural Capital fellowship, David is working with his business partner, award-winning artist, weaver and beader Kandi McGilton (Tsimshian), to seek out collections at museums in Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. Kandi and he will measure, touch, and know the hidden details in the pieces, then choose objects and replicate them for their community to see at home. This is their way to bring these pieces back. To restore them.

The exhibit in their longhouse will help David’s community develop a deep sense of pride, ownership and understanding — where they come from, who they are. That the Tsimshian people were, and are, capable of great things.

INVESTING IN OUR OWN COLLECTIVE SPIRIT

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow  

Making connections, deepening relationships, the balance of head and heart. Changing from the inside out, one artist at a time to strengthen and grow families and communities across Indian Country with Native art. This theory is at the core of First Peoples Fund’s Strategic Plan for the next three years. As we invest in our own Collective Spirit® to move forward, First Peoples Fund will provide the support communities need to build and realize their own Indigenous arts ecologies — systems of thriving culture and economy based in relationships, values and creative traditions.

How does change happen? It begins on the individual level, with the artist at the forefront of community efforts. The artists are guided by culture bearers, those recognized leaders who are the keepers of ancestral knowledge and traditions, dedicated to the preservation and expansion of Native art. Community Spirit Award recipients are at the center of First Peoples Fund’s philosophy. Their work and lives embody the core values of generosity, integrity and wisdom, that fine balance between “the head and the heart.”

First Peoples Fund president Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota) explained it this way: “It’s not your usual strategic plan. We’ve built upon 17 years of how we do our work and this has laid the foundation for the trajectory of the work going forward. We know that First Peoples Fund must remain rooted in the values and vision of our culture bearers, even as we work to build artists’ skills and knowledge through an economic lens.”

“We know that First Peoples Fund must remain rooted in the values and vision of our culture bearers, even as we work to build artists’ skills and knowledge through an economic lens.”

— Lori Pourier, First Peoples Fund President

In the 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Program (ABL), I (Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) was strengthened as a literary artist. I embraced my work without fear. I published three books with support of the fellowship. I could sell those books with confidence and with heart, knowing the work I did went beyond myself. It reached into my community, into the lives of storytellers, preservationists, and tribal leadership. The books have become a force of change now rippling out nationally, and even internationally. My fellowship embraced the values of ABL — independence, generosity, satisfaction and credibility. Two are heart-based; two are business. The cumulative results changed my career.

Through First Peoples Fund’s fellowships since 2004, hundreds of individual artists and their families have experienced this change in their art creations and their businesses. They’ve seen their worth as artists, moving from shoe-box accounting to QuickBooks through the business coaching with Native community development institutions and First Peoples Fund’s Native Artists Professional Development trainings. Native artists who feel seen and valued as whole persons are ultimately more successful and realize their importance of sustaining cultural practices at the community level.

NOW FIRST PEOPLES FUND IS TIGHTENING THE WEAVE IN OUR WORK.

Beginning with assessment and engagement processes with nearly 200 partners, advisors, trainers, artists, staff and the board of directors, First Peoples Fund moved through a deepened understanding of the Collective Spirit®. Together we witnessed it first-hand from the field and analyzed how change happens, starting with the individual artists who are the foundation of all First Peoples Fund does. A deep value is placed on the power of artists and culture bearers. This moves to the community level of working with Native community development financial institutions and other nonprofits who support artists, a transformation that flows both ways — into the artists and into the communities. First Peoples Fund helps these organizations leverage their resources, and then artists increase their revenues by providing direct services to their communities. Strong communities of artists create momentum nationally to strengthen Indigenous arts ecologies that once thrived within tradition-based economies.

Culture bearers (Community Spirit Award honorees) focus on restoration. They are often deeply committed to bringing back so much that was taken or literally extracted from their communities — ceremonial items, languages, dances — and restoring them. Restoration is at the heart and center of First Peoples Fund.

Tribal leader, president of the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association, and full-time artist Bud Lane III (Siletz) recognized the power of the Strategic Plan and its focus on Indigenous arts ecologies. When he first read it, he said “Here I am,” and offered himself as an artist, a community member, part of a nonprofit organization.

Bud is a member of First Peoples Fund’s board of directors and a Community Spirit Award honoree who alongside tribal members dedicated himself to restoring Siltez tribal songs, dances, regalia, and repatriating baskets and other cultural items. As a young man, he mentored alongside leaders who fought hard to regain federal recognition and land recovery in the early 1970s. As vice chair of the Siletz Nation and chair of the basketweavers association, he saw first-hand the value of cultural recovery in rebuilding of his family, community and his tribal Nation. He learned the importance of balancing the “head and the heart,” rebuilding a traditional dance house while also providing business support to emerging artists through the weavers association.

“Native business models include culture bearers. They are the nucleus of culture that all of our art, modern and traditional, flows from. All of our models exist because of these. All of this art, modern and traditional, all flow from those things. None of these models exist without the traditional ways and belief systems. They all emanate from those things. Identity, knowledge, teachings, traditions, that stream that exists without the individual people.”

— Bud Lane III (Siletz)

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Wesley May (Redlake Band of Chippewa) is a culture bearer in his community whose experience exemplifies First Peoples Fund’s philosophy or Theory of Change. While receiving a loan for his Tribe, Wesley saw how important it was to engage his community through healing for the youth and by providing business support to families of beadworkers. An artist for over 20 years, he transcended through mediums until he became content with acrylic paint. Trials, tribulations, and experiences led him to where he is today — honestly sharing his story through art.

He is the founder and owner of Wesley May Arts, a clothing line based on his artwork. He believes an artist’s role in the community is to bring awareness of voices rarely heard — not to lead the charge of any cause but to unleash the potential of others through art. With his Cultural Capital and Artists in Business Leadership fellowships, First Peoples Fund helped him not only identify his values and goals but put them into action.

Wesley knows that by strengthening culture in the community, the business will happen. With support from First Peoples Fund, along with help from his tribe, he’s producing art through his space with his community and the youth.

Lani Hotch’s (Tlingit) community has experienced the transformation First Peoples Fund can bring. In 2016 — through funding from the Surdna Foundation, assistance from First Peoples Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center opened the Chilkat Cultural Landscape Map exhibit for Lani’s community and visitors. She’s brought healing to her community through art.

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Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center Grand Opening Video by PlainDEPTH Consulting, May 2016.

Former Community Spirit Awards and Cultural Capital recipients help First Peoples Fund be clear about our path and vision, and stay on a trajectory grounded in the heart. Change takes time and requires strong relationships. Going forward with a sharp strategic focus, First Peoples Fund will build stronger systems to move individuals and partners through their values-based Theory of Change, create transformative processes within, foster strategic opportunities to connect, and invest in change-makers to move the field collectively.

This begins with the six needs of artists: access to capital, networks, business knowledge, markets, creative space and supplies. With these needs in mind, First Peoples Fund thinks in terms of the greater Indigenous arts ecology and all aspects of support required for the work.

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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Just do it. This is what Gilbert Kills Pretty Enemy III (Standing Rock Sioux) tells emerging Native artists. But it was something he had to first do himself.

His 20s passed before he realized he should take the art inside him seriously. All he needed was to pick up a pen and release his emotions on paper. Or click a mouse and create the bold lines that inspired him as a kid. Through his business, Chameleon Horse Art & Design, Gilbert has branched off into more art mediums: painting, wood burning, mixed media, ledger art.

With education and support, his personal mission is to push himself. Test limits. Pour his heart and soul into all his work.

This tenacity spills out to the artists around him in the Bear Soldier District community in McLaughlin, South Dakota. Gilbert shows other artists how every piece created is simply practice. To not worry if others don’t like what they create. Make mistakes. Fall, get up, keep at it.

To Gilbert, everyone is a sculptor, chiseling and sculpting themselves throughout their lives. He tells soon-to-be artists not to waste their abilities. Life is too short to wait for someone else’s approval. Just do it.

There were times when Gilbert thought he should have gone down a different road. But at a First Peoples Fund training, he learned he wasn’t alone on this journey. There are other artists working, creating, bringing tears of healing to peoples’ eyes with their work. He’s glad he stuck with being a Native artist. He sees the happiness his art brings – the gratitude in a friend or a stranger – and that tells him he’s doing the right thing.

First Peoples Fund has helped undergird his day-to-day business as his “art changes like a chameleon, with the strength of a horse that drives him.” He just does it.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

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An avid painter and tattoo artist for over a decade, and a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association, Derek Poitra (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) is a full-time artist. He was awarded an Artist in Business Leadership (ABL) fellowship in 2014 and 2016. Derek resides in St. John, North Dakota.

Derek Poitra sees the world through the light of his culture, which gives to him and to his art. He gives back through his time and through drumming, and now through helping other artists in his community by giving them a chance to grow their revenue.

Derek’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition, his strongest platform when creating his art. Elder Native artists influenced his work when he was a youth working for them, cleaning their studios. He knew then he had to be an artist. He wants to influence his generation and future generations, to tell the stories behind the imagery.

With Derek’s First Peoples Fund fellowship, he purchased a quality camera, lens, and printer to create prints of his original paintings. He offers this service to other artists for whom this was far beyond their reach. Some of the artists didn’t know the possibilities. Now they do. It’s strengthening the art in his community.

The expense of an original piece is outside the budgets for most buyers in his market, but with high-quality prints, they can take pieces of art into their homes. A piece of Derek and his culture.

Though Derek does his best, always pushing his boundaries and reaching for the next hardest thing, he never thought of himself as a good artist. But the blessing of the ABL fellowship has shown him the true worth of his labor. It’s made him appreciate his life and his gift from the Creator.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow  

Slack key guitarist Cyril Lani Pahinui (Native Hawaiian) has performed at Carnegie Hall, contributed to three Grammy Award–winning albums, received several Hoku Hanohano Awards, and recorded on more than 35 Hawaiian musical releases. Through First Peoples Fund, Cyril received a Community Spirit Award and two Cultural Capital fellowships. Cyril lives with his wife, Chelle, in Honolulu and Hilo.

The aroma of beef stew and rice welcomed some of the greatest Hawaiian musicians to Cyril Lani Pahinui’s home as his father’s fame grew. The setting was perfect for the rejuvenation of Hawai’i musical traditions. But it wasn’t easy for Cyril to learn.

Since his dad — music legend Gabby Pahinui — slacked his guitar strings and hid it in the closet at night, the only way Cyril could learn was to get up at 4 a.m. to prepare breakfast for Gabby so he would spend one-on-one time with Cyril. Gabby only taught those who wanted to learn, who paid attention. Listened. Practiced. Dedicated themselves.

Cyril’s dedication paid off the day his dad asked him to join his band. That moment began a lifetime of mastering what Gabby and other slack key guitarist taught Cyril in the coming years. His dad said, “One day, my sons’ time will come.”

Cyril played with Gabby, his brothers, rock-’n’-roll bands, country music stars. He toured in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, and across the U.S. with Ledward Kaapana and Dennis Kamakahi.

After Gabby passed, Cyril continued his father’s legacy. When he walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall for a historic Hawaiian music concert, he said, “Dad, we made it.” He could feel his dad there with him, and he played as though Gabby was the only one listening, his perfect ear on every note.

Cyril found love in teaching at schools and communities throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Workshops, music videos, mentorships. He’s focused on archiving historical content while sharing it with the world. With support from previous First Peoples Fund programs, Cyril completed award-winning CDs with and for his students, expanded teaching programs, and produced a film, Let’s Play Music with Cyril Pahinui and Friends Part I, that won the Na Hoku Music Video of the Year and aired widely on PBS.

Failing health and hospitalization hasn’t stopped Cyril. He mentors advanced students from his hospital room and is creating an online monthly video series, working on an instructional book, videos and another film (Let’s Play Music Part II), organizing the 10th Annual Gabby Pahinui Waimanalo Kanikpila Festival (featuring 150 musicians and dancers), and producing a new album.

Cyril wants to ensure the next generation can carry this style of Hawaiian music forward.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Delbert Miller (Skokomish) is a traditional carver, drummer, and storyteller. He received a First Peoples Fund (FPF) Community Spirit Award in 2014, and the Cultural Capital (CC) fellowship in 2016. Delbert and his wife, Tina, live on traditional Skokomish land.

Skokomish oral tradition tells how the Creator made the world for the coming of humans. He blew the breath of life into the land, created the people and blew the breath of life into them to live in that place. When they are moved from that place, they lose the breath of life.

Through Delbert Miller’s CC fellowship, he’s instilling his breath in his tribe and community.

Delbert shared his vision with his community this past year to build a doctor house like ones that haven’t existed among their people since the 1860s. His CC fellowship inspired interest, support and engagement from elders and youth alike. People stepped forward and offered their gifts to help.

Delbert is involving the youth to carve elements for the doctor house, to be the ones who are asked, “Who made this?” The youth can identify their part in their own cultural legacy. Four generations are involved in the project. It’s a work that feeds Delbert’s soul and inspires him to do more.

As a traditional carver, drummer, and storyteller, he often creates ceremonial items not to be sold. “Bi?ulax ch3d” means to put away his treasures and his property in preparation to give. He is making these gifts and treasures to give away. Delbert finds support through grant programs like FPF to grow his work, to grow deep roots in his community. To teach young people how to carry these things into the future. They can look back in life and say, “I was there. I helped.”

The CC fellowship has made an impact on Delbert’s community that will last for generations to come. Once the Doctor House is completed, it will provide a place for teaching, for healing and for cultural exchanges, reaching within and beyond his tribe. They can take pride in achieving this as a community. They are sharing their breath.

Main photo: Toddler Moccasins by Lani Hotch (Tlingit). Image courtesy of Juliana Brown Eyes Clifford (Oglala Lakota).

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First Peoples Fund is pleased to announce the 2017 artists chosen by a national selection committee to receive the 2017 Artists in Business Leadership and Cultural Capital Fellowships. First Peoples Fund offers $5,000 annual grants to Native artists dedicated to the wellbeing of Indigenous artistic expression and its relationship to the Collective Spirit® of First Peoples.

“We are proud to welcome artists from across Indian country into the First Peoples Fund family,” said First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier. “Each one of these fellows works within their artform and their community to further the cultural values we hold strongly at First Peoples Fund – generosity, wisdom and integrity.”

The Artists in Business Leadership program provides support for artist entrepreneurs to achieve and sustain financial independence. These Fellows are mid-career artists who have demonstrated a commitment to pursue their art as a career and are leaders in their communities.

2017 Artists in Business Leadership Fellows:

• Razelle Benally – (Oglala Lakota/Diné), independent filmmaker, Chinle, Arizona
• Jason Garcia – (Santa Clara Pueblo Tewa), printmaker, Espanola, New Mexico
• Erin Genia – (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), mixed media sculptor, Olympia, WA
• Annie Humphrey – (Anishinaabe / Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), singer/songwriter, Deer River, Minnesota
• Mic Jordan – (Ojibwe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, Fargo, North Dakota
• Gunner Krogman – (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, St. Francis, South Dakota
• Cary Morin – (Crow/Assiniboine), singer/songwriter, Fort Collins, Colorado
• Marlena Myles – (Spirit Lake Dakota), graphic and drawing visual artist, Saint Paul, Minnesota
• Wade Patton – (Oglala Lakota), drawing and painting visual artist, Rapid City, South Dakota
• John Isaiah Pepion – (Piikani), ledger and graphic visual artist, Valier, Montana
• Paul Wenell, Jr. – (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Tanaya Winder – (Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Southern Ute), poet and spoken word artist, Boulder, Colorado
• Crystal Worl – (Tlingit Athabascan), graphic and painting artist, Juneau, Alaska

Cultural Capital Fellows are committed to keeping their tribal heritage and culture alive. First Peoples Fund’s Fellowship program provides selected artists the opportunity to further their important cultural work in their communities that is grounded in traditional values.  

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2017 Cultural Capital Fellows:

• Tasha Abourezk – (Mandan/Hidatsa), textiles and sewing artist, Omaha, Nebraska
• Lydia Apatiki – (Sivuqaghhmii – St. Lawrence Island), skin sewing artist, Gambell, Alaska
• David R. Boxley – (Ts'msyen), wood carving artist, Metlakatla, Alaska
• Deborah Magee – (Blackfeet), quillwork and beadwork artist, Cut Bank, Montana
• Mary Menadelook – (Native Village of Diomede), skin sewing artist, Little Diomede, Alaska
• Dana Tiger – (Mvskoke / Cherokee), painting artist, Muskogee, Oklahoma
• Matika Wilbur – (Swinomish/Tulalip), photographer and storyteller, La Conner, Washington

“We are humbled by the creativity, talent and community commitment this new cohort of Fellows embodies,” said Jessica Miller, First Peoples Fund program manager. “They bring a strong array of skills and cultural perspectives to our organization and the communities we partner with.”

First Peoples Fund is supported by The Ford Foundation, The Bush Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, HRK Foundation, The Howe Family Foundation, Surdna Foundation, U.S.D.A. Rural Business Opportunity Grant, and Johnson Scholarship Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts.