Do you know a Native artist who has dedicated his or her life and work to sustaining cultural traditions within their community? First Peoples Fund has opened nominations for the 2018 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards, and we want to hear from you.

“If your life has been touched by a Native American, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian artist who embodies the Indigenous values of generosity, integrity, humility, and wisdom, consider nominating them for the Community Spirit Awards,” said Lori Pourier, president of First Peoples Fund.

The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards, launched in 1999, are national grants for established Native culture bearers who demonstrate substantial contributions to their communities through their careers as artists. Each year, First Peoples Fund seats a national panel to select four to six Community Spirit honorees from tribes across the country.

In March, First Peoples Fund announced the following 2017 Community Spirit honorees:

• Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo) – stone sculpture; Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
• Jonathan James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) – wood carving; North Providence, Rhode Island
• Norma Blacksmith (Oglala Lakota) – quilting and sewing; Oglala, South Dakota
• Timara Lotah Link (Chumash Coastal Band) – weaving; Pasadena, California

“The process of bringing spirit back to a community is an important responsibility of artists — it is part of a sacred honor system,” said Bud Lane, a basket maker of the Siletz Nation in Oregon who was a Community Spirit honoree in 2009 and is a member of First Peoples Fund’s board of directors. “Through the Community Spirit Awards, First Peoples Fund strengthens that honor system by recognizing these exceptional artists for knowing themselves, honoring others, and sustaining spirit in their own communities.”

Nominations close July 31, 2017. Full applications are then mailed to the artist/nominee and nominator after nominations close and are due back to First Peoples Fund together by October 30, 2017.

NOMINATE AN ARTIST TODAY

If you would like to receive a nomination form by mail or to learn more, please contact First Peoples Fund Program Manager Jessica Miller, Jessica@firstpeoplesfund.org, 605.348.0324

HEADER IMAGE: 2016 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award Honorees Lynette Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota) and Philip Whiteman, Jr. (Northern Cheyenne). Image by Steve Wewerka.

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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Through this series, we highlight the extraordinary people who serve as First Peoples Fund’s board of directors. They are the culture bearers and leaders from national nonprofits within and beyond Indian Country who graciously guide First Peoples Fund and strengthen the Collective Spirit®.

MEET KELLEY LINDQUIST

Kelley Lindquist has served as president of Artspace Projects since 1987. Under his leadership, Artspace has grown from a staff of one and an annual budget of $60,000 into the nation’s leading nonprofit developer of space for artists with a staff of 70, a budget of $12 million, and stewardship of properties comprising more than two million square feet of residential, studio, office, rehearsal, and performance space. To date, Artspace has completed 35 major projects including more than 1,500 affordable live/work residences for artists and their families.

While he remains actively involved in Artspace’s day-to-day operation, he increasingly focuses his energy on the broader task of restoring national confidence in America’s creative communities and on helping artists reclaim their rightful place in the national discussion about the role of the arts in American society.

Kelley’s long connection with First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier has resulted in a fruitful partnership between their organizations. Together with another key partner, Lakota Funds, Artspace and First Peoples Fund developed the wholly unique Rolling Rez Arts mobile unit, which launched last year and brings art and entrepreneurial workshops and banking services across the expansive Pine Ridge Reservation. The partners are also teaming up to develop Oglala Lakota Art Space, the first-ever studio, gallery and gathering space for artists on Pine Ridge.

Q&A

1. Who taught you the values you hold closest? What role did that person play in your life and what lessons did you learn from them?

My grandmother was my greatest life coach/teacher. She had a very hard life, but she always found a way to get through the challenges while bringing up four young children during the Great Depression as a single mother. Perseverance and kindness were interwoven into everything she taught all of us.

2. What professional accomplishment do you believe says the most about who you are and what’s important to you?

The completion of the $43 million Cowles Center for Dance was a profound statement about how hundreds of people working together over 10 years can achieve a terrific goal. The Cowles Center for Dance remains a beautiful venue for dance and other performing arts in downtown Minneapolis. It never would have happened without everyone’s support! (Through our partnership with Artspace, First Peoples Fund held the Community Spirit Awards at the Cowles Center in 2012 and 2014.)

3. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?

Adventurous, mountain hiking, celebrates life.

4. What are some of your favorite books?

One of my all-time favorites is Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine. It was a game changer for me. I grew up at the edge of Native American culture. My dad had many Northern Ojibwa friends, and I got to know them and went wild rice gathering with them. I also camped many times in the Badlands of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a kid. So I was fascinated to learn more about Native culture through Louise’s book, and that was such a brilliant, harsh introduction filled with love. It was a powerful punch of energy and beauty.

Another favorite is Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. It’s so crazy and beautiful. A deep, rich look at another culture.

5. If you had chosen a different career path, what would it have been?

I definitely would have been a park ranger in Glacier National Park and then whatever grew out of that, maybe running a nonprofit environmental organization that works to save ranges of wildlife habitat in the Northern Rockies. Mountain lions, grizzlies, bears, wolves, those are the animals that are in my blood. Wolves are my favorite. I have actually dreamt that I’m a wolf several times. I’m a wolf protecting someone who is in danger, and once that’s done, I can transform back into a human.

6. How long have you served on First Peoples Fund’s board of directors and why did you get involved with this organization?

I’ve been on the board for about five years. I met Lori Pourier years ago, and I was very taken with her brilliant and spiritual approach to resolving challenges and supporting the creative visions of Native Americans.

7. How do Artspace and First Peoples Fund work together on a community level?

I love the partnership and deep community relationship that we have with each other and the opportunity for me and my colleagues at Artspace to meet people from the American Indian culture and specifically the Oglala Lakota culture, and to grow and change through that. I’m hoping that our relationship is always a positive one, working for a common goal. Artspace plays a gentle, listening role learning to create delightfully unusual projects together, such as Rolling Rez Arts and Oglala Lakota Art Space on Pine Ridge, with the use and design of the space envisioned by the Oglala community. Every aspect of working with First Peoples Fund has been a rich and transformative experience. It helps our souls open up more to what the earth is, to stop, listen, think and see in a way that we were not trained as kids of European descent here in Minnesota. I’ve spent so much of my life in the wilderness, but this is a change.

8. How does your role on First Peoples Fund’s board create impact at the national level?

I feel like I’m still learning about the different cultures that First Peoples Fund serves and their different approaches to life. It’s beautiful for me to be in gentle and thoughtful contact with all of these different Nations. I do feel like I can give good advice about space issues, but I always have to learn first what the community believes about space. Also, I do know a lot of different national donors, and I bring those connections.

9. What do you wish other people knew about First Peoples Fund?

We are excited to be continually spreading the news that support of the limitless creativity of the Native Communities can lead to job creation and overall economic development.

First Peoples Fund joined a new effort, 12by12by12, linking leading nonprofit organizations to mobilize progressive support across the U.S. The crowd-sourcing portal and social media effort seeks to harness new political momentum and energy into ongoing, monthly support around 12 key issues areas.

“The 2016 election was a tipping point,” said First Peoples Fund President and CEO Lori Pourier. “The scope of public concern has broadened and we are pleased to join a collective effort to raise support for organizations meeting fundamental needs across the country. 12by12by12 will help provide a consistent, monthly boost where it is needed most.”

The web portal will gather tax-deductible contributions of at least $12 on the 12th of each month in 12 key issue areas. The organizations range from well-established national nonprofits including First Peoples Fund, Alternate ROOTS, and the Ms. Foundation for Women as well as regional organizations promoting progressive change.

The 12 areas include:

• Women’s health, safety, and well being
• Access to health care
• Children/youth and education
• Civil discourse and civic engagement
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion; immigration
• Environment and climate change
• Criminal justice
• Free artistic expression
• Gun safety and violence prevention
• Civil rights and liberties; social justice; ethics
• LGBTQ rights
• Quality journalism and freedom of the press

Each organization is carefully vetted to ensure both the good stewardship of funds, as well as leadership in progressive change.  The effort will give individual donors an easy way to explore a variety of quality organizations to best match their concerns and intent. A workplace giving component and additional organizations will be added over the coming months.

In addition to the website, you can find the collective effort on Facebook (12by12by12), Twitter (@12by12by12) and other social media will boost communication for participating organizations.

INTRODUCING BRYAN PARKER, THE NEW ROLLING REZ ARTS COORDINATOR

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015    

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Bryan Parker (White Mountain Apache, Muscogee Creek, Mississippi Choctaw) knew it was his time and the right fit. When he learned of the position opening for the Rolling Rez Arts coordinator for First Peoples Fund, he was ready to get involved in the Native arts community on a deeper level. Rolling Rez Arts delivers state-of-the-art mobile services, including arts space, banking, retail and business training, to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“I’m excited about being a part of a great program,” says Bryan, a painter and filmmaker. “Rolling Rez Arts prepares artists to go out into the world and be professionals.”

Jeremy Staab (Santee Sioux), First Peoples Fund program manager, knows it’s important that Bryan has the dual perspective of a practicing artist and an administrator. “Bryan’s a perfect fit for the position,” Jeremy says. “He really aligns with the mission and where the Rolling Rez Arts program is going to go. He wants to see people, and especially artists in the (local) community, succeed.”

After starting his new position in February 2017, Bryan went into the Pine Ridge Reservation community to introduce himself, to let them know about the Rolling Rez Arts mobile unit program. There is a lack of communication and technology to spread the word. He’s using the radio station, posting flyers, and going out to meet people.

“I can’t wait for the classes to start,” Bryan says, “to be immersed in everything creative and everything that is the arts, Native arts and culture.”

Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bryan enlisted in the army at age 22. Honorably discharged in 2005, he enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) the following fall. He graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in moving images.

While in Santa Fe, Bryan met his future wife, Molina, and when they were dating, she came across his sketchbook. She encouraged him to pursue 2-D art, and Bryan started painting and drawing more. A year after graduating from the IAIA, Bryan and his wife, Molina, moved back to Rapid City, where she is originally from. Molina was a First Peoples Fund artist fellow last year. Through their networks, he met other artists and learned what it means to be a professional, which motivated and inspired him to branch out.

Bryan has taken his art seriously the past five years, perfecting skills and putting himself and his work out to the public. Emotional energy gets pulled into his pieces, an extension of his personal well-being that gives life to the piece. The subjects in his work are mostly detailed portraits of iconic Native American people.

His dedication paid off with awards at the Red Cloud Heritage Center Art Show, Cherokee Holiday Art Show, He Sapa Wacipi (Black Hills PowWow) Art Show, and exhibitions, projects, and representation in California, Oklahoma, Minnesota and New Mexico. But when Bryan learned of First Peoples Fund, a whole new world opened.

“They (FPF) are really reaching people on an individual level,” Bryan said. “They are hoping those individuals will reach out to their communities to do something great, to continue to do something great. Everyone wins in that mission and that goal. The individual wins, and then the community and, of course, the future generations because they’re getting all of this great knowledge.”

“They (FPF) are really reaching people on an individual level. They are hoping those individuals will reach out to their communities to do something great, to continue to do something great. Everyone wins in that mission and that goal. The individual wins, and then the community and, of course, the future generations because they’re getting all of this great knowledge.

— Bryan Parker, Rolling Rez Arts Coordinator

Bryan sees how First Peoples Fund programs not only preserve Native cultures through art but are also bridging communities together to accomplish one goal — bettering Native communities.

Coming on board with First Peoples Fund as the Rolling Rez Arts coordinator, Bryan started compiling a list of artists who could teach on the mobile unit this spring and summer. He’s scheduling classes, getting contracts signed, gathering supplies.

Bryan grew up in the Methodist church in his Oklahoma community, where he organized fundraisers and community work with Natives and non-Natives. When he married, he found out his wife’s family did a great deal of community outreach through the Episcopal church, which led to ways for Bryan to give back to the Native communities. Working with First Peoples Fund is now an opportunity to be involved from the artists’ side as well.

Bryan not only looks forward to working with emerging and established artists but also artists who are overlooked talents. Quality classes will help build great relationships with the community and teach the artists skills they can apply and then pass on to their families, their neighbors and their communities. Bryan says, “Even though I have been out there myself in the art world, in the Native art world, I can easily relate, like I’m one of those artists still learning the business and how to conduct myself as a professional artist.”

Bryan thinks people would be surprised to learn how deep First Peoples Fund runs through these communities. “I wish people knew about the spirit and energy that’s behind First Peoples Fund, how deeply involved the organization is in preserving culture while celebrating the contemporary side of art and life,” he says. “I’m amazed with how much I’ve learned, how much I was unaware of. When you think of an organization like this, you think it’s just to hand out grant money, but it’s more than that. Artists are more cared for. More celebrated.”

When he’s not working, Bryan spends time with his family and painting. Art is therapeutic for him. He likes to get locked in his paintings and see what comes out of himself.

He’s had a lot of experience speaking with veterans who do different kinds of therapy. Though his war trauma isn’t as severe as others, he has found art is healing and helps balance the anxiety that comes from traumatic situations.

Above all, Bryan’s world is his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. “I’ve learned a lot from my daughter — how to be a better person, values like patience and compassion, how to love myself more, and to enjoy this crazy ride called life.”

Special note from Lori Pourier (FPF president): We want to extend a heartfelt wopila tanka (thank you) to Guss Yellow Hair, FPF alumni and artist trainer who helped launched the RRA. Guss currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Oglala Lakota College on Pine Ridge.

Image: Rolling Rez Arts Mobile Arts Space. Photo by Bird Runningwater, Sundance Institute.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

Throughout her long career, singer/songwriter Annie Humphrey (Anishinaabe/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) has collaborated with Keith Secola, Jim Boyd, Chris Eyre (movie soundtracks), Wayne Horvitz, Winona LaDuke, Keri Pickette and James Starkey. She partnered with John Trudell on the award-winning video “Spirit Horses.” Her CD projects include UnCombed Hair, The Sound of Ribbons, Edge of America and The Heron Smiled. Annie was raised on an Ojibwe Indian reservation. She now lives in Deer River, Minnesota.

Poetry+Music=Song

The world moves fast, too fast to care how Annie feels or what she has to say. But people slow down, they sit and listen to her sing. The words Annie wants to say to them are in her songs, powerful in their simplicity. There is so much beauty, injustice, sadness and love in the world. She heeds the words of her mother: “We can never do enough, but we can do too little. So don’t not do anything.” Annie will never run out of things to write.

Annie believes we all have a job to do, gifts we’re born with that come out. Sometimes, that’s simply taking care of tomatoes. During one of their projects, John Trudell told her, “You take care of the tomatoes, and I will keep the beast out of the garden.”

When John passed, Annie wondered who would keep the beast out of her garden. But she sees the next generation is coming up, ready to use their gifts.

Entertainment With Purpose

With her First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership fellowship, Annie is working on her newest project, The Beast in the Garden. She’s sent reference tracks for the new songs to Mark Shark and Ricky Eckstein, members of the late John Trudell’s band Bad Dog, and to Fonz Kolb, the late Jim Boyd’s drummer. They’ll develop ideas for the music and send them to Annie. She’s looking toward a CD release tour in the fall.

The Beast and the Garden aims to impact her audiences at schools in her community, her reservation, neighboring reservation schools and beyond, out into Turtle Island.

For Annie, music is more than entertainment. She writes to help people and the earth. Her art will always be a part of that purpose.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

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Hip-hop artist and sought-after speaker Mic Jordan (Ojibwe) has served as a TedX speaker, was named 2016 North Dakota Hip Hop Artist of the Year, and is a Turnaround Artist, a project led by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Mic is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Tribe in Belcourt, North Dakota. He's a 2017 First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership fellow.

Mic Jordan believes keeping music in his heart saved him. No matter what he was going through, music took him to a better place. He used music to navigate everyday life. He creates music and tells stories from his heart. Music is not what he does. It’s who he is.

Mic’s songs come from deep within him and reach out to youth, giving them something to hope for. He teaches in schools and helps kids find themselves because he knows what they’re going through and how to help them through their unique struggles in Indian Country. Music is a powerful connection to one’s own emotions and experiences. He wants them to walk away from his work with music in their hearts.

First Peoples Fund believes in Native American artists like Mic. Having that support this year will bring a mobile recording studio into schools within Native communities, where he can offer students a chance to create original songs about issues youth face today. For the #DearNativeYouth project, Mic will fashion a space where they can build confidence and develop their creative expression through writing and music. They’ll find their voices, empowering them to overcome life’s obstacles.

The collaborative project ends with a fully mixed and mastered album featuring the schools he visited. The #DearNativeYouth project is the first of its kind.

But it’s more than music. Mic wants the youth to build confidence, learn how to collaborate as a team, empathize with others, and find hope and strength in community. He’ll teach them to bend the hip-hop genre and let indigenized music into their hearts. To let it save them.

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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

Through the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards, we recognize the work of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian culture bearers who uphold the Collective Spirit®. Through their work and their lifeways, these artists embody the traditional values of First Peoples Fund — generosity and wisdom, respect and integrity, strength and humility.

These culture bearers are sustaining the arts of Indigenous people within their communities, growing arts ecologies, and teaching the next generation of artists and culture bearers of their People.

In 2017, we honor four outstanding culture bearers as they join nearly 100 past recipients of this prestigious award.

CLIFF FRAGUA

TRIBE: Jemez Pueblo

Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico

Anyone who desires to learn the traditional practices of stone carving is never turned away. For Cliff Fragua, stone carving has its place in Jemez Pueblo culture. It remains a vital part of their ceremonies.

“Teaching others how to carve stone for their own use is another way of passing on traditional cultural knowledge,” he says. He’s been asked why he shares his skills. To him, it not only helps the individual economically, but also moves the community to another level when they gain knowledge of the art form.

Over the past 40 years, Cliff has demonstrated his dedication to helping Native artists, whether through his award-winning art, committee and volunteer work, or teaching. In 1990, he was instrumental in founding the Towa Arts and Crafts Committee, which evolved into the Jemez Arts and Crafts Association. Cliff saw the need for such an organization early on to help local Jemez Pueblo artists. The association provided venues and shows for artists to sell their work, creating an art economy so they could provide for their families. Now he helps other Indigenous communities set up their own associations.

Chris Pappan (Kaw) chose to nominate his fellow artist for the Community Spirit Award because Cliff immerses himself in the cultural practices of the pueblo and the ways of his People, expressed through his sculptures.

“This deep sense of responsibility to sustaining the arts of Indigenous people is just one of the many reason I supported the nomination of Cliff Fragua,” said Chris, a ledger artist in Chicago and former First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership fellow.

JONATHAN JAMES-PERRY

TRIBE: Aquinnah Wampanoag

North Providence, Rhode Island

Traditional singer, dancer, speaker and carver, Jonathan James-Perry is grounded in the traditions of his oceangoing ancestors. His vessels bring the community together. One of his projects, Mission Mishoon, became a community center with feasts created on the fires that burned diligently in the vessel as it was created. The community shared traditional foods — roasted whale meat, wild rice, turkey, venison, buffalo, bear, fish, mussels and the occasional doughnut.

Laughter, memories and prayers came together with people from the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag communities and brought in people from the Narragansett, Pequot, Mohegan, Passamaquoddy, Hunkpapa Lakota, Crow, Haliwa-Saponi, Navajo, Shinnecock, Cree, Apache and many other Nations. Visitors brought pieces of their communities to the boat, and those gifts are now the vessel’s existence.

“All the vessels that I have made have been paddled and cared for by people in our New England Woodlands communities and Native-owned-and-operated museums and cultural centers,” Jonathan said.

Elizabeth James-Perry, Jonathan’s sister and an accomplished artist, sees how Jonathan strengthens the Aquinnah tribal community through showing how Aquinnah Wampanoag people still exist in their homelands against the odds.

“That key element every tribe needs for their continuance is put into practice in Jonathan’s boat-making projects — the ability that develops over time to work together in a thoughtful, respectful way to learn our lifeways,” Elizabeth said in her nomination of Jonathan. “Before you know it, we’ll be watching the next generation of culture bearers on the ocean, racing boats, splashing each other, celebrating a successful harvest, watching whales, and bringing their children out to view the sunrise.”

NORMA BLACKSMITH

TRIBE: Oglala Lakota

Oglala, South Dakota

In Lakota tradition, the gift of a buffalo robe is considered a great honor, second only to receiving an eagle feather. When the government and settlers destroyed the buffalo herds, some women replaced the buffalo robe with handmade star quilts.

Taught at a young age by her mother, Norma Blacksmith has been a self-employed seamstress and quilter since 1986. In 1987, she approached the Oglala Lakota College with the idea of teaching students how to make star quilt tops as a Lakota traditional art. The board accepted the suggestion, and classes were presented to people in the community interested in learning the art form.

In 2011, with the help of Bruce BonFleur of Lakota Hope Ministry, Norma moved her business out of her home and opened Native Quilting Shop, a lifelong dream come true.

A highly respected elder in her community, Norma honors others by wrapping them in star quilts and singing songs over them. She honors people in all walks of life — men or women released from prison to Vietnam veterans.

Norma says, “I believe Wakan Tanka is a God of second chances. I believe this helps them to heal emotionally, mentally and spiritually.”

Bruce BonFleur, who helped Norma open her shop and runs Lakota Hope Ministry — an organization where Norma serves on the board — nominated her for the Community Spirit Award. “Like many women who have grown up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, she has endured struggles that have only served to strengthen her and instill fortitude,” he said. “She is in her mid-70s. Her face is lined with deep experience of all that life on the reservation means. That quality, tempered with her contagious laugh and self-deprecating humor, exudes strength, and that extends out into the community that she loves and cares for so much.”

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

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.”

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.”

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