Cultural Movement of Change Underway at Thunder Valley

Posted on May 18, 2016 by rblauvelt

Nick Tilsen

On a recent visit to Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (CDC) in Porcupine, South Dakota, something extraordinary was evident. A spark had been ignited and a cultural movement of change was happening at Thunder Valley CDC, which has become a powerful catalyst of innovative change for the Oglala Lakota people of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and all across Indian Country.

As an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation in Rosebud, South Dakota (neighbors to Pine Ridge), and being part Oglala Lakota myself with family still living in Pine Ridge, it struck me how Thunder Valley has been able to create considerable change in the area. What once used to be barren prairie land, a pathway out of poverty has been created with a master-planned community being built at the Thunder Valley Community Development center site.

First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) saw this cultural movement of change first-hand while attending a planning design meeting for phase II of the Thunder Valley community development project on February 8-9, 2016. Three members of First Nations’ staff – Senior Program Officer Catherine Bryan, Grants & Program Officer Kendall Tallmadge, and myself (Program Officer Tawny Wilson) – were able to attend this important meeting with Thunder Valley Executive Director Nick Tilsen, Deputy Director Sharice Davids, Director of Advancement Liz Welch, and Director of Design Kaziah Haviland. Other attendees included BNIM Project Manager Christina Hoxie, BNIM Associate Principals Vincent Gauthier, Laura Pastine and Adam Weichman, KLJ Engineering’s Dana Foreman, and Art Space’s Senior Vice President of Asset Management Greg Handber, as well as Allen Orechwa, Chief Financial Officer of Clearing House CDFI (community development financial institution). Rural & Native American Initiative Director Russell Kaney and National Renewable Energy Lab’s Engineer Chuck Kurnik were also an integral part of the phase II planning meeting.

The plan involves building a sustainable community powered by wind energy and solar panels with strategically designed dwellings aimed at reducing energy costs and improving efficiency. In phase one of the community development plan, a community center and single-family homes will be built at a cost of $9.5 million, and is projected to take three years for completion. Within 10 years, when phase II is fully completed, the community will house approximately 1,000 people. The community development efforts of the people at the meeting and their partners across the country have contributed to this innovative and unprecedented community development project’s growth on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The Thunder Valley CDC project is the development of a 34-acre planned community with single- and multi-family housing, emergency youth shelter, food-growing operations, grocery store, powwow grounds, youth recreational areas, community and educational facilities, as well as retail spaces for local businesses. As Thunder Valley notes: “It’s not just about building homes. It’s about building up a people and, in the process, creating a national model to alleviate poverty and build sustainable communities.”

Normally hope and inspiration are not easily found in one of the most economically challenged places in the country, but what is happening on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is not considered normal by most standards. Thunder Valley began as a movement and cultivation of being empowered spiritually and taking responsibility for the future by creating a movement to build a healthy and sustainable community. Instead of just talking about creating change, the team members at Thunder Valley have rolled up their sleeves and are making it happen by doing.

First Nations has been an ongoing supporter of Thunder Valley since 2005 and has awarded the organization with various grants and technical assistance through our Native Youth and Culture Fund, Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative, and Native Arts Capacity Building Initiative. In addition to providing funding, First Nations administers technical assistance to Thunder Valley CDC.

Thunder Valley has proven that a little bit of funding and a whole lot of hope, belief and sheer determination go a long way.

By Tawny Wilson, First Nations Program Officer

Gizhiigin Fosters Native Art Entrepreneurs

Posted on March 18, 2016 by rblauvelt

Art is an integral part of connecting people to community and culture. With this strong belief in mind, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) launched the Native Arts Capacity Building Initiative (NACBI) in 2014 to significantly increase the organizational, managerial and programmatic capacity of Native organizations and tribal government art programs. NACBI, which is supported by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation along with contributions from tribal, corporate and individual supporters, provides direct grants, technical assistance and training to Native organizations and tribal government art programs so they can continue to work with and support Native American arts and artists.

In October 2014, First Nations awarded six $30,000 grants to Native art programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. Gizhiigin Art Place, located in Mahnomen, Minnesota, was part of the first round of grant awards through NACBI.

Under the umbrella of the White Earth Tribal Economic Development Office, Gizhiigin Art Place was formed with assistance from Michael Neusser, the economic development director for the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council, and in partnership with the City of Mahnomen. Gizhiigin focuses on developing the arts industry on the White Earth Reservation and supports the growth of local artists and entrepreneurs by providing business tools and resources that help them generate a sustainable income through their art.

Tom Ferrarello, project specialist with the Economic Development Division of the White Earth Nation, was instrumental in the initial start-up stages of Gizhiigin Art Place program. From the beginning, Ferrarello consulted with artists from the community and asked them to talk about their art and define their current needs. “The first thing I did was reach out to all the artists in the community. This program doesn’t work unless all the artists are involved from day one,” Ferrarello said. “We had a loosely defined idea of what we were going to do from the start of it, and we selectively choose artists who had been doing their art for a long time so they were able to inform how this program took shape.” Six artists were then chosen to receive business skills training in marketing, finance, accounting, portfolio development and business technology. According to Karen Goulet (Chibinesiikwe), artist advisor and coordinator for Gizhiigin, “A lot of artists are selling already, but we want to develop them so they are past the survival stage.”

Aside from the business training Gizhiigin offers, another important component to the program is the creative labs, which expose artists to other techniques and mediums. “It’s about making art to keep their creative spirit, not about making art just to sell. We want them to think about maybe diversifying what they do and intersecting what is art and what is crafts,” said Goulet.

Joseph Allen (Lakota/Ojibwe) who works at White Earth Tribal and Community College and has been an arts photographer for 25 years, is an artist advisor at Gizhiigin and has helped grow the program. He says, “Mahnomen is a pretty dead town. After 2 p.m. in the afternoon everything starts to shut down. We are the only thing open on Main Street in the late afternoon and evening. We need more opportunities for our youth, so we worked really hard to figure out what we were going to do to start making this more visible to the community.”

Within the space, artists have the opportunity to mentor youth and to host workshops, trainings and events for the larger community. There’s a printmaking class, a sewing lab and a photography lab that all members of the community can access, not just Gizhiigin’s artists.

Giziigin also provides resources to prepare artists for grant or exhibition applications, and also offers assistance in photographing artists’ works as well as access to studio space. Ferrarello says, “Over the past year, we spent a lot of time building relationships with artists in the community and designed a service model that creates an economy that allows artists to thrive as artists.”

With the foundational support from First Nations through the Native Arts Capacity Building Initiative, Gizhiigin is doing just that. Successfully launching its services, completing community outreach and recruiting artists during its first year of programing. It is important to remember, however, that programs like Gizhiigin Arts Place can only continue to be successful with consistent funding that will continue to create opportunities to help nurture Native artists and entrepreneurs on rural reservations.

By Abi Whiteing, First Nations Program Officer

Woodland Indian Art Gains Capacity & Elevates “Status”

Posted on May 18, 2015 by rblauvelt

As a cultural asset for Native communities, art has been an integral part of sustaining Native nations, their cultures, their languages and their traditional beliefs, thereby shaping community and family ties and cultural pride. First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) believes the continuing development of Native American art is an indispensable component of Native community economic development and the retention of Native cultures.

In 2014, First Nations launched the Native Arts Capacity Building Initiative (NACBI) to significantly increase the organizational, managerial and programmatic capacity of Native organizations and tribal government art programs. NACBI provides direct grants, technical assistance and training to Native organizations and tribal government art programs so they can continue to carry out essential work for Native American arts and artists.

NACBI is supported by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation along with contributions from tribal, corporate and individual supporters. In October 2014, First Nations awarded six $30,000 grants to Native art capacity programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Woodland Indian Art, Inc. (WIA), a community organization located on the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin’s reservation, is one of six inaugural grantees. WIA promotes and educates the public about the unique artistic styles of Native Americans in the upper midwest and northeastern regions of the United States.

For eight years, WIA has existed as a volunteer-driven organization, with no full-time employees on its staff. Since there was no full-time management staff, it was often difficult to coordinate activities of volunteers and obtain much-needed funds for volunteer activities. Even so, WIA volunteers continued to grow the organization and move forward.

NACBI has enabled WIA to formalize its organization, achieve 501(c)(3) status and launch new marketing and fundraising campaigns to increase revenue to support and expand WIA’s activities. “We know that a diversity of funding is the key to becoming a sustainable organization,” said WIA Board President Rae Skenadore.

Achieving 501(c)(3) status has enabled WIA to diversify and expand its funding base. For example, the new status has enabled it to request funding from the Oneida Community Fund. WIA has leveraged those funds by submitting a proposal that doubled Oneida’s donation with matching funds from Wisconsin Public Radio.

These funds allowed WIA to reach its target market and increase awareness of its upcoming event: The 2015 Woodland Indian Art Show & Market. WIA secured more than $10,000 in promotion and marketing services to help increase awareness of the event.

During the past six months, WIA has also developed a new fundraising campaign to increase its presence through mailings, social media and email marketing. New board members and interns from the College of Menominee Nation led the campaign. “By participating in this campaign, a whole new generation is learning how to participate in and be successful in the Native nonprofit sector,” noted Skenadore.

The success of this campaign has allowed WIA to expand the Woodland Indian Art Show & Market from a small event to a large-scale festival that includes an art competition with performing artists, classes and demonstrations. The newly expanded festival will be held June 12-14 at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

As an organization that is approaching its ninth annual event, WIA’s current success reiterates the importance of consistent funding and institutional support for Native American arts and artists. “NACBI has allowed us to move one more step forward in achieving our vision of becoming a trusted, internationally-recognized organization,” said WIA Board Treasurer Loretta Webster. “It has helped jolt us to the next level.”

By Sarah Hernandez, First Nations Program Coordinator