Opening of a New Food Pantry on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
After much anticipation, the Oyate Ta Kola Ku Food Pantry is now almost ready to open its doors on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Announced in November 2024 with the rallying cry “If we build it, they will come…”, the project has now become a reality, representing a critical response to food insecurity in the […]
Summer Youth Feeding Program Will Serve Thousands of Meals This Summer
Starting in June, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® will once again be operating our Summer Youth Feeding Program (SYFP) in three communities on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Reservation in South Dakota – Cherry Creek, Red Scaffold, and LaPlante, three communities that have come to count on the program each year. Why this Program […]
Keeping Lakota Crafts & Traditions Alive on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
This spring, the Oyate Ta Kola Ku (OTKK) Community Center on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will offer various classes to help celebrate Lakota crafts and cultural traditions. Middle and high school students are taking classes to learn traditional Native American crafts such as sewing, beading, and quilting. These hands-on projects empower students to express their […]
Healing and Preserving Water
Healing and Preserving Water: A Dream in Action Since its founding, Running Strong for American Indian Youth has upheld a powerful and simple belief: clean water is a human right. What began with truckloads of water deliveries and hand-dug wells has grown into a far-reaching movement, connecting communities to life-giving resources and hope. Mni Wiconi: […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Donald King’s Journey to Inspire Indigenous Youth
In the heart of Bowler, Wisconsin, where a single building houses an entire school district—from daycare to high school—Donald King is doing far more than coordinating Title VI Indian Education. He’s nurturing a movement. A 2024-2025 Dreamstarter Teacher through Running Strong for American Indian Youth, King is driven by a powerful mission: to elevate Native voices, culture, and […]
The Impact of One Grant: Empowering the Future Leaders of the Catawba Nation, one student at a time.
Empowering Indigenous Youth Through Education What began as a vision has grown into a powerful movement empowering Indigenous youth to dream boldly, lead confidently, and pursue brighter futures. Thanks to a grant from Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, middle school social studies teacher John Price has transformed lives and inspired a generation. As a […]
Right now, many Native American communities are facing a food crisis.
Across the country, rising food costs and economic strain are hitting tribal nations hardest, where poverty and unemployment already run high. Native families are having a difficult time putting food on the table. In Nevada, food bank deliveries have been canceled, cutting off essential support to the Walker River Paiute Tribe. And in Oklahoma, tribal […]
Native Small Business on the Move
This spring, the Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Microenterprise Development Program held business workshops in Oklahoma, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and the Crow Nation in Montana. Developed by Josh Smith, the program supports Native entrepreneurs by offering hands-on training in business planning, marketing, and financial strategy, with an emphasis on […]
2024 Dreamstarter Creative… Connecting Culture and Community
2024 Dreamstarter Creatives are using their art to share and preserve both traditional and modern Native Stories. Art is a way for tribal communities to connect with their culture and each other. Each tribe has its own symbols, motifs, and aesthetics that help tell the stories of its rich culture and history. Since June, these […]
Growing Food Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency Across Indian Country
Gardening programs supported by Running Strong for American Indian Youth® are ramping up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and elsewhere in Indian Country with the arrival of spring and the last frost of the season on the reservation. Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Program The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development (SBAG) program, founded 40 years ago […]
Green Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, One Garden at a Time
Growing Food Security on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development (SBAG) program, founded in 1985, continues to empower families on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by helping them grow their own food. In 2024, SBAG expanded its impact by distributing seedlings, tilling gardens, refurbishing raised beds, building planter boxes, and educating […]
2024-2025 Dreamstarter Teachers are shaping young learners
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® introduced our Dreamstarter Teacher grant program in 2017. This program aims to support the dreams of Native youth by awarding up to $5,000 in grants to teachers, librarians, and other educators to fulfill the unmet needs of their Native students. For the 2024-2025 School year, Running Strong selected 12 […]
Food sovereignty. It starts in the garden
One program can have such an impact on creating food sovereignty. 1 Medicine Root Garden Program: 3 Levels of Gardening Courses, 9 Months of Classrooms and hands-on instruction, over 50 Gardening students, and over 50,000 pounds of produce grown on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There are over 50 students in this year’s Medicine Root Gardening […]
“The children were so excited and took pictures with the food boxes.”
Excitement and Gratitude from Families In October and November, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® partnered with Brushy Cherokee Action Group in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, to distribute 1,000 food boxes to families in need. The organization serves four tribal nations and six communities, ensuring essential food reaches struggling families. Each 25-pound box contained a variety of […]
Keeping our Communities Healthy
In 2024, through our SmileStrong and WičhičhaǧA Strong programs, we provided 6,000 no-cost dental health kits and 3,000 no-cost feminine hygiene kits to those in need in Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Utah, and elsewhere in Indian Country. Sadly, basic needs items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss, along with feminine hygiene products, are unaffordable for too many […]
Thousands of food boxes in one month, hundreds of smart sacks for kids each week, and even one new food pantry…all in just two months to help overcome food insecurity.
Food insecurity has been a consistent issue throughout Indian country. Far too many native families are food insecure. Bringing food to these families has been at the core of our mission for almost two decades. Through distributing food boxes, developing community and family gardens, building food pantries, summer and weekend student feeding programs, and more, […]
2024 Dreamstarter Creative…Preserving Traditional and Modern Native Stories
2024 Dreamstarter Creatives are using their art to share and preserve both traditional and modern Native Stories. Art is a way to record and celebrate Native cultures. Each tribe has its own symbols, motifs, and aesthetics that help tell the stories of its rich culture and history. Since June, these Dreamstarter Creatives have been working […]
Thousands of winter coats keep thousands of native children warm this winter.
Through our Waníyetu (Winter) Strong program this fall and winter, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® distributed a total of 6,000 brand new heavy winter coats in both child and adult sizes for younger children and teenage youth, which right now are keeping them warm on even the coldest days of winter on the Pine […]
Microenterprise Development 2024 – 2025
In 2022 Running Strong for American Indian Youth launched an exciting new initiative as a spinoff of our Dreamstarter Program – Dreamstarter Incubator – that gives past Dreamstarters the opportunity to continue their work with the support of Running Strong to back them. Josh Smith is a 2019 Entrepreneur Dreamstarter, that now works at Running […]
A look at the impact we have made in 2024 on the lives of native children, families, and the communities they live in
The mission of Running Strong is to create sustainable generational change and give families the tools and hope to build a better future. We believe in the power of native youth to strengthen their communities, overcome economic challenge and poverty, and develop deeper cultural identities. For nearly 40 years, we have worked to empower future […]
Supporting the Big Foot Memorial Ride – A 300-Mile Journey by Horse to Remember and Honor the Past
“As individuals and as a nation we have been spiritually crippled, because after the massacre at Wounded Knee, our ancestors had never gone through the process, the ritual that is usually accorded to… people who… lose a loved one. And until… that takes place, they are in a period of mourning.” – Birgil Kills Straight […]
Heat Match – Almost 1,500 applications processed in the first few weeks alone!
Wow! In person or over the phone…in just over two weeks, nearly 1,500 families have applied for, and received, critically needed Heat Match funds. With temperatures at night dipping into the teens and many days not getting past freezing, the Heat Match program is truly making a huge impact for so many families on the […]
2024 Dreamstarters are Telling Their Stories
Each year, 10 Native youth and their non-profit Mentor organizations are chosen to receive a grant to implement a project inspired by their dream for themselves and their community. For the ninth year of this program, 2024 Dreamstarters are using storytelling to bring awareness to issues in Indian Country and celebrate the beauty of Indigenous […]
One grant years ago results in curriculum development, cultural awareness, and now a podcast….all for and by students of Catawba Nation in South Carolina
John Price’s journey with Running Strong for American Indian Youth® began in 2021 when he applied for, and was selected to receive, a Dreamstarter Teacher grant in the amount of $1,000 which he used to create an enrichment program for Catawba Nation (in South Carolina) middle school students. About Catawba Students. John is an 8th […]
Bringing Holiday Cheer to children throughout Native Country
This holiday season, as we have done for at least a quarter century, thanks to the supporters of Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, hundreds of Native American children on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and elsewhere in Indian Country will experience the joy of Christmas at holiday parties where they will meet “Santa” and […]
Heat Match Program will keep thousands warm
Running Strong’s Heat Match Program Keeps Pine Ridge Warm For tens of thousands of residents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the Great Plains of South Dakota, the winter can often be brutal. With many days of below-freezing temperatures and sub-zero wind chill factors, harsh weather is common on the plains. That’s why, for […]
If we build it, they will come….to the new food pantry on Pine Ridge Indian reservation
No family should face a food crisis. That’s why Running Strong for American Indian Youth® is working tirelessly to combat food insecurity on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Initiative We are acquiring a 40’ x 8’ modular container, which will be installed with shelving and refrigeration […]
“…my dream of supporting Native American Youth transcends borders and crosses oceans.”
The Cinque Mulini IAAF cross country race, in San Vittore, Olona Italy, has seen the likes of Billy Mills, Frank Shorter, Kip Keino, and many other international legends of the running world race its course. Located in Italy, runners have converged for years to race in this town at the foot of the Alps, running […]
Dreamstarter works to develop a sustainable solar panel
2023 Dreamstarter Cruz Collin of the Oglala Sioux Tribe is a second-generation scientist and activist, with a dream to address climate change and directly improve the lives of the Oglala Lakota people. Through the Dreamstarter grant, Cruz received $20,000 to make his dream into a reality. With the support of Running Strong and empowered with […]
Waníyetu Strong: Giving the Gift of Warmth to Native Children
Waníyetu (Winter) Strong isn’t just a seasonal initiative; it’s a commitment. Our mission? Ensuring 6,000 Native children and youth on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and others throughout Indian Country, receive brand new, warm coats and winter kits (hat, scarf, heavy winter socks and even a blanket) this winter. The Situation in […]
