Providing Food Boxes Year-Round
With Thanksgiving just a week away, we at Running Strong for American Indian Youth® are working diligently to ensure that 1,700 families – an estimated 7,000 Lakota children, parents and elders – on the Pine Ridge Indian and Cheyenne River Sioux reservations in South Dakota are able to join together for a big holiday meal […]
Giving Tuesday
Winter is coming soon, but on Indian reservations such as Pine Ridge in South Dakota and throughout Indian Country in states such as Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah it’s already arrived. For example, in the small North Dakota town of Mandan, where our partner, Sacred Pipe Resource Center, distributes winter coats, […]
November 11, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. The Navajo Nation explains why the passage of the Native American Voting Rights Act (NAVRA) would mean so much, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe hopes to increase the number of dwindling fluent Lakota language speakers, and more in this week’s News You Can […]
Teaching the Tradition of the Osage Ballet
In 2016, Jenna Smith (Osage) joined the second cohort of 10 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarters and used her $10,000 grant “to take ballet into the school system in the Osage Reservation and give every child the opportunity to experience dance.” In the years since, Jenna has continued to pursue her dream with […]
November 5, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. The National Indian Health Board writes a letter calling for Atlanta’s baseball team to change the harmful nature of their continued use of Native-inspired imagery, leaders of all 574 federally recognized tribal nations have the chance in mid-November to address the White […]
November is Native American Heritage Month
November is dedicated to celebrating rich and diverse cultures and traditions as well as acknowledging the important contributions of Native people. At Running Strong for American Indian Youth® we support cultural and language preservation programs that embrace traditions throughout Indian Country and increase self-esteem among Native youth. This month, we’ll be sharing how Native Americans […]
Native People are not Mascots
From Billy: For many people who follow the headlines, Atlanta’s baseball team has been in most of the news cycles this week. Every few years, the debate of the team’s name and signature “tomahawk chop” come up in the popular discussion. This is because both Native people and Native American activists see this as disrespectful. Recently, […]
Revitalizing the Catawba language
2017 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® DeLesslin “Roo” George-Warren (Catawba) is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project where he facilitates the Catawba Language Project “with the long-term goal of revitalizing our language. “For us the means raising the first generation of young Catawba speakers since the late 1800s and making […]
Meet the Dreamstarter Creatives
Carlon Ami (Navajo), Tsaile, Arizona Carlon’s favorite medium is to work with silver and stone “primarily due to the cultural relevance of jewelry not only as a personal adornment, but from a spiritual perspective.” His Dreamstarter Creative project will be a combined work of Navajo silverwork and traditional Western painting in order to demonstrate the […]
October 21, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. A Native birchbark canoe builder shares the traditional Native art with students, a manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies and equipment launches a joint venture with The Modoc Nation, and more in this week’s News You Can Use from all over Indian […]
October 15, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, w e celebrate Billy Mills’ record-setting triumph during the 1964 Olympic 10,000-meter race; in recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we explore a documentary of the people who call themselves Oyate (the People), and more in this week’s News You Can […]
October 8, 2021, | News You Can Use!
This Friday, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. Native American advocates are taking the U.S. Census Bureau to task for failing to include American Indian and Alaska Native poverty, income and health insurance data in their latest reports; as the Native American population grows to the largest in modern […]
September 24, 2021, | News You Can Use!
This Friday, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. The lockdown for schools due to COVID-19 on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ends; frustrated people in Wyoming say the media ignores an epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women in the state; as the U.S. Census finds almost a quarter […]
“I’ve lived without water before, and I don’t want my child to have to go through the same thing.”
On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation we have been working since 2015 to connect Oglala Lakota families and elders who live within a reasonable distance – roughly up to 1,000 feet – from the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System water line which runs through the reservation and even in some cases through their own […]
September 16, 2021, | News You Can Use!
This Friday, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. Meet the Native leaders and educators who want Americans to know about Indian boarding schools; learn how tribal nations in Oklahoma continue to protect themselves against COVID-19; listen to two Navajo broadcasters make history announcing a college football game in the […]
Voice Your Vote! Help us pass Native American Voting Rights Act today!
Sign the petition here! In March 2019, the Native American Voting Rights Act (NAVRA) was re-introduced in Congress by co-authors then-U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and then-U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), now a U.S. senator who succeeded Udall, to make the long-awaited bill the law of the land. The proposed bill was described as […]
September 10, 2021, | News You Can Use!
This Friday, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. Native Americans now have the highest vaccination rates of any major racial or ethnic group in the United States; a Christian pastor and member of the Euchee (Yuchi) tribe has launched “The Apology,” calling for the White House to formalize an […]
Sacred Healing Circle Organizes Rites of Passage
From May through this November, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® partner, the Sacred Healing Circle, is organizing Rites of Passage ceremonies for Oglala Lakota youth on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to connect them with their traditions and ancestors. “We feel urgency about reviving not only the sacred ceremonies but reviving our youth,” says […]
September 1, 2021, | News You Can Use!
This Friday, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. Tribal citizens are being encouraged to call their elected officials in Congress to ask them to protect their freedom to vote; tribes in Louisiana are evaluating the damage done by Hurricane Ida; the Delta variant’s impact continues to unfold, and mandatory […]
Diné Naabeehó Tó: An Update from Tohatchi
John and Shaunna live on the Navajo Nation in the small community of Tohatchi (Tó Haachʼi in Navajo) located in McKinley County, New Mexico. For three years, the family is “still waiting” on the tribal list for water through the Indian Health Service (IHS), and hoping for their name to come to the top of the […]
The Running Strong Dreamstarter Fellowship: An Introduction by Darius Sparks
When I first heard about Running Strong, I had just got out of basketball practice at my local college, the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. When I was growing up it was hard for my mother to get me to basketball camps in the summer because she couldn’t afford it. I always had […]
2016 Dreamstarter Blaze Burrows, Round Valley Indian Tribes, Covelo, California
Empowering Native Youth: Blaze’s Journey to Revive Tradition and Inspire Dreams Blaze, a 16-year-old sophomore in his Native American studies program, came to the mind of his Native American Studies program teacher in 2015 as the ideal Dreamstarter candidate with an already-impressive resume: President of the Round Valley High School Native American Club; a community […]
Winter Wrap Up 2020
Before Running Strong for American Indian Youth switches gears to our spring schedule of programs, we will take one more account of the final reports of our winter programs from November to February. Though some areas of the country are already seeing signs of warmer weather and new growth, in many places there will still […]
Running Strong Continues Water Projects During Winter
Despite record low temperatures, frozen ground, and winter storms, our field staff on Pine Ridge managed to complete 10 water line projects throughout November, December, and January. Among these projects were the Anpo Wicahpe Pine Ridge Girls School and the home of Grace Rooks, who is a featured subject in the CNN GoThere mini documentary […]
Beat The Drum. Be Counted! Find Out the Latest about our Census Campaign
The Census makes a huge impact on people’s lives. In the 2010 Census, Native Americans were under counted by about 4.9 percent — that’s more than double the undercount rate of the next closest group. This inaccuracy meant that Indian Country missed out on millions of annual tax dollars that would otherwise have been used […]
A Love of Native Cultures
Celebrating and Preserving Native American Culture: A Legacy of Love “Without your language or your land, you are not who you say you are.” Loretta Afraid of Bear, Oglala Lakota The month of February is a celebration of LOVE, and Running Strong for American Indian Youth® LOVES Native American culture! Like any great love story, however, it’s not […]
Our Mni Wiconi program continues on Pine Ridge!
Anthony is a young single father who lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with his 3-year-old daughter. Father and daughter have not had running water at their home for over a year. In order to get water, Anthony had to haul water from three miles away from his home – a long and tiring […]
1,032 People Provided with Water on Pine Ridge, Navajo Nation in Past Five Years
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® was founded 30 years ago with the mission of helping Native people who struggle to get the simple basic necessities of life – which foremost includes water. Thanks to friends like you, we have been able to provide water to the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, drilled […]
Running Strong in 2019
The new year is soon upon us, and to welcome 2020 we’d like to take a look back at all we’ve achieved with the help of our friends this year. We rang in 2019 with our annual Heat Match program, which ensured over a thousand Pine Ridge Indian Reservation families kept their propane and electricity […]
CNN Visits Running Strong On Pine Ridge
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has the lowest life expectancy of any region in the United States. For many residents on the reservation their daily reality still involves a multi-mile or multi-mile trek to access water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing. Overcoming water scarcity on the reservations takes enormous dedication and resiliency by Native residents […]