January 21, 2022, | News You Can Use From Indian Country For This Week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, learn how, despite recent gains and the high turnout of Native voting in recent elections, many say barriers still exist to casting a ballot, read more about the most pressing issues that tribes said they face during the 27th annual […]
January 14, 2022, | News You Can Use From Indian Country For This Week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, people can share information to help investigators solve cases committed in Indian Country through a new website, Native voters in Rapid City, S.D. will have a greater chance of electing a candidate who represents their interests in 2022, and more […]
January 7, 2022, | News You Can Use From Indian Country For This Week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, co-founder Billy Mills reflects on being America’s first and only 10,000-meter Olympic champion, learn how existing health, economic and other forms of inequities have converged during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase risk of exposure, infection, and death among Indigenous peoples, […]
Providing Heat on Pine Ridge
At Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, as we have for decades, we strive to help families on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation keep warm in their homes during the coldest days of winter. Through our Heat Match program, in years past, we have matched dollar-for-dollar up to $100 (for a total of $200) enabling […]
A message from Billy Mills for the New Year
Back in March of 2020, when the coronavirus really took hold of our country, I told you that I knew we would see our way through. While the coronavirus is still part of our daily lives, I wanted to thank our supporters, partners, and so many others that work each day to make the lives […]
December 24, 2021, | News You Can Use From Indian Country for this week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, meet extraordinary Indigenous people making a difference in their communities, learn how new laws targeting critical race theory are influencing pivotal decisions educators make every day, and more in this week’s News You Can Use from all over Indian Country!
December 15, 2021, | News You Can Use From Indian Country for this week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, learn why one family in Washington has decided to return its farmland to the Yakama Nation, read how the pandemic has exacerbated existing problems in Native communities, from isolation and depression to education and public health, and more in this […]
Water Resilience on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Oglala Lakota Sioux tribal members living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are nothing if not resilient. They carry with them the generational trauma of the injustices committed against their ancestors and today still face challenges that most Americans would find intolerable if they were in the same situation – such as living in […]
Dreamstarter Gold Update A.T. Still University PAW
Six years after announcing the Running Strong for American Youth® Dreamstarter Program to enable Native American teens and young adults to help realize their dreams as did our national spokesperson Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota) did when he won a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, we launched a new initiative to help further our […]
Dreamstarter Gold Noah Hotchkiss Tribal Adaptive Organization Program Update November 15, 2021
2015 Dreamstarter Noah Hotchkiss (Southern Ute/Southern Cheyenne/Caddo) was among the first 10 recipients of the Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter $10,000 grant which he used to help disabled Native American youth such as himself participate in wheelchair basketball camps to improve their health and self-esteem. “I always say that people with disabilities are […]
Traditional Healing and Connecting with Natural Elements: Dreamstarter 2021 Dawn Marie Johnson
Dawn Marie Johnson (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate-Lake Traverse Indian Reservation), 31, of Summit, South Dakota, is pursuing her dream with her mentor organization, the Summit School District/Joe Foss at Axtell Park, to improve mental health and wellbeing for students at the school. “In collaboration with tribal entities, community members, and other valuable existing organizations and curriculum, […]
December 8, 2021, | News You Can Use from Indian Country for this week
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week, learn about the people who have been personally affected by missing and murdered Indigenous women, read how the son of the original Washington Football Team’s logo designer plans to use the retired imagery in the future, and more in this […]
Traditional Healing and Connecting with Natural Elements: Dreamstarter 2021 Shakotah Star Billie
Shakotah Star Billie (Navajo Nation), 22, of Spanish Fork, Utah, is pursuing her dream with her mentor organization, Nebo Title VI Indian Education, to help Native American youth and community achieve happiness, peace and balance using Dine’ concept of their Hózhó (an important word in the Navajo language and means having peace, balance, beauty and […]
Because of Clyson, “The Land is Telling Us Thank You Every Day”: Dreamstarter 2021 Clyson Marquez
Clyson Marquez (Native Hawaiian), 19, Hawi, Hawaii, is pursuing his dream with his mentor organization, Kohala Unupa’a, to create a nursery for Native Hawaiian plants through his Ka Lei Ke’ia ‘Aina Loha or “Lei from this loving land” Dreamstarter project. Clyson is creating a place where people can come to pick plants for lei-making and […]
Conveying Hope and Strength in the Midst of so Many Devastating Historical Events: Dreamstarter Teacher 2021 Dr. Mary Anna Thornton Ph.D., MAET (Master of Arts in Educational Technology)
Dr. Mary Anna Thornton of Eagle River, Wisconsin, is a language arts and reading teacher at Lakeland Star School/Academy, a charter school that serve primarily Ojibwe students ages 12-21 with social/emotional issues, autism, other developmental disabilities, or academic challenges. Dr. Thornton is using her grant as seed money to support choosing and purchasing books, in […]
Dreamstarter Teacher John Price: Establishing a Native American Enrichment Program
John Price of Rock Hill, South Carolina, is an 8th-grade social studies teacher at Castle Heights Middle School serving the Catawba Nation who is using his $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to establish a Native American Enrichment program for his school’s Catawba student body population. “Our goals are to take a holistic approach to serving the […]
Running Strong provides holiday joy to hundreds of children throughout Indian Country
This Christmas, we are spreading holiday joy throughout Indian Country including on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where our field office, Tipi Waste Un Zanipi (Wellness Through a Good Home) and our partner, the Oyate Teca Project, will be distributing 2,400 toys to boys and girls ensuring that “Santa” doesn’t pass them by. At Tipi […]
December 1, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. An order has been signed in Virginia which requires state agencies to consult with Virginia Indian tribes before making decisions that affect land, waterways and other natural sites , meet the man who is revitalizing the Serrano language, and more in this […]
November 19, 2021, | News You Can Use!
Today, catch up on some of the stories we’re following from Indian Country. This week’s White House summit on tribal affairs “shows promise” according to many tribal leaders, municipalities in Oregon partner with organizations and tribes to promote Native American land access and cultivation of first foods, and more in this week’s News You Can […]
President Biden signs order to address ‘crisis of violence’ against Native Americans at White House summit
Today, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies, including the departments of Justice, Interior and Homeland Security, to create a strategy addressing what his administration calls an “epidemic” of missing and murdered Indigenous people – especially women and girls. While I applaud his action, it is a long time coming that the […]
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 […]
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
Art as Medicine and Memory: 10 Native Artists Reclaiming Tradition 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 […]
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 […]