Mni Wiconi Goal this spring – 50 more families with running water
For more than three decades, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® has been working to provide running water to families throughout the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, first by the truckload and later by drilling deep water wells. In 2015, we began a pilot program – our Mni Wiconi (Water is Life) program connecting households to […]
A Green Dream
Green seedlings…Harvests of Greens…All made possible from a new Greenhouse. That’s Running Strong’s Green Dream. Running Strong for American Indian Youth® has been working for decades to enable residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the Great Plains of South Dakota to grow fresh vegetables and fruits right in their own gardens. For far […]
February 11, 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 what many Native Americans think about the new name of Washington’s football team, read how one of Indian Country’s leading female rocket scientists will be honored soon, and more in this week’s News You Can Use from all over […]
Children’s Book on Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills’ Story to be published Summer of 2024
For Immediate Release February 4, 2022 Contact: Sydney Mills Farhang (Oglala Lakota), Deputy Director(703) 317-9881 ext. 2149sydney@indianyouth.org Co-founder and National Spokesperson of Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, is teaming up with renowned children’s book creators, author Donna Janell Bowman and Lakota artist S.D. Nelson, to publish an autobiographical picture […]
Dreamstarter® David Fraser follows in the footsteps of his great-grandfather
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® 2019 Dreamstarter® David Fraser (Oglala Lakota), 28, is realizing his dream of opening a tire repair shop in the community of Kyle where he lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In his Dreamstarter® application, he told us he wanted to be able to follow in […]
Dreamstarter helps her tribal members deal with stress and trauma
Bailey Chalfant, 22, (Northern Cheyenne), of Busby, Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation had a dream — “Nehtonetomohtahe, How Are You Feeling?” – when she applied to become a 2020 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter to help her tribal members deal with stress and trauma whether on reservation or off. Earlier this year, […]
Running Strong Dreamstarter Jeremy Dennis Featured in Penn State’s ‘Movers, Shakers’
2016 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock) is a fine arts photographer who explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation in his work. Jeremy, who received his Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from Penn State in 2016, is featured in the latest edition of “Movers, Shakers, Designers, Makers,” the university’s […]
February 4, 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 why the initiative to ship half a billion free COVID-19 tests to Americans will struggle to reach Native Americans living on rural reservations, read about how Indigenous citizens continue to suffer in 2022 despite the country’s racial reckoning, and […]
2021-2022 Dreamstarter Teacher Kelda Britton takes her students on a Nome Cult Walk in the shadow of their tribal descendants
Kelda Britton of Covelo, California, teaches Native American history, natural resource management, and college and career readiness at Round Valley High School to members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, a confederation of smaller tribes which includes the Yuki, Wailacki, Concow, Little Lake Pomo, Nomlaki, and Pit River. Kelda, an enrolled member of the RVIT, […]
2021-2022 Dreamstarter Teacher Robert Hall, 960 Plants, and 127 tub gardens in his school
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Teacher Robert Hall ofEthete, Wyoming, is an elementary special education and gardening teacher at Wyoming Indian Elementary School serving children of the Northern Arapaho, Shoshone, Lakota tribes, including those with special needs. Robert is using his grant to enhance the school greenhouse while also supporting students seeking additional […]
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 […]