Alana Crutcher
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Creative Alana Crutcher (Paiute/Shoshone), of Elko, Nebraska, says her favorite medium is working with broadcloth and floral materials “bringing to light the feeling to embrace the quilts. Her Dreamstarter Creative project was “to share my quilting skills and the significance to our younger generations, sharing with them the […]
Menominee and Wakpala Smart Sacks Backpack Food
More than a decade ago, we at Running Strong for American Indian Youth® heard from the superintendent of the Menominee Indian School District (MISD) on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, that young children were arriving at the elementary school on Monday mornings lethargic and unable to focus on their classwork. The reason? They […]
Heat Match
For tens of thousands of residents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the Great Plains of South Dakota, it’s already been a brutal winter as during the holiday season a massive blizzard bringing with it below-freezing temperatures for days on end and sub-zero wind chill factors. That’s why for more than 20 years, thanks […]
Santa arrived on Pine Ridge bringing thousands of toys and hundreds of food boxes, despite winter storms
This Christmas holiday, nothing was going to prevent the staff at the Oyate Teca Project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the Great Plains of South Dakota from ensuring that “Santa” would arrive – albeit eventually – bringing thousands of toys for children despite fierce winds and frigid temperatures. In the days before Christmas, […]
A glimpse back at what we have accomplished together in 2022
From connecting homes to water to new mobile food markets delivering food to families far from a market to clothing thousands of children with winter gear to opening our new Oyate Ta Kola Ku Community Center, 2022 was a year to reach even more families in Indian Country than ever before. Dreamstarter Programs Our 2022 […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Gwendolyn Couture: Podcasting to Preserve Local Native Traditions
Gwendolyn Couture of Charlo, Montana, is a Native American studies teacher at Ronan High School located on the Flathead Indian Reservation serving students of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Gwendolyn used her $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to create podcasts about issues related to their reservation and its history with one of her classes in […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Connie Michael: Expanding Mathematics in the Classroom
Connie Michael of Billings, Montana is a classroom teacher of all subject areas at Crow Agency Public School teaching primarily Crow and Cheyenne students. “Culturally and historically Native students are hands-on learners,” Connie stated in her Dreamstarter Teacher application. “They are active learners who used to learn from experiences. Manipulatives and visuals are key to […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Missy Kieffer: Creating young “River Protectors”
Missy Kieffer of Wellpinit, Washington is a pre-K Headstart teacher on the Spokane Indian Reservation which is surrounded by rivers, lakes and dams – “these are the same dams that prevent the salmon from returning to our waters.” Missy used her $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to create young “river protectors” in the hopes of the […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Carly Retterath: Creating Sharing of Native Knowledge
Carly Retterath of Mandan, North Dakota, is the director of alternative education at Mandan Public School serving students of the Standing Rock Nation, Spirit Lake Nation, Three Affiliated Tribes, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Carly used her $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to provide the Four Directions student club with funds to complete cultural activities, […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Bethany Cruz: Supplies for Students
Bethany Cruz of Yakima, Washington, is a first-grade general education teacher at Simcoe Elementary, a school with 100 percent of the students receiving free/reduced price meals and serving members of the Yakama Nation. “We are a poverty-stricken area– which means most students do not come with needed school supplies,” she told us in her Dreamstarter […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Amanda Garner: Creating Counseling Curriculum
Amanda Garner of Warner, Oklahoma is a first-year counselor at Webbers Falls Schools serving children of Cherokee tribe who has “very little social emotional resources for my students. “These students have had a few hard years,” she told us in her Dreamstarter Teacher application. “In May of 2019, the entire town of Webbers Falls was […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Jennifer John: Promoting Literacy with Indigenous Literature
Jennifer John of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Is a third grade teacher at theNative American Community Academy in the Albuquerque Public Schools district serving students of theNavajo, Pueblo, Apache, Blackfeet, Lakota, Mandan, Northern Cheyenne, Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah, Omaha, Euchee, Lumbee, Seminole, Tohono O’odham, Fort Mojave, Paiute Indian, Kiowa tribes, and many others. Jennifer used her […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Eli Redeker: Creating a Native American Young Adult Literature Study Program
Eli Redeker of Charlo, Montana, is an English Language Arts/reading teacher (as well as the junior high football and boys’ basketball and high school track coach and National Honor Society Advisor) at Charlo Jr/Sr. High School serving students of the confederated Salish & Kootenai (Flathead) tribes. Eli used his $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to implement […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Autumn Adams – Incorporating art into the classroom
Autumn Adams of Ronan, Montana is a reading and social studies teacher at Ronan Middle School where she teaches Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes members. In her Dreamstarter Teacher application, Autumn had told us that her school recently lost its art programs “which will have a devastating impact on our students. “As a result, I […]
Dreamstarter Teacher LoriAnne Adams – Students make “Keys of Love for our Native Veterans”
LoriAnne Adams of Wapato, Washington, is an Indian Education Counselor at Simcoe Elementary School on the Yakama Nation Reservation which has 100 percent free and reduced lunch student body population. LoriAnne’s idea was “Keys of Love for our Native Veterans”, and she used her $1,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to purchase supplies such as bone and […]
Dreamstarter Teacher John Price: School Assembly, and students, teach Catawba History
John Price of Rock Hill, South Carolina, is an 8th-grade social studies teacher at Castle Heights Middle School serving the Catawba Nation whose goal is to establish an enrichment class exclusively for Native American students. “The purpose of my Dreamstarter Teacher Project was to create a Native American Enrichment program that would address the academic, […]
Dreamstarter Teacher Ceriss Blackwood: 1st and 3rd Graders Go Solar!
Dreamstarter Teacher Ceriss Blackwood of Ignacio, Colorado, is a 1st-3rd grade teacher at the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy (SUIMA), part of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe school district, which emphasizes tribal culture and language and places a high value on lifelong learning. Ceriss used her grant to begin an afterschool STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, […]
Toys, and More, for Tribes
This holiday season we are working once again to ensure that “Santa” doesn’t pass hundreds of Native American children and families by this Christmas by providing funding for 2,400 toys to be distributed throughout Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, as well as holiday grant funding to our partners in Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and on the […]
Bringing the Rez to the City
Running Strong for American Indian Youth® 2022 Dreamstarter Mariah Plummer, 24, (Navajo), of South Jordan, Utah, Dreamstarter idea, the Utah K’é (Navajo Kinship and Relations) project, is an indigenous woman-led initiative that strengthens the unity of inter-tribal communities in the state of Utah, specifically the Salt Lake Valley “This project will utilize traditional values of […]
The Oyate Ta Kola Ku Center Opens its doors to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation community
In the spring of 2021, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® proudly announced our vision for the proposed Oyate Ta Kola Ku Community Center to be constructed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The 21,000-square-foot center, named Oyate Ta Kola Ku – Friend of All Nations – in memory of the late Running Strong co-founder, […]
2022 Dreamstarter Mariah Gladstone helps the Blackfeet Tribe to eat healthier
2022 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Mariah Gladstone, 28, (Blackfeet, Cherokee), of Babb, Montana, is fulfilling her dream of helping members of her Blackfeet Tribe to eat healthier a reality. Mariah earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in environmental engineering “because I have always been dedicated to serving my community through sustainability” […]
Operation Snowsuit 2022
Life is harsh on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where 49 percent of residents live below the federal poverty level, 61 percent of them under 18 years old. Parents on Pine Ridge do all they can for their children but face great challenges just putting food on the table, a roof over their heads, and […]
Heat Match Triples for this Coming Winter
The beautiful fall days we are enjoying now are a reminder that in a few short weeks the cold days of winter will soon be upon us across the country, and especially for those families living in drafty mobile homes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the Great Plains of South Dakota. For it’s […]
A Project Comes to Life – Turning Trash to Treasure
A Project Come to Life 2022 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Cameron Troxel, 18, (Catawba), of Rock Hill, South Carolina, dream project is “For the River,” which aims to address plastic pollution in the Catawba River and accompanying waterways. Over the past few months, the project has come to life! The Suukčapi (Beaverhouse) […]
The Dream Begins to Take Shape – the Data Begins to Unfold
Since becoming a 2022 Class of Social Action Dreamstarter, Kyle Swann (Piscataway Conoy) has made tremendous strides in developing an understanding of and tackling the big-picture issues that the Piscataway Conoy Tribe have been facing for many years- homelessness, inadequate healthcare, unemployment, and affordable childcare. Kyle’s dream is to create an accurate, point-in-time snapshot of […]
Introducing Billy Mills as Executive Producer of documentary “Remaining Native”
We are proud to announce the partnership of Running Strong for American Indian Youth and She Carries Her House! Today we are honored to announced that Billy has been named executive producer of an Indigenous documentary featuring the story of 2022 Dreamstarter Ku Stevens’ great-grandfather’s escape from a federal Indian boarding school. Native filmmaker Paige […]
Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters
Friday, September 30, is Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters – “Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” – to let the world know that #everychildmatters. Together, we at Running Strong for American Indian Youth® will honor and remember our Indigenous children who survived, those who never made it home from federal Indian boarding schools […]
Working to Get out the Vote
For far too long the collective voices of Native Americans across the country, and particularly on reservations, have not been heard in the election process due to significant challenges, and even deliberate obstacles put in their path to the polls. “Too often, our tribal citizens are forced to travel far from our communities to vote,” […]
2022 Dreamstarter Ku Stevens Completes 2nd “Remembrance Run” To Honor Native Boarding School Students
On Sunday, August 14, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® 2020 Dreamstarter Kutoven “Ku” Stevens, 18, (Yerington Paiute) of Yerington, Nevada, held his second “Remembrance Run,” to the Stewart Indian Boarding School in Carson City, Nevada, through the desert and mountains from the Yerington Paiute Reservation to honor the children who ran from Stewart, as […]
S’Nya Sanchez – ‘Leave the Couch’ Project Keeping the Dream Alive
2020 Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter S’Nya Sanchez (Standing Rock Sioux, 19, of Bismarck, North Dakota) was just 16 when she applied to our $10,000 Dreamstarter grant program to realize her dream to encourage Native youth in her community to get more involved in cultural and physical activities and learn more about cooking […]
