Honoring Nations 2020 Semifinalists
Agua Caliente People Curriculum -- Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have lived in, what is now known as, Palm Springs since time immemorial. However, the only public school lessons about the Agua Caliente were developed without input from the tribe, creating misinformation and stereotypes. To address this, the Agua Caliente partnered with the Palm Springs school district and the districtâs philanthropic foundation to build a curriculum that reflects both the history and contemporary realities of the Band. Meeting the state of Californiaâs educational standards and with the approval of the tribe, this elementary-level curriculum fosters greater community understanding by teaching the history and culture of the Agua Caliente people through their own words. Â
Cherokee Nation Hepatitis C Elimination Program -- Cherokee Nation
Native communities face much higher rates of Hepatitis C (HCV) than the general US population, as well as some of the highest rates of HCV-induced mortality. In 2015, Cherokee Nation Health Services partnered with the Centers for Disease Control to pioneer the first HCV elimination program of its kind. By developing unique and effective screening processes, linking patients to care, the Cherokee Nation Hepatitis C Elimination Program improves health outcomes for citizens living with HCV. The program works with tribes and communities across the country to design their own HCV elimination programs, strengthening public health systems and creating a future where communities and cultures can thrive.
Cherokee Nation ONE FIRE -- Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation established ONE FIRE Victim Services to address domestic and sexual violence in their community. ONE FIRE (Our Nation Ending Fear, Intimidation, Rape and Endangerment) functions with a streamlined, âone-stopâ strategy to provide wraparound services to survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and dating violence in the tribeâs 14-county jurisdiction, whether they be women or men, Native or not. Using a trauma-informed care model, ONE FIRE meets the immediate needs of those in crisis in the short-term while supporting the healing of survivors and their families and addressing the root causes of domestic violence and sexual assault in the long-term to create a safer community.
Chickasaw Nation Medical Family Therapy -- Chickasaw Nation
The separation of physical health and behavioral health treatment is commonplace in the western health system. For Chickasaw Nation citizens, receiving care in this type of system meant many did not access the mental health care and social support they needed. In 2014, the Nation reconfigured its health service delivery to include behavioral health consultants called medical family therapists into every patientâs care team. Medical family therapy, which ranges from child welfare programs to substance abuse treatment, integrates behavioral health work into all medical visits throughout the Nationâs health care system so patients receive their care in a coordinated and holistic way, improving their overall quality of life.
Chickasaw Nation Productions -- Chickasaw Nation
Carrying on a longstanding tradition of storytelling while also challenging the misrepresentation of Native peoples by outside media sources, Chickasaw Nation Productions produces feature-length films that preserve and share traditional and contemporary stories of the Chickasaw Nation and its people. Along with reinforcing positive representations, the program provides educational opportunities for Oklahoma public school students to meaningfully engage with Chickasaw history. It also creates avenues for tribal members to participate in every aspect of media production. Through empowered storytelling brought to life, each new film and documentary serves to keep the Nationâs stories, language, and traditions alive and relevant.
D3WXbi Palil -- Squaxin Island Tribe
The Squaxin Island Tribeâs Northwest Indian Treatment Center is a residential chemical dependency treatment facility that serves American Indians with chronic substance abuse and relapse patterns related to unresolved grief and complex trauma. Given the spiritual name âD3WXbi Palil,â meaning âReturning from the Dark, Deep Waters to the Light,â the Centerâs programs focus on supporting Native people with chemical dependency and chronic relapse issues to remember, relearn, and return to their true identitiesâwho they were born to be. Using culturally adapted practices, D3WXbi Palil provides clinical, cultural, and support services to clients during a 45-day treatment program, intensive recovery support, and recovery coach programming to build supportive networks.
didgwĂĄlic Wellness Center -- Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
The opioid epidemic has had devastating effects on Native and non-Native populations across the country. In response to a concerning rate of overdose deaths in their community in recent years, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Senate established the didgwålic Wellness Center. The Center is a holistic wellness program that improves health and social outcomes by removing barriers to treatment. Focusing on a whole-person service delivery model, didgwålic provides comprehensive, culturally relevant, and personalized care for each patient to sustain a life of recovery and healing with their broader community.
Energy Lifeline Sector Resilience: Low-carbon Microgrids -- Blue Lake Rancheria
The Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe is located in a rural, geographically isolated region of northwestern California where power outages and related social and economic disruptions are common and increasing in frequency. To develop energy sovereignty, the tribeâs Energy Lifeline Sector Resilience: Low-carbon Microgrids program includes two climate-smart electric microgrids, with a third in design. These microgrids have increased self-sufficiency, succeeding as economy-enabling investments and serving tribal members with lower-carbon power. During emergencies, the tribe has operated its microgrids independently, providing reliable power to significantly improve the stability of the larger region.
Family Safety Program -- Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
In 2015, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians launched the Family Safety Program to offer child and adult protective services and foster care services to Cherokee children and families across five distinct counties in North Carolina. Addressing a disproportionate percentage of Cherokee citizens in the system, the program consolidates existing tribal programs and expands services using an integrated child welfare model that designates a team of professionals for each family in order to provide wrap around services and 24/7 support. The Family Safety Program works to support the tribal communityâs goal of healthy and intact families for all Cherokee children.
Hopi Veterans Services -- The Hopi Tribe
To honor the sacrifices of thousands of Hopi tribal members who have served in all branches of the US armed forces, Hopi Veterans Services was established in 1990 to assist Hopi Veterans obtain health, compensation, and pension benefits. Serving a rural community hundreds of miles from the nearest VA facilities, the Hopi Veterans Services acts as the main point of contact for veterans by merging partnerships on local, tribal, state, and federal levels. In addition to providing quality services for their veterans, many of whom are elderly, low income, and have health issues, including mental health issues like PTSD, the program also advocates for much needed structural support and benefits locally and nationally.
Managed Aquifer Recharge site 5 -- Gila River Indian Community
The Keli Akimel (Gila River) is at the center of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual life for the Gila River Indian Community. Following a near century long battle for their water rights after upstream diversions cut off the flow of the river, the Community secured a water settlement in 2004 and sought ways to ensure water access and sustainable agricultural development for future generations. By developing Managed Aquifer Recharge site 5, the tribe is able to provide long-term viability of water resources on-reservation by storing water underground for use during surface water shortages. The site is also an important area for cultural sharing through the restoration of traditional plants along the river, thus strengthening the Communityâs cultural knowledge along with its political and economic sovereignty.
Minnesota Tribal-State Relations Training â Intertribal
Since its inception in 2011, the Minnesota Tribal-State Relations Training program has served to educate key state agency staff about American Indian tribal governments, histories, cultures, and traditions so that state and tribal governments can more effectively collaborate to resolve shared policy challenges and objectives. All 11 tribal nations in Minnesota collectively implement the training and share their individual stories in order to promote authentic and respectful relationships between state agencies and tribal nations. These relationships have led to greater funding for transportation and other infrastructure projects, the completion of a river restoration project, and timely consultation on a range of matters of mutual interest between Minnesotaâs tribal nations and state government.
Native American Heritage Fund -- Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Tribe
The Native American Heritage Fund was formed in 2016 to provide grants for initiatives that promote positive relationships between Michiganâs tribal nations and K-12 schools, colleges/universities, and local governments. The Heritage Fund provides support and financial resources to update educational curricula, eliminate and replace Native American mascots and imagery, and assist municipal governments to replace monuments, seals, murals that have inaccurate accounts of history and disparaging images of Native people. Numerous grants awarded in 2018 and 2019 have served to improve the representation of Native American people, history, and culture throughout the state.
Preserving traditional homelands and sacred sites is an intricate challenge shared by tribal nations across Indian Country. Purchasing land and placing it into trust is a difficult and costly process, however, when Pe Sla, a sacred site in the heart of the Black Hills, an area central to the traditional homeland of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate, was put up for sale in 2012, the eight tribes of the Great Sioux Nation came together to protect this sacred area. These tribes successfully placed more than 2,000 acres of land into trust. This intertribal collaboration is leading a restoration effort of buffalo, grasses, flora, and fauna on the site and is preserving the area for traditional ceremonies and cultural programming for current and future generations.
Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Lab -- Sitka Tribe of Alaska
The Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Research Lab is a tribally owned environmental lab established to provide real time testing of marine subsistence resources, like fish and shellfish, to ensure their safe consumption, facilitate the monitoring for harmful algal blooms, conduct continuous ocean acidification monitoring, and provide science educational opportunities for tribal youth. The labâs biotoxin testing has given southeast Alaskan tribes the capacity to provide safe access for their tribal citizens to healthy and well managed shellfish populations within their traditional territories.
Dental Therapy Implementation Initiative -- Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
In order to address the oral health crisis facing their nation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community expanded their dental team in 2015 with a licensed dental therapist. Swinomish tribal leaders continued to exercise their sovereignty, creating the legal infrastructure to license and employ dental therapists in their own communityâopening the doors to what would become Washington State legislation in 2017. The Swinomish Dental Therapy project lays the foundation for the growth of oral health programs across Indian Country that increase access to high quality, culturally competent, primary oral health care. In addition, the program creates jobs for tribal members who train to become dental providers and enables communities to tailor their oral health programs to fit their needs.
Swinomish Tax Authority -- Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
The Swinomish Tax Authority was created to assess and collect a Trust Improvement Use & Occupancy Tax on their tribal lands. Â This tax allows the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to determine both the manner in which permanent improvements on trust land can be taxed and the use of the tax revenue generated by those improvements. Expanding the tribeâs sovereignty, the tax creates an additional revenue stream to help fund essential government services and funds voluntary tribal contributions to local non-tribal entities, including the local school and fire station, enhancing the ability of those entities to provide valuable services to on- and off-reservation residents and strengthen important intergovernmental relationships.
Warm Springs Geo Visions, Inc -- Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon
Warm Springs Geo Visions, Inc., a tribally-owned enterprise of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, is an environmental compliance and services contractor for government, industry, and academic sectors throughout the Pacific Northwest. Through its varied projects and clients, Geo Visions provides tools to the people who live on these lands by establishing a new standard for environmental compliance that includes traditional environmental and cultural knowledge as essential components. The enterprise also provides a diversified source of income for the Tribes and creates jobs for tribal citizens.