(right) Buffalo hide tanning workshop at Sisseton Wahpeton College.

(left)La Corte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Black Ash Basketry workshop. Students enrolled in quillwork at Sitting Bull College in North Dakota begin the course by gathering and sorting quills and collecting dyes before they learn to apply porcupine quills to leather and other materials using traditional patterns. Students and community members attending a workshop on traditional basket weaving at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, for example, first learn how to identify a cedar tree, remove the bark, and prepare it for weaving. When working with trusted community partners, students and practitioners can teach and learn about the arts and cultural practices that are rooted in their specific lands, cultures, and languages. This work includes specialized academic programming, as well as community extension learning.īecause Native arts reflect diverse Tribal cultures and lands, it’s critical to work through established and trusted community partners and programs. The American Indian College Fund supports programs and opportunities offered at Tribal Colleges and Universities throughout the Upper Midwest. This is crucial so that a new generation of Native artists and culture bearers can thrive. Our Native Arts & Cultures grantee partners support indigenous communities in creating art and practicing traditions central to each community’s self-determined cultural identity. Program Highlight: Supporting intergenerational learning in Native Arts & Cultures

We strengthen networks of Native artists, supporting their livelihoods and helping communities of practice throughout these regions to thrive sustainably.

Our grantmaking helps ensure that Native arts and cultures of the Upper Midwest, Montana, Idaho, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest are more deeply understood, more widely practiced, and more broadly recognized.

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