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The Creator’s Game
Donor Spotlight: John Hunter
Founder of Twin Cities Native Lacrosse
On a crisp spring Saturday at the Lake Nokomis Community Center Fields, you can see entire families gathering for lacrosse. As young and old run up and own the field, howls, laughter and strategy ensue as handmade sticks are flung to catch the small handmade ball in one of the oldest games played among Indigenous people in North America.
The gathering is a dream come true for John Hunter, founder of Twin Cities Native Lacrosse, who started the first lacrosse organization for Indigenous people in the Minneapolis area in 2014.
“We wanted to create good opportunities for Native families to first play traditional game, which is part of their own family histories and traditional history,” says Hunter, who played lacrosse in high school and had the interest reignited after his then 11-year-old daughter wanted to play. “It’s not just about the game. It’s about making sticks and certain lessons and teachings about the game.”
Lessons include health, family, community, dispute settlement, self-confidence, worldview and spirituality as lacrosse is considered the Creator’s game.
Hunter, who is Winnebago of Nebraska, White Earth Ojibwe and Muscogee (Creek) from Oklahoma, received his first Tiwahe grant that same year to purchase sticks and equipment for the modern stick game as seen in high school and collegiate competition. The organization also helps students with team fees, helmets, pads and other equipment for the modern game, which has grown among Minneapolis high schools over the years. Hunter has also created all-Indigenous teams who were coached by Native coaches to play in city leagues.
“If we are going to do anything, we are going to support the traditional game,” Hunter says, adding that in the beginning, there were no traditional stick makers but now there are eight. He also throws in another fact: the oldest lacrosse stick in the world was found in Minnesota. “There are no places that I know of in the Dakotas and Ojibwe that host their own organized traditional games since colonialism.”
He said the all-volunteer organization has been thankful for Tiwahe’s support over the years as Twin Cities Native Lacrosse has not officially incorporated as a nonprofit and has a fiscal sponsor. The organization also doesn’t qualify for other sports grants as its primary focus is culture and not health.
“Tiwahe fits us perfectly for what we want to do,” Hunter says. “We came into existence because there was a gap that we wanted to close, a community gap. We wanted inspire families and youth to learn lacrosse, learn their culture and learn their history. It wasn’t about making the organization bigger and Tiwahe doesn’t worry about that.”
Supporting Cultural Vibrancy
Donor & grantee spotlight: Maggie Lorenz
Executive Director | Wakaŋ Tipi Center Director & Lower Phalen Creek Project
Maggie Lorenz knows how important the Tiwahe Foundation is as both a giver and receiver. Maggie, executive director of the Lower Phalen Creek Project, a Native-led environmental nonprofit in St. Paul, has been a multiple grant recipient and a donor the past five years.
“The Tiwahe Foundation has given to me a lot personally and this concept only works if our community makes it work and puts money back in,” says Maggie, who contributes to the organization monthly. “For me, $17 a month isn’t a lot of money when it’s put together in a pool – it helps give people in our community money when they need that support.”
Maggie, who is Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Spirit Lake Dakota, has also experienced that support as well. She received her first Tiwahe grant as a senior trying to finish college. A few years later, she applied for a culture grant to help her and family purchase a thípi which was used for daughter’s and nieces’ coming of age ceremony, išnáthi.
“Ultimately, that was a great gift from the Tiwahe Foundation to allow my family to have that,” Maggie recalled, remembering the importance of those ceremonies in the transition to womanhood for the Dakota.
Recently, she was awarded the Oyate Network Community Project Grant to produce a play that will accompany the opening of the Wakáŋ Tipi Center, a 9,000-square-foot environmental and cultural center along the Mississippi River. The Wakáŋ Tipi, which means Dwelling Place of the Sacred in Dakota, is a cave where the Dakota believe sacred beings dwell. The petroglyphs in the cave honored these spirits but are now gone after explorers discovered the area.
Maggie is working with the New Native Theater organization on the play that will be in the Dakota language and will debut when Wakáŋ Tipi Center opens in spring 2023. Maggie was eligible for Tiwahe’s Oyate grant after participating in the Oyate Network program, which focuses on collaboration and American Indian leadership across Minnesota in urban, tribal and rural communities to move projects from isolation to transformation to action and social change.
“The grants that the Tiwahe Foundation offer to community members give us the flexible support that we need to not only get projects going that are important for the community but are just as important for individuals as these also support our own cultural vibrancy,” she said. “We would have a much less vibrancy if we didn’t have Tiwahe.”
Continuing the Circle of Giving
Reciprocal giving and communal generosity are what drew the Lino Lakes business owner to Tiwahe more than a decade ago after being recruited by the organization’s leadership.
Dedicated to Helping Others Reach their Goals
The Tiwahe Foundation Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of our new Executive Director, Chad Poitra.
Tiwahe Foundation Board of Directors Announces Chad Poitra as new Executive Director
The Tiwahe Foundation Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of our new Executive Director, Chad Poitra.
Tiwahe Foundation’s Strategic Direction
In August 2020, Tiwahe Foundation’s board of directors met for a full day retreat (via Zoom) to update our strategic plan and take other steps to strengthen our governance, ensure our sustainability, and reinforce how we are living our values in our day-to-day work. Our new strategic plan, which is still a work-in-progress that will be finalized with our next Executive Director in early 2021, emphasizes continuing and expanding the American Indian Family Empowerment Program and re-envisioning the Oyate Leadership Network.
We appreciate the wisdom and insights from our grantees, partners, donors, elders, and other community members who have given us feedback, amplified and refined our stories, and helped us to understand and meet the community’s evolving needs and desires. We also appreciate your patience as we have gone through several changes over the past few years. We are so excited and hopeful for the future. We are grateful to have the opportunity to continue work for and with this community.
And, finally, we are very excited to announce that Tiwahe Foundation’s American Indian Family Empowerment Program endowment has finally reached our goal of $6 million, which will allow us to continue making grants to our relatives long into the future!
Congratulations to the Fall 2020 Grantees!
The Tiwahe Foundation Board of Directors extends our congratulations to the 21 American Indian Family Empowerment Program grantees and 1 Oyate Leadership Network grantee from our Fall 2020 grant making cycle.
In addition to the grants that were awarded, Tiwahe Foundation also gave $400 gifts to the remaining 64 AIFEP/COVID relief grant applicants who were not awarded a grant, in recognition of the significant need our relatives are facing due to the COVID pandemic. Thanks to the generous grant we received from the Minnesota Disaster Recovery Fund, we were able to increase the number and amount of AIFEP grants given to the Twin Cities American Indian community this year. However, we recognize there is still significant need as well as many great ideas, plans, and strengths to build upon within our community, and Tiwahe Foundation will continue to support and honor our relatives through ongoing grantmaking and programs. Please join us in congratulating all of the grantees! WE CELEBRATE YOU!
Funds for COVID Related Hardships
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Tiwahe Foundation received a grant from the MN Disaster Recovery Fund that allows us to provide funding to the Twin Cities American Indian community to meet critical needs in response to the COVID crisis. With this additional funding, we will double our grantmaking in the Twin Cities American Indian community in 2020. This includes funding grants in our ongoing focus areas (education, economic self-sufficiency, culture, and health and wellness) and also addressing COVID-related basic needs of our community such as food, housing, caregiving costs, etc. For a short time, we are increasing the maximum AIFEP grant amount to $5,000 (it’s usually $2,500). American Indian who live in the Twin Cities (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington counties) are encouraged to apply.
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The Oyate Network Alumni are also invited to apply for grants up to $5,000 to address needs in their American Indian community. Only individuals who participated in a Oyate Network Cohort Training are eligible to apply. Alumni must have a 501c3 nonprofit organization identified as a fiscal sponsor in order to receive the grant.
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Congrats to Summer 2020 AIFEP Grantees!
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Congratulations to those that were awarded the Summer 2020 AIFEP grant! We were able to award 10 grantee’s this summer! Please join us in congratulating them! There will be an honoring held for these individuals on November 12th via Zoom 5-7pm!
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Annastacia Cardon
Elizabeth Ruiz
Mary Lyons
Deanna StandingCloud[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″][vc_column_text]Lonna Hunter
Darren Thompson
Tara Perron
Callie Stubbins
Nancy Swanson[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]