Description
The Indigenous Knowledge Fellows program is poised to enter its third year. The first cohort of fellows are completing their fellowship year and applying now to the program for their post-fellowship support. They are an outstanding group of leaders from across Indian Country who include a Native Hawaiian weaver, a Montessori teacher from Cochiti Pueblo, a Yupik artist and hunter, and a recent linguistics PhD from the Tuscarora tribe who is translating the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace.
The fellows were able to meet in person in Boulder, CO for their first convening before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel impossible. Over the summer, they organized three virtual convenings, focused on trauma and healing, facilitating social change, and Indigenous leadership. They have begun planning another series of virtual convenings for the fall, which will replace the third in-person gathering we had originally envisioned.
Meanwhile, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) has issued the call for applications for the second cohort. Originally planned for summer and fall, the second competition was postponed because of the pandemic and will take place in the fall and winter instead, with a new cohort to be named in May 2021.
The first competition attracted enormous interest: more than 500 individuals applied, from whom were selected 25 semi-finalists and, ultimately, ten fellows. The response presented First Nations with logistical challenges. The project team has therefore made changes to the process to streamline it. An initial application stage has been added: this application can be completed—and evaluated—much more expeditiously—and a smaller group invited to complete the full application. The full application includes some additional requirements. First Nations has also revisited the evaluation criteria in order to clarify the selection process for the advisory committee.
First Nations plans to return to the original project schedule for the third cohort. That call for applications will be issued in June 2021 and the fellows announced in January of 2022. The grant recommended here would fund that third cohort. The amount recommended is the same amount that was approved for the first and second cohorts. However, we may need to provide a modest supplement in 2021 to account for salary and other cost increases that First Nations has and will have absorbed over several years of operating the program.
First Nations continues to manage the program effectively. Their team includes vice-president Raymond Foxworth (Navajo), senior program officer Kendall Tallmadge (Ho-Chunk), and senior program officer Emilie Ellis. They have responded admirably to the challenges presented by the pandemic, have created impressive programming with the fellows, and have adjusted plans based on experience to date. They continue to work collaboratively with Luce staff, keeping the Foundation well-informed and seeking input on important decisions.
At the same time that First Nations has been managing the pilot year of the fellowship, they have also had to respond to the crises in Indian Country created by the pandemic. First Nations raised and distributed nearly $1.5 million in emergency funds to Native nations and organizations. The significance and competence of the organization was recently recognized by philanthropist Mackenzie Scott who made an unrestricted gift of $8 million—one of a number of grants intended to advance racial equity and economic justice.
The Luce Foundation’s grant would, once again, enable First Nations to recruit a class of ten fellows, disburse the fellowship monies to the fellows and organize three convenings in order to build community among the fellows and provide them practical advice and assistance as they seek to advance their work. Grant monies would primarily be used to pay fellows’ stipends and to bring them together but would also cover staff and administrative costs.
