Indian Reservation-Based Communities Selected for Northwest Area Foundation Leadership Program

The Northwest Area Foundation, St. Paul, has announced the names of nine small, Indian Reservation-based communities that will join a pilot leadership development program designed to help reverse economic and population declines. The foundation also announced grant awards to three Native American organizations, each of which will work with a cluster of three communities to conduct the locally based, 18-month leadership initiative. The three grantee organizations are Sitting Bull College, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians-Economic Development Corporation and Salish Kootenai College.

The selected community clusters are:

• Little Eagle, Kenel and Bear Soldier/McLaughlin, S.D., in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, coached by Sitting Bull College.
     

• Hoh River Tribe, Elwha Klallam Tribe and Quileute Tribe, Wash., coached by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation.
      

• Arlee, Hot Springs and Elmo, Mont., in the Salish Kootenai Tribe, coached by Salish Kootenai College.

The three grantees will receive a total of nearly $1.1 million for Northwest Area. Each organization will work with a cluster of three communities to introduce a community leadership program designed to meet the needs and build on the strengths of communities with populations of less than 5,000 with poverty levels of at least 10 percent. The nine communities selected for the pilot program have populations ranging from 100 to 775.

“Studies show that small communities, even if they are distant from larger population centers, can thrive if they have a strong leadership system,” said Karl Stauber, president of Northwest Area Foundation, who made the grant announcement. “Our aim is to help rural communities strengthen their systems in order to reduce poverty for the long term.”

The Northwest Area Foundation serves an eight-state region that includes 72 Indian reservations and is home to more than one-third of the rural-based reservations in the United States. The foundation’s 20-year involvement in Indian Country has included a range of support. In 2000, the foundation established a 10-year partnership with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation that included a $20 million grant – the largest private grant made to an Indian-controlled nonprofit.

The nine communities involved in the initiative first heard about the leadership program, called Horizons, during a series of “leadership showcases.” Each showcase featured a sampling of the training, resources and staffing that could be brought into these native Nations for 18 months. “Our aim is to support and expand the community’s local leadership system so that it has a better chance of making real and lasting change,” said Jean Burkhardt, program lead for Horizons. “Many times, leadership programs require that people travel long distances to participate. We want as many people as possible to have access to these resources, so we’re bringing the program to them.”

This approach also recognizes the work of the three grantee organizations, which have close working relationships with communities in the reservations, and which deliver a broad range of educational, planning and development resources. “We asked them to recruit communities to participate and to work with them to tailor this program to meet their needs and priorities,” said Terry Janis, community liaison for Horizons.

Community coaches will begin work with the nine communities in June. The program launched the pilot with 15 communities last summer and 12 communities last April. Of these, six are either partially or completely on Indian reservations. This latest announcement completes the pilot roster with a total of 36 communities. The foundation expects to invest more than $4 million during this two-year pilot phase for Horizons.

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