MCF Giving Forum, Winter 2006 - Voices in Philanthropy

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Winter Count 2006

Voices in Philanthropy
Active Participants in Philanthropy Offer Native Perspectives

Ron McKinley, Mescalero
Executive Director, National Network of Grantmakers; Board Member, Council on Foundations; Trustee, Headwaters Foundation for Justice

"I have spent the past 30 years dedicated to the simple premise that our communities are strongest when all those who live, work and play in them are intimately involved in the decisions of the community. My professional and volunteer work is poised at the intersection of community need, public policy, nonprofit commitment and philanthropic resources, where so much of contemporary community life collides. At that crossroads, I have had the opportunity to build and manage small and large nonprofit organizations; design and administer grantmaking programs for community, public and corporate foundations; and serve my communities on dozens of local, regional and national nonprofit boards. I see the world through different lenses today than I did when I began my career, but for all the progress we've made, the issues of inequality persist. I imagine the future to be a better place, but it will only become that if advocates for justice commit themselves to very personal, individual action grounded in the values of equity."

Kelly Perkins, Pine Ridge Lakota
Development Officer, Fund of the Sacred Circle, Headwaters Foundation for Justice

"Many people don't know what philanthropy is but practice it in many different ways every day. Giving back to the community is a tradition among many people, in the African-American community, in my urban Native community and other communities. My family, like many others, didn't know what formal philanthropy was, but giving back has always been a part of my life. As a third generation urban Native family of mixed race and culture, there is a disconnection from our home and traditions. Many youth aren't able to connect with family traditions and our traditions of giving. As the lead staff for the $2 million Endowment Campaign for the Fund of the Sacred Circle, I am committed to creating a source of long-term funding for social justice work in Native urban, rural and tribal communities. In honor of my gift to the Fund of the Sacred Circle, I gathered my extended family to explain to the children why social justice is important to me and why we give."

Jo-Anne Stately, enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Pillager Band, White Earth
Vice President of Development, Indian Land Tenure Foundation

"The creation of SpectrumTrust (formerly the Diversity Endowment Fund) at The Saint Paul Foundation in collaboration with representatives from the African-American, American Indian, Asian-American and Latino communities continues to provide a model that leverages talents from across communities of color to provide leadership in this field. We can collectively applaud these successes, and also understand that we are on a committed continuum of purpose in addressing issues of race and diversity in philanthropy. I now have the opportunity to combine this purpose with a personal passion. The Indian Land Tenure Foundation focuses on the recovery of alienated Indian lands. This is an essential accountability with such historic significance that the vision for recovery is going to take at least 100 years. Like so many of our Indian leaders before us — they knew that what was done in their time would have great impact on future generations — always calculating the returns not for ourselves, but for those yet to follow."

Joy Persall, Ontario Ojibwe
Executive Director, Native Americans in Philanthropy

"My grandparents were from Canada and moved to Michigan when my father was three. When I was three, my father moved my brother and me to the Southwest, where I grew up closer to the Mescalero/Apache people and visited by grandparents sometimes in the summers. So I didn't grow up in an Anishinaabe community, but I knew who I was. When I moved to Minnesota, I was able to connect more deeply with Ojibwe people and shared with my children, kinship, commonly held values and culture. My grandparents are gone, but I have raised my children in a more traditional community than what I had growing up. I have re-established the connection. I see myself as a bridge in all aspects of my life. The bridge spans what I know now, the life I have lived and the connections of all people. The bridge is both a gift for me to develop and a responsibility to provide its support to others." GF

More Information from the Winter 2006 Edition of Giving Forum

Winter Count

In the past, every Lakota band had a keeper of the winter count. Once a year, the leaders reviewed the important events of the previous year and together selected the single most significant one, which the keeper added to the long list of annual pictographs, documented on birch bark, buffalo robes or stone, consisting of as many as 200 entries — or 200 years. He could recite the story of each successive winter on this lengthy winter count, thereby passing on history orally. Tribal members can recall the year of their birth by the event associated with their birth year.

Description from Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Giving Forum Native Philanthropy Issue is sponsored by Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national grantmaker affinity group based in Minneapolis, comprising individuals who seek to enrich the lives of Native peoples by bridging organized philanthropy and indigenous communities and to foster understanding and increase effectiveness.

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