A Winnebago native and college student receives a grant for a healthy living community project

LINCOLN — Charli Earth, a liberal arts student at Little Priest Tribal College on the Winnebago Reservation in Winnebago, Nebraska, has received a grant from the American Indian College Fund. 

The Indigenous Visionaries is an American Indian College fund program that supports the development of women leaders within tribal communities and their local tribal colleges and universities.

Earth will implement an incentive program to encourage all dimensions of healthy living for families in the Winnebago community. Cassie Kitcheyan, a Native American Studies faculty member at the college, will serve as Earth’s mentor during the year-long program. 

Recipients of the Indigenous Visionaries program receive a $7,000 grant to support their proposed project and work with their mentor to complete it. They will also participate in monthly virtual sessions organized by the American Indian College Fund to learn and develop leadership skills.

Other recipients of the funding:

• Nical Glasses, Navajo, a business administration student at Diné College on the Navajo Reservation, will work on a project focused on spreading awareness about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women through resources, educational presentations, and data and research. 
• Paula Cooper, Anishinaabe, a human services student at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College in Hayward, Wisconsin, will work on a project to help local women learn the Ojibwe language by bringing back the Grandmother Moon ceremony to her community. 
• Shadlynn Severance, of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara affiliated tribes, an environmental science student at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, will focus on indigenous plant revival through research on cultural uses and methods for growing native plants. 
• Dayna Thompson, White Earth Nation Ojibwe, an art student at White Earth Tribal and Community College on the White Earth Reservation in Mahnomen, Minnesota, will create a culture and language-based club through the seven grandfather teachings, which will be open to student and nonstudent participants. 

The American Indian College Fund has supported Native higher education for 33 years and provided $15.5 million in scholarships and direct student support to American Indian students in 2020-2021. The fund has awarded $259 million in scholarships, programs and community support since its founding in 1989.