The Native American Heritage Fund (NAHF) Board selected ten communities as recipients of the fund’s 2024 grants. Grants totaling nearly $484,500 were awarded to support community projects, academic programming updates, mascot changeovers, and other initiatives that honor Native American culture and history.
The grants include:
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- Albion College— $35,000 to create a culturally appropriate exhibit and site co-management plan at the Whitehouse Nature Center.
- Camden Frontier School— $105,061.20 to rebrand the current mascot from the “R-word” and to rebrand signage, floors, athletic facilities and apparel with the new “RedHawks” mascot imagery.
- East Jordan Public Schools— $12,570 to implement the Nbwaachiwedaa miinwaa Kinomaagedaa: Let’s Visit and Learn Program. This grant is in addition to the NAHF grant that East Jordan Public Schools received in 2021, as NAHF continues to work with and support schools as they make ongoing changes.
- Gladstone Area Schools— $18,575.05 to maintain and protect Native American statues that have been in their park since 1988 and to implement educational and community engagement initiatives.
- Grand Ledge Public Schools– $3,200 to create a culturally appropriate Anishinaabe history lesson for third graders.
- Grand Valley State University— $63,467.20 to support Native and Indigenous students at GVSU and to expand all of GVSU’s awareness of Anishinaabe culture.
- Okemos Public Schools— $8,000 to develop inquiry-based Michigan history lessons for all third graders in the district, with a focus on the Anishinaabe people and their impact on the Okemos community. This grant is in addition to the NAHF grant received in 2021.
- Plymouth-Canton Community Schools— $145,894.40 to replace the “Chiefs” mascot at Canton High School with the new “Cobras” mascot.
- Port Huron Area School District— $86,052.24 to replace the mascot at Michigamme and Roosevelt Elementary Schools and High School. This grant is in addition to the NAHF grant received in 2023, as NAHF continues to work with and support schools as they make ongoing changes.
- Suttons Bay Public Schools— $6,600 to further develop cultural curriculum, which is in addition to the NAHF grant received in 2020 and 2018.
The NAHF:
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- It was established in 2016 as part of the Second Amendment to the Tribal-State Gaming Compact between the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (an MLC client) and the State of Michigan.
- The amendment allowed for a portion of the Tribe’s annual state revenue sharing payment to be deposited into the NAHF.
- The fund serves to promote positive relationships between public and private K-12 schools, colleges, universities, local units of government and Michigan’s federally recognized Native American Tribes.
