Association on American Indian Affairs

✅ SHARE with your relatives, friends & coworkers – scholarship applications for Native students are now being accepted until May 31, 2025! Apply now!

🎓 Scholarship Alert: Native Students in Science & Native Studies! The Association on American Indian Affairs and UMass Amherst’s Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS) are offering scholarship funding for Native students in biological sciences and Native/Indigenous Studies. Fields of study include: Environmental, geoscience, and space sciences Archaeology, climate sciences, ecology Indigenous languages, cultures, arts, and more The goal? To support careers that honor and integrate Indigenous Knowledge with Western Science. 🔗 Learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/gFja-PGk

"Where are you?" The question echoes across Native Country as generations fight for the return of our loved ones. But the answers to justice and healing have always been with us—carried in our stories, our land, and our DNA. Watch this powerful keynote from Abigail Echo-Hawk, citizen of the Pawnee Nation at the 10th Annual Repatriation Conference as she calls on us to build a world where love, compassion, gratitude, and reciprocity are not just ideals, but actions. 🎥 Watch the full keynote on YouTube now! https://lnkd.in/gWUPi7Gg #2025RepatriationConference #ForTheChildren #EverythingBack #NAGPRA

✨ What is #ShareHealing? ✨ It’s about creating a COLLECTIVE HEALING ACTION. 💙 Research shows that group meditation can have a real impact. We invite you to join us each Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET—wherever you are—for 5 minutes of caring thoughts, prayers, or intentions for others. Together, we can strengthen our connections between people, cultures, and the natural world. 🌎💫 Will you join us?

"I think pitch is an important part of that portal where the interspecies communications betwen plants and animals, animals and plants, and human beings and things that pitch is so important." - Keith Secola #closetoculture

📢 Who Tells the Truth of American History? Tribal Museums Do. The new administration’s EO “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” raises an urgent question: Who gets to define the truth? For too long, history has been told through a colonial lens, often erasing the voices of Native Nations. Tribal Museums play a crucial role in correcting these narratives. As institutions run by Native Nations, they ensure that the histories, knowledge, cultures, and values of Native Peoples are told accurately—by the true experts. Beyond education, Tribal Museums stimulate tourism, strengthen Tribal economies, and provide cultural spaces where Native stories are protected and shared. They remind us that history isn’t just about the past—it’s about who controls the narrative today. 💡 If you want to support truth in history, you can visit, donate to, and amplify Tribal Museums. Find one near you using our list: https://lnkd.in/gBk7ABtR #TruthInHistory #TribalMuseums

⚖️ U.S. copyright law protects individual ownership—but what about cultural heritage held by entire Nations? Native Peoples continue to fight against cultural appropriation, economic injustice, and misrepresentation—but legal gaps leave their traditions vulnerable. Learn why policy reform is needed to protect Native sovereignty and prevent sacred designs from becoming just another commodity. 📖 Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3FtyubF

📢 Now Accepting Applications for Summer Camp Grants! The Association is offering funding to Native Nation and Native-led summer camps that strengthen Native youth through cultural knowledge and wellness education. 📌 Don’t miss out—apply today! 🔗  https://bit.ly/3DOUFII

Keith Secola, from the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Couchiching First Nation is an icon and ambassador of Native music. Born in 1957 in Cook, Minnesota, he later graduated from Mesabi Community College with a degree in Public Service in 1979, and completed a BA in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota in 1982. He is married and has two children. He is one of the most influential artists in the field today. Rising from the grassroots of North America, he is a songwriter of the people. Critics have dubbed him as the Native versions of both Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. NDN Kars (Indian cars), his most popular song is considered the contemporary Native anthem, achieving legendary status and earning him a well deserved cult following. It has been the number one requested song on tribal radio since the 1992. In 2011, he joined the ranks of Jimmy Hendrix, Hank Williams, Crystal Gale, and Richie Valens, and was inducted into the Native Music Hall of Fame. Secola is an accomplished artist, garnering awards and accolades as a musician, a singer, a songwriter, a composer and a producer. He is highly skilled with the guitar, flute, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and piano, and has played in venues from the halls of the Chicago Urban Indian Centre, to the walls of the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He has also performed at the Olympic Games in Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake City 2002, and toured Europe several times. Among his numerous appearances he has graced the stages of the Rockslide Festival in Denmark, the Grand Opening Gala of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, The Kennedy Center and the SXSW in Austin, TX, and is a staple at the Grassroots Festival in Upstate New York, North Carolina and Florida. A seven-time Native American Music Award winner, Secola has earned NAMMYs not only for his music, but also his abilities as a producer, to include The Best Linguistic Recording for producing ANISHINABEMOIN (2007). A well respected musician, he has worked with music legends such as Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. Secola has also teamed with academics like author Dr. Tom Venum of the Smithsonian Folklife Institute, collaborating on the CD, AMERICAN WARRIORS: SONGS FOR INDIAN VETERANS, and with elders such as Karen Drift, a speaker of Anishenabemoin.

Happening today: A special conversation with Keith Secola, Native Music Hall of Famer and the artist behind NDN Kars. With a career spanning decades, Keith has influenced generations through his songwriting, performances, and commitment to Native music. Be part of the conversation as we explore his journey and the future of Native storytelling through music. 📺 Tune in right here on our LinkedIn page! #RedHoopTalk #KeithSecola #NDNKars #NativeMusic