Newsletter: January 2023 | Chamiza Foundation

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Greetings everyone, I hope that everyone’s year is off to a great start! Here at the Chamiza Foundation, we would like to congratulate all of the newly appointed and reappointed Pueblo leadership. We wish you a productive, safe, and blessed year!

Here at the Chamiza Foundation we are eagerly awaiting applications from all of our Pueblo communities. We are pleased to be able to offer support for our traditional priority areas. As a reminder, we are currently accepting applications for Round 1 of Chamiza Foundation support. Our first deadline will be on Friday, February 10, 2023. We will be accepting applications that focus on our traditional priority areas such as: language preservation, traditional architecture, sustainable agriculture, traditional arts & crafts, tribal & ancestral history, oral histories & storytelling, youth education & leadership, intercultural/intergenerational exchange and education.

Eligibility-The Chamiza Foundation invites proposals from the following:

New Mexico’s 19 Pueblo Indian tribal communities
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo located in El Paso, Texas, member of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and the 20th Pueblo
Pueblo community leadership
Non-Pueblo organizations that serve Pueblo communities. These entities must submit a letter of support from the Governor of the Pueblo as evidence that the community has requested their involvement

TIME SENSITIVE: Deadline February 10, 2023

There are three ways that you can apply 1) You can complete your application online through our website (Please make sure to read “Notice to proceed”) 2) You can email your application to apply@chamiza.org or 3) You can send your completed application directly to me at executivedirector@chamiza.org. Please let me know if you have any questions.

NEW BOARD OFFICERS!

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we have new board officers. Mr. Brian Vallo will now be serving as our President, Mr. Vernon Lujan will be our Vice-President, Mrs. Trisha Moquino will be our Treasurer and Mr. Ben Calabaza will be our Secretary. We are truly honored that these individuals have accepted these positions and we look forward to seeing them thrive in these new leadership roles.

Below you will find information on two projects that we provided support for. We are overjoyed to share their work and look forward to witnessing their continued success. We hope these projects inspire you. Take care and be safe everyone!

Warm regards,

Dr. Amanda J. Montoya

RiverSource: Connecting Youth with Traditional Knowledge and Ecological Science at San Ildefonso Schools

In the Summer of 2022, the Chamiza Foundation provided funding to RiverSource for their Connecting Youth with Traditional Knowledge and Ecological Science at San Ildefonso Pueblo. The goal of the program was to connect students from 4th to 8th grade in learning traditional uses and names of plants, water, and land from tribal members. The project also engaged students in doing community service that improved ecological health of land and water at their Pueblo. In May 2022, San Ildefonso students completed the Elder Interview process where students met and learned from elders about their connection with water, land, plants and wildlife. RiverSource also supported four field experiences with students including studying the water quality of the Rio Grande and comparing results to their tribal fishing pond, done at the request of the Natural Resources Department. Students learned about the health of the riparian forest and the forest management that the Department is starting in 2023. Students also completed a plant collection for further analysis during a plant identification class. During plant identification, students learned to use plant keys and listened to a San Ildefonso elder for determining the names of plants by their common name, scientific name and with elder guidance the Tewa name and traditional uses if there are any. This project is ongoing and is expected to be completed in March 2023.

Santo Domingo Pueblo Tribal Housing Authority: Santo Domingo Traditional Village Architecture & Home Preservation

In the spring of 2021, the Chamiza Foundation provided funding to the Santo Domingo Pueblo Tribal Housing Authority for their Traditional Village Architecture and Home Preservation program. This project is the result of a Zoom community meeting hosted by Santo Domingo Tribal Housing Authority (SDTHA) held in November 2020 attended by more than 150 participants. In that meeting community members asked Santo Domingo Tribal Housing Authority (SDTHA) to explore development of a Work Force crew using community expertise in making and using adobe bricks for new housing and repairs of older homes within the community. This request came from community members observing the loss of traditional skills as craftspeople age or become debilitated by health concerns and understanding the need to preserve this knowledge for future generations. This grant was a direct result of the interest and need identified by community members and tribal administration. In October 2022 the SDTHA hosted an adobe making workshop where participants learned of the need for making adobes by their ancestors, what animals their ancestors learned adobe making from and the materials that were used in making the adobes from making forms for single adobes to the strands of cedar bark used to bind adobes from coming apart after drying to today’s methods of using machinery and store-bought material. There were 10 participants ages ranged from 18 to 53 and were predominantly male and one female.