Association on American Indian Affairs

Cultural sovereignty: cultural sovereignty means simply returning control over the things that make us who we are as native peoples. Over the course of history, colonial powers have forcibly removed us from our homelands, looted our graves and sacred places, outlawed our languages and religions, and kidnapped our children. The Association's cultural sovereignty program works to develop infrastructure - such as federal, state and native nation laws and policies that will support the return of our stolen lands, ancestors, religious practices, languages, identity, and bringing home our children who died at boarding schools. In addition, the Association develops training, strategies and technical support to build capacity within native nations, and work to change perspectives of those who wish to hold onto our culture without free, prior and informed consent.

Become an ally: the Association on American Indian Affairs has over 100 years of providing meaningful public education on issues that affect native country and does so through its become an ally program. The Association believes that a society that understands native peoples, their sovereign nations and diverse cultures will make better decisions about the environment, the economy, education, healthcare, and how we can all exist together on one planet. The become an ally program is about building relationships that will support allyship, education and accountability for our world and each other. This program utilizes our various social media platforms to deliver public education, create productive dialogue, and encourage action from our supporters about native nation issues. Become an ally is our public Affairs and communication arm that works to lift up native country by sharing information about our program successes and how you can help support our vision, mission and goals. Become an ally includes all of our programs and initiatives, as well as the Association's 100 years of history, our Indian Affairs journal that has been published since the 1930s, our internships, fellowships, and volunteer programs, murdered and missing indigenous relatives, and red hoop talk video podcast, among other public education initiatives.

Next generations: the Association has been providing grants and other assistance to strengthen and build our next generation of advocates and wisdom keepers. The Association is the oldest scholarship provider to native students since 1947; and have been providing funding for summer youth programming since 1963. Maintaining and healing our families is also paramount to our next generations program. The Association began its advocacy in Indian child welfare issues in the 1960s and its research and advocacy directly led to the enactment of the Indian child welfare act of 1978 - which is currently under attack by deep pockets. Through litigation, technical assistance, research and education, the Association is fighting to protect the integrity of native families. The Association also is working to build community and culturally appropriate resources in our youth justice programs to keep youth in school and out of detention and incarceration.