Grants in 2020

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Hakhu Fundacion Amazonia

$5,000 to support Kallary Amazon Labs, a comprehensive Indigenous-led filmmaking retreat and workshop for 18 Indigenous women and youth from the central south of the Ecuadorian Amazon, along with an additional 5 Indigenous participants from Brazil and Mexico, to share their individual experiences with trauma and resistance, heal collectively and use their inspiration to create visual stories. The overall goal of this project is to increase Indigenous control over the narrative of their own stories and the way they are presented to the world.

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Ceibo Alliance

$10,000 to support an Indigenous-led coalition of the Kofán, Siona, Secoya and Waorani peoples from the northern Ecuadorian Amazon holding a strategic planning retreat to uphold recent victories, including protecting 500,000 acres of Waorani rainforest land from oil drilling, and seeking to build Indigenous power and capacity and to strengthen the global alliances necessary to confront industry megaprojects and increasingly dangerous political actors that threaten the entire Amazon. This grant supported overall logistical and planning costs for the week-long retreat held in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, including lodging, food and travel costs for approximately 25 Indigenous participants attending from the 4 Indigenous nations.

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Rural Utah Project Education Fund / Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund

$45,441.56 to support the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, which is centered on providing food, water, cleaning supplies, PPE, and other essential items to Navajo and Hopi elders, immunocompromised, and the struggling families that are most at risk of contracting COVID-19. With fracking wells, coal mines, coal powered power plants and 523 abandoned uranium mines claims, the Navajo Nation’s water supply and land are effectively poisoned, the elevated levels of uranium causing sickness, liver disease, and even death. The Navajo Nation has been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, recording through early May 2020 more coronavirus cases per capita on its reservation than any of the 50 U.S. states. RAN was able to offer a grant at this level thanks to matching donations from our supporters.

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Indigenous Environmental Network

$10,000 to support Indigenous Environment Network’s Emergency Mutual Aid Fund launched in response to COVID-19 to quickly move funds into the hands of community-based Indigenous individuals and organizations from the U.S. and Canada that are experiencing loss of income and financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Small grants up to $2,000 are distributed to Indigenous individuals and organizations to be used for three purposes: 1) emergency purchase of essential provisions; 2) support with transportation for essential needs, such as medical and groceries; and 3) home business slowdowns in sales and other cash flow difficulties (“home business” is referring to things like quilting, regalia making, bead and quillwork, moccasin making, basket making, pottery, silversmithing, etc.).

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Appalachians Against Pipelines

$3,000 to support the Appalachian Climate Action Camp, a ten-day direct action training camp with an estimated 150 participants, along with trainers and panelist, coming from throughout Appalachia as an important component of the greater Appalachians Against Pipeline’s goal of stopping the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline – estimates are that the Mountain Valley Pipeline would emit almost 90 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses annually and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would emit almost 68 million metric tons.

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Unist’ot’en Camp

$5,000 to support efforts to re-establish Indigenous governance over Wet’suwet’en territory and protect it from several proposals to construct oil and gas pipelines, including the 420-mile Coastal GasLink pipeline that would carry fracked gas from northeast British Columbia to LNG Canada, a massive proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal that exemplifies the sector’s climate and human rights impacts. On February 6, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used assault rifles, snipers, dogs, sound cannons and helicopters to carry out a five-day militarized police raid and remove peaceful Indigenous land defenders from their homes on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.

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Keeper of the Mountains

$7,500 to support work towards healthier, more sustainable mountain communities and ending mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia through education & organizing, actions and land easements inspired Larry Gibson, the late founder and inspirational leader of Keeper of the Mountains, whose family has been able to protect their ancestral home on Kayford Mountain amidst 7,500 acres of MTR sites. KOTM also provides support in securing clean water for communities that have been abandoned by the coal industry.