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PHILANTHROPY NEWS DIGEST
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Name: | Cultural Heritage and Education Institute |
| Founded: | 1984 |
| Executive Director: | Robert Charlie |
| Address: | P.O. Box 73030, Fairbanks, AK 99707 |
| Phone: | 907.451.0923 |
| Fax: | 907.451.0910 |
| E-mail: | chei@mosquitonet.com |
| URL: | http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/chei/ |
| Mission: | The mission of the Cultural Heritage and Education Institute is three-fold: to share Athabascan cultural knowledge and skills; to educate youth and adults on how to be sober, productive participants in Native and non-Native cultures; and to restore the spiritual site of Old Minto. |
| Background: | Old Minto village is located on the banks of the Tanana River about 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. Led by Chief Charlie, it was settled in the early 1900s by Athabascans from the Minto Flats area. In 1971, the village was relocated to a site on the Tolovana River, currently the village of Minto. Old Minto continues to be an important cultural, historical, and spiritual place for Minto community members and the public. CHEI's executive director, Robert Charlie, an Athabascan who grew up in Old Minto, founded CHEI as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in 1984. In coordination with Minto elders, CHEI develops and implements programs to foster interaction between the elders and youth, preserve the cultural heritage of the Athabascans, and share that heritage with the public. |
| Current Programs: | CHEI's most successful activity has been the implementation of summer culture camps involving elders and youth at the Old Minto village. Old Minto functions as an informal learning environment in a wilderness setting for Athabascans and public visitors. The camps impart survival skills; knowledge of Native crafts, including birch bark basketmaking and beading, canoe and fishwheel building, animal hide tanning, and food preparation; traditional environmental knowledge; and stories, language, and Native ways of knowing to participants. The camps serve Minto (population 247 in 1999), surrounding communities, and public visitors from other states and countries. Over the past ten years, in coordination with the Cross-Cultural Education Program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative, a total of about 400 students have participated in the week-long summer camp.
CHEI is also supporting the development of curriculum resources through the preparation of a Web-based Athabascan Place Names map of Minto Flats developed by students and based on elders' stories and photos, and has been involved in after-school programs in the Minto School as well as a High Risk Youth Camp and an Alcohol Abuse Treatment Camp. |
| Web Site: | CHEI launched its Web site earlier this year. The site describes CHEI's mission and programs, and also provides photos and images of the activities in Old Minto. |
| Recent Successes: | CHEI has been a partner in the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative for the past four years. The initiative is funded by the National Science Foundation in agreement with the Alaska Federation of Natives and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The year 2000 is the final year of the program, which has promoted and supported efforts to adapt curriculum materials, particularly science and math, to indigenous knowledge systems and the reality of life in rural Alaska. This partnership increased linkages among different organizations working with the Minto community, including the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska and the Denali Foundation's "Denali on the Road" Snow Science Curriculum. CHEI is also attracting a greater number of volunteers to its programs from the local area, other states, and internationally. |
| Funding Needs: | The organization has several different funding needs for the future. One of its priorities is the construction of eight small log cabins as shelter for the elders while they are acting as teachers in the Old Minto camp. It also plans to enter a new phase of work by expanding its programs to include year-round cross-cultural programs in winter survival education, Athabascan language, and substance abuse prevention, and hopes to increase the participation of visitors to the site through seminars, workshops, and educational programs. CHEI also seeks funding for ongoing operating costs and to support the production of a video on success stories of Alaska Native sobriety that can be used as a tool in prevention education.
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Last Week National Neighborhood Coalition
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Every week, the "Spotlight" highlights the activities of a different U.S. nonprofit organization; periodically, the spotlight shifts to an NGO in a country other than the U.S. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size to ensure the broadest possible representation of the nonprofit sector, both in the U.S. and abroad.
If you'd like to see your NPO or NGO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to spotlight@fdncenter.org, or send a hard copy via snail mail to: NPO SpotlightThe editors of Philanthropy News Digest reserve the right to edit submissions. |
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