UNC-Chapel Hill's American Indian Center is providing grants for projects related to Indigenous culture and heritage.
Named after the Saponi word for “earth,” the amą:i Steward Awards are intended to provide direct support to tribal communities, according to Marissa Carmi, the center’s associate director.
Carmi said the grants are part of efforts to highlight and celebrate Native presence and heritage across the state. North Carolina recognizes eight tribes: the Coharie, the Eastern Band of Cherokee, the Haliwa-Saponi, the Lumbee, the Meherrin, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Sappony, and the Waccamaw Siouan. The Tuscarora Nation is also based in Robeson County.
The grants will be awarded for place-based projects, such as murals, gardens, or language revitalization projects that tell a story about a place and its unique significance to tribal communities.
“Often, Native America turns into a monolith; there's this idea that all tribal communities are the same,” said Carmi, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. “But, when you understand that indigeneity is about place, and it is about specific places, then we can do the work of supporting Indigenous people in those places and their unique expressions of themselves.”
Some grants will be up to $7,000 a year, for two years, according to Carmi. North Carolina's eight recognized tribal communities and its four Urban Indian organizations, like the Triangle Native American Society and the Guilford Native American Association, are eligible to apply on the UNC American Indian Center's website. Initially slated to close at the end of the month, applications will now be accepted on a rolling basis.
The amą:i Steward Awards are part of the programming of the American Indian Cultural Garden, an initiative of the UNC American Indian Center and North Carolina Botanical Garden that broke ground last year. Additional funding for the grants comes from the Mellon Foundation, one of the nation's leading philanthropies.
