Nááts'íilid Initiative WINS $500,000 Mellon Grant for Humanities in Place

Nááts’íilid Initiative, an Indigenous-led, coalition-driven non-profit in Navajo Nation is awarded a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place Program for 2022-2025. The core team responsible for servicing the grant includes CarmiRae Holguin (Program Coordinator and Community Outreach Officer), Cara Dukepoo (Director of Community Programming), Elisha Charley (Indigenous Research Fellow), Tonia Sing Chi (Director of Community Design), and Shundana Yusaf (Grants and Digital Archiving Specialist). The non-profit was established in Fall 2021 on the invitation of Delegate Nathaniel Brown who guides and supports its mission. The grant is sponsored by Yestermorrow Design/Build School.

Our proposed project is called “Hoosh’ii’ and ‘li lah : Revitalizing Diné PlaceKnowing and PlaceMaking.” Hoosh’ii’ is the Navajo word for PlaceKnowing and ‘li lah means PlaceMaking. The grant will be made under Humanities in Place’s goal to “Evolve Our Institutions” to build our organizational capacity and deliver public facing activities and information. At the same time, it will “Keep and Shape Our Places” through expanded cultural and educational programming on traditional building methods and cultural practices. “Promote Greater Engagement and Understanding” will be realized through the development of our ongoing public archive of spatialized stories from Diné elders, youth, and community members.

The grant from Humanities in Place will supplement Nááts'íilid Initiative’s ongoing architectural and infrastructural projects in three chapters of Navajo Nation: Dennehotso, Chilchinbeto, and Kayenta. It will enable the team to establish a public digital humanities archive and offer workshops to the community members. The first will digitally record best contemporary Diné practices in architecture and landscape intervention and the latter will involve hands-on training by Diné knowledge keepers, wayfinders, medicine men and women, seed keepers, and water protectors to the current generation of Diné builders, farmers, and residents. Depending on the level of openness culturally permitted for each activity, both the archive and workshops will be open to the greater public.