Native-Led Businesses and Organizations to Support

November brings Native American and American Indian Heritage Month. Awareness and recognition are the bare minimum for accountability and solidarity with the original stewards of the land we reside on. Members of our Racial Justice and Public Policy Team have compiled recommendations of businesses to support in honor of this month. In this post, we uplift these Native-led organizations in Minnesota so we can show gratitude for them all year long.All My Relations GalleryAll My Relations Arts honors and strengthens relationships between contemporary American Indian artists and the living influence of preceding generations, between artists and audiences of all ethnic backgrounds, and between art and the vitality of the American Indian Cultural Corridor.Birchbark BooksBirchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores.Black Bears and Blueberries PublishingA native-owned nonprofit publishing company specializing in children’s books with Native themes and written by Native authors.Dream of Wild HealthDream of Wild Health is one of the longest-serving Native-led organizations in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities Native community is one of the largest urban Native communities in the country with an estimated 38,000-50,000 individuals. The mission of Dream of Wild Health is to restore health and well-being in the Native community by recovering knowledge of and access to healthy Indigenous foods, medicines and lifeways. Dream of Wild Health does this by creating culturally-based opportunities for youth employment, entrepreneurship and leadership; increasing access to indigenous foods through farm production, sales and distribution; and community outreach and education around reclaiming cultural traditions, healthy indigenous food, cooking skills and nutrition.MIGIZIMIGIZI provides a strong circle of support that nurtures the educational, social, economic and cultural development of American Indian youth.Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource CenterThe Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) is a nonprofit social and mental health services organization committed to traditional ways of being and support of Native women and their families. MIWRC provides a broad range of programs designed to educate and empower Native women and their families, and to inform and assist those who work providing services to the community.Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition (MIWSAC)The Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition exists to support culturally-grounded, grassroots advocacy; and to provide national leadership and technical assistance to end gender-based violence, by supporting the development of local and national policy, and capacity building of Indigenous communities to end all forms of violence and oppression; including racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and all other acts of violence that impede the safety and wellness of all people.Minnesota Indigenous Business AllianceThe Minnesota Indigenous Business Alliance exists to align partners and communities committed to the growth and success of native-owned businesses, entrepreneurs and artisans; connect native-owned businesses, entrepreneurs, artisans to resources and providers that offer equitable access, are innovative and understand native business and communities; and transform native communities by supporting and advocating for culturally effective entrepreneurial creativity, sound business models and practices and pro-social economic growthNative American Community Development InstituteNative American Community Development Institute's work is founded on the belief that all American Indian people have a place, purpose and a future strengthened by sustainable community development. NACDI initiates projects that benefit the Native community, often in partnership with other Indigenous-led organizations.Native Report – WDSE/WRPT – PBS 8 & 31 Native Report is an entertaining, informative magazine-style series that celebrates Native American culture and heritage, listens to tribal elders, and talks to some of the most powerful and influential leaders of Indian Country today.Northland VisionsNorthland Visions, started as Northland Native American Products and has grown from a home-based, mail-order business into a gallery and retail space where one can find treasures of the land, original items made by Native peoples from the Woodland and Plains tribes of the upper Midwest in what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Canada and other northern states stretching from Montana to the east coastThe Sioux Chef & Owamni RestaurantThe Sioux Chef is a team of Anishinaabe, Mdewakanton Dakota, Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, Oglala Lakota, Wahpeton-Sisseton Dakota and are ever-growing. They are chefs, ethnobotanists, food preservationists, adventurers, foragers, caterers, event planners, artists, musicians, food truckers and food lovers, who are committed to revitalizing Native American Cuisine and in the process re-identifying North American Cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary culture long-buried and often inaccessible.Tiwahe FoundationThe Tiwahe Foundation is a resource for giving and strengthening American Indian communities by building capacity through leadership, culture, values and vision.Women of NationsWomen of Nations provides culturally specific emergency services and support to all who have experienced trauma and domestic, sexual, and dating violence, and empower Native American communities to put an end to violence through education and prevention.Learn More about YWCA Racial Justice Programs