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The Rupert Report
From the Desk of AIANTA's CEO | September 26 , 2022
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Photo from left to right: CEO Sherry Rupert and Chef Crystal Wahpepah at the launch event of Visit Native California. Chef Wahpepah shared her mission of honoring traditional foods and prepared a four-course meal for attendees. | |
AIANTA Highlights for the Coming Week | |
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"Native Owned Business of the Year"
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AIANTA has been nominated for the "Native Owned Business of the Year" award for this year's 2022 Hispanic Heritage Awards hosted by the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce!
"The Hispano Chamber celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with our annual Hispanic cultural event that has the the fitting theme of “ConverGENTE y Cultura. ”These deliberate words, “Converge,” which means the coming together from different directions, and “Gente” the Spanish word for people frame this event. The Hispano Chamber recognizes the unique tapestry of cultures that have been woven together over the centuries in Albuquerque. This great city has been shaped by the many people that call Albuquerque home and so we celebrate our roots; the Native American and Hispanic peoples that have converged here. It is these cultures and people that we celebrate."
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September 27, 2022; 10 a.m. (Mountain)
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Learn how to submit your visitor attractions on AIANTA’s NativeAmerica.travel destination website. Take advantage of this marketing tool which connects tribes directly to domestic and international travelers, and invites visitors to explore Indian Country.
NativeAmerica.travel features inspiring historical, cultural and outdoor narratives with high-impact photographs. Current statistics say that 90% of travelers will do their research online, and 82% will end up making their booking online. Get tips on how to emphasize what makes your destination unique so you can create a listing that is compelling so that travelers can imagine what they will see, feel, taste and hear.
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Congratulations AIANTA's Fall Scholarship Recipients | |
AIANTA’s Hospitality and Tourism Scholarship Program benefits American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students pursuing post-secondary degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management and other tourism-related fields. Our goals are to ensure that Native students have the financial means to supplement their tuition dollars and that we continue to maintain our commitment to grow emerging tribal leaders within our Native communities. To date, AIANTA has awarded 31 scholarships to Native students from across the country since the Fall of 2014. This year AIANTA has selected five students to receive a $2,000.00 scholarship for the fall and spring semesters. | |
Jeremiah Houle, Turtle Band of Chippewa, attending the University of North Dakota majoring in Marketing & Management | |
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Mikayla Herrera, Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, attending Oklahoma State University, majoring in Hospitality & Tourism | Culinary Arts
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Daniella James,San Carlos Apache Tribe, attending Tohono O’odham Community College, majoring in Business Administration | |
Allie Glenn, Cherokee Nation, attending Fort Lewis College, majoring in Business|Marketing | |
Mackenzie Ahyou-Jimerson, Native Hawaiian, attending Dine College, majoring in Business Management | |
AITC Keynote Speaker Chef Crystal Wahpepah | |
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It's my pleasure to introduce Chef Crystal Wahpepah, owner of Wahpepah's Kitchen, as a keynote speaker at this year's AITC. Chef Wahpepah is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Nation of Oklahoma. She was born and raised in Oakland, California, on Ohlone land, surrounded by a multi-tribal, tight-knit, urban Native community. Crystal’s objectives for Wahpepah’s Kitchen are threefold: (1) to acknowledge that we live on stolen land; and (2) how that acknowledgment connects to the reclamation of Native foodways (food sovereignty); as well as (3) to educate communities and organizations on the health benefits of Native foodways using the knowledge passed onto her.
In addition to Crystal’s inimitable experience with food in ancestral and community settings, Crystal has received extensive training from prominent organizations in Oakland and San Francisco on how to run her business. She received the Indigenous Artist Activist Award and has been inducted into the Native American Almanac for being one of the first Native American women to own a catering business. In 2016, she was the first Native American Chef to compete in the Food Network’s show, Chopped. Crystal has also been featured in Oaklandside.
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AITC Registration
Registration at the Standard Rate Closes October 7, 2022
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The Annual American Indian Tourism Conference (AITC), now celebrating its 24th anniversary, is the only national conference dedicated to growing tourism in America’s indigenous communities.
Every year the conference attracts more than 300 attendees, who attend networking opportunities, high-level keynote sessions, and informative breakout sessions led by some leading hospitality industry experts. At our first-ever virtual conference, we had 800 registrants.
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Boneedwa
(See you later, Northern Paiute)
Sherry L. Rupert, Chief Executive Officer
American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association
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Funding Opportunities
AIANTA collects funding opportunities that may be of interest to Indigenous or Native American tourism & hospitality enterprises looking to grow their tourism, culture, heritage, arts, agritourism or other culture and heritage programming.
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