A Note from ANA Commissioner Patrice H. Kunesh

Hau mitakuyepi, čhaŋtéwašte nápečiyuzapi.

Hello my relatives, I greet you with a warm heart and handshake.

In this edition of the ANA newsletter, we are excited to share updates on ANA’s Native Early Childhood Development initiative and our 50th Anniversary celebration. I am also pleased to share some highlights from my visits with ANA Community Partners in Hawai’i and American Samoa, where I was welcomed with open arms and abundant generosity.

In April, I had the privilege of becoming the first ANA Commissioner to visit American Samoa, a U.S. territory with a population of about 60,000 people. ANA has funded numerous projects in American Samoa and the Pacific Islands for almost five decades. While there, I was the honored guest of the Governor of American Samoa at the 124th anniversary of the celebration of Flag Day, where I observed performances and parades by local schools and villages and participated in a traditional 'Ava Ceremony. Flag Day is a multi-day celebration commemorating American Samoa becoming a U.S. territory.

While in the territory, I was immersed in American Samoan history, heritage, culture, and language during my visits to several ANA projects. These include the American Samoa Community College and its Samoan Studies Institute (SED, 2005), and Project E.M.P.L.O.Y. (SEDS, current). Additionally, I had the opportunity to spend time at Intersections, Inc., a non-profit empowering children and families to make positive choices in their lives, the Hope House, and the Christopher James Foeoletini Ledoux Foundation.

I then spent several days visiting ANA projects in Hawai’i. Again, welcomed with such generosity and kindness, I saw firsthand their deep connections to their community and land, to their language and customs. For example, Papahana Kuaola hosted a community event with traditional Hawai’ian music and cultural exchanges.

I also visited the Pa‘i Foundation and the Pa‘i Arts Gallery & Performing Arts Center, an ANA Community Partner focused on preserving and perpetuating Native Hawaiian arts and cultural traditions for future generations.

I had a delightful visit with Kūlaniākea, an early childhood center whose mission simply is a genuine love of children. Through their language and cultural enrichment program, Kūlaniākea hopes to strengthen the Hawaiian identity in the youngest members of their lāhui.

My next visit was to Hālau Kū Māna, a public charter school aimed at fostering individual and community healing and empowerment through ancestral knowledge and practices. Additionally, I spent time with The Partners in Development Foundation helps strengthen families and communities through social services, including family education, life skills, and health insurance enrollment. Their initiatives tackle some of the most challenging impacts of an individual's life including poverty, foster care, homelessness, and educational gaps. Their organization achieves this through Native Hawaiian values and traditions, food security, and self-determination.

I am so grateful to all these ANA’s Community Partners for sharing their visions and values for empowering Native people, strengthening cultural ties, and revitalizing Native languages.

Pilamaya ye - thank you,

Patrice H. Kunesh

Descendant of the Hunkpapa Band of Lakota and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Commissioner, Administration for Native Americans

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Native Americans

ANA Commissioner Testifies before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Public Safety and Justice

On May 22nd, ANA Commissioner Patrice Kunesh testified before an oversight hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the subject of public safety and justice in Indian Country. The hearing, titled “Examining Public Safety and Justice Resources in Native Communities,” brought together the Departments of the Interior, Justice, and Health and Human Services to discuss interagency efforts to improve the federal government’s trust obligations to Indian Country, and to partner with Tribes to make their communities safer.

Commissioner Kunesh, who also served as a Commissioner of the Not Invisible Act Commission (NIAC), testified about the NIAC’s recommendations to HHS and HHS’s efforts to address the dual crises of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples (MMIP) and human trafficking.

As Commissioner Kunesh stated in her testimony:

Native people have long experienced violence and crime victimization at exceptionally higher rates than non-Native people. This chronic exposure to violence originates in large part from the federal government’s inhumane reservation and boarding school policies aimed at separating Native people from their land and cultures and Native families from their children. While Native communities have inherent strengths to cope with such generational trauma, mainly through language and cultural lifeways, generations of hostility and loss have left a legacy of broken systems of care and poor health outcomes.

The Department [of Health and Human Services] is the federal agency responsible for enhancing social and human services at the state and Tribal levels, and for protecting the welfare of children and families. Thus, HHS holds a critical role in the federal government’s collective responsibility to address this legacy and to mend the wounds of generations of trauma and violence against Native people. The Department is committed to honoring our Nation’s obligations to support the health and well-being of Native people and to enhancing our coordination of these services and responses with our federal partners. In doing so, we also recognize the responsibility to elevate the capacity of Tribal governments and recognize their essential roles in delivering programs and making decisions about their use of funding and resources.

Read Commissioner Kunesh’s full testimony and watch the full hearing here.

Native Early Childhood Development Initiative

ANA has made significant progress on our Native Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative. Last October, Commissioner Kunesh announced ANA’s Native ECD Initiative “Sacred Little Ones” at the National Indian Education Association conference with the message about the importance of investing in the optimal growth, development, and well-being of Native young children and their families.

1) Outreach to Native Programs

We have spotlighted 3 of our Community Partners that are focused on ECD:

2) Native ECD Policy and Capacity Building

The topic of early childhood development continues to be included in the agenda for

the ACF Tribal Advisory Committee (October 2023, April 2024, July 2024).

3) Engaging Internal & External Partners on Native ECD Strategy and Services

Commissioner Kunesh met with the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative to learn more about foundation investment in ECD.
Commissioner Kunesh participated in the ACF Early Childhood Development Tribal Consultation on July 9th-10th.

ANA is excited to announce a four-part webinar series in partnership with the Office of Early Childhood Development.

SESSION 1: Bridging Worlds – Integrating Native Cultural Traditions, Practices, and Languages into Early Childhood Programs - August 8th, 2024

SESSION 2: Strategies for Supporting the Success and Well-being of the Native Early Childhood Education Workforce - September 5th, 2024

SESSION 3: The Power of Data in Native Early Childhood Development – Strategies for Effective Data Use and Impact - October 3rd, 2024

SESSION 4: Native Early Childhood Development Funds – Maximizing Impact Through Flexible Funding Strategies - November 7th, 2024

A Community of Love - Kūlaniākea

Founded in 2015 by mother-daughter educators Wailani and Kaula Robins, Kūlaniākea is a pillar of Native Hawaiian Early Childhood Education on the windward side of O’ahu. From early beginnings as a “classroom without walls” with only a handful of students, Kūlaniākea has transformed over its nine-year existence into a thriving infant, pre-K, and Kindergarten advancing ‘Olelo Hawai’i (Hawaiian Language), ‘Ike Hawai’i (Hawaiian Knowledge), and Kumulipo (Hawaiian Creation).

Co-founder Wailani Robins says Kūlaniākea is a project 30 years in the making, spanning her entire career as a Native Hawaiian early childhood educator. She attributes the growth of the school to a wealth of personal and professional experience intently grounded in a community need for a learning environment that is “Hawaiian focused, culturally driven, and ‘Ohana (family) oriented.”

Many Native Hawaiian organizations have partnered with Kūlaniākea to further the education of Kūlaniākea’s students both indoors and outdoors. For example, Kūlaniākea partners with two organizations on windward Oahu who are also ANA Community Partners: Papahana Kuaola and Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy. Through these partnerships, keiki (children) enrolled at Kūlaniākea experience their island home in the same way their ancestors did, from Mauka to Makai, from the mountains to the sea.

They learn about the distinct environments of the upland forests and streams as well as ocean ecosystems and canoe voyaging, wholly encompassing the range of the Hawaiian natural environment.

Co-founder Kaula Robins-Tauotaha stated:

When we started Kūlaniākea, we knew it needed to be a school of nature, that spoke the language of nature, that instilled in our keiki all of the things their kupuna (ancestors) had and knew. We started as a school without walls because we wanted to prove that if our students have a strong foundation in who they are as Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians), they will already excel and surpass anything that comes their way. We use rocks and sticks to teach math, we used ocean currents to teach science, and teach them how to observe time by watching the kalo (taro) grow. We find opportunities everywhere around us to create lessons and opportunities for our keiki to learn. It’s been the most inspirational part of my career.

Kūlaniākea is a current ANA Esther Martinez Immersion grant recipient. You can find more information on their website, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

Sacred Little Ones is a regular newsletter spotlight on ANA community partners immersed in Native early childhood education and development, an ANA policy priority area. Through our grant funding and engagement, ANA seeks to enhance nurturing early childhood experiences and healthy development during their critical early years.

ANA 50th Anniversary Update

Fifty years ago, through the Native American Programs Act of 1974, ANA began its journey of promoting Tribal self-governance, preserving Native languages, and revitalizing Native cultures and traditions through community-based grants. Since then, ANA’s extensive investments have spurred incredible transformations in Native communities across the United States, Hawai’i, and the Pacific Islands. Their success is ANA’s success.

Please join us in celebration of the 50 years by visiting our webpage dedicated to the history of ANA, ANA’s leadership over the years, highlights of Community Partners, and stories of tribal self-determination.

ANA Strategic Priorities Update

ANA continues its progress in implementing its 2023-2024 Strategic Priorities. Please see highlights below:

Priority #1: Improve Operations

Published ANA Annual Report. In April 2024, ANA released an annual report titled “Building Flourishi ng Native Families and Thriving Communities” reflecting on the many accomplishments of 2023. The report highlights the work of the ANA Community Partners, the Commissioner’s site visits and outreach, our Native Early Childhood Development Initiative, the ACF Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Action Plan, and our important work focused on Native Languages.

Priority #2: Policy Development

Hired Subject Matter Expert on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. In August 2023, ANA welcomed Marissa Cummings to the ANA team to serve as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner and subject matter expert to ACF on issues concerning MMIP and violence in Indian Country. Marisa leads several projects, including the drafting of the ACF's Action Plan for Missing Murdered Indigenous People, assistance with the Commissioner’s work on the Not Invisible Act Commission, the Commissioner’s Senate testimony on public safety, and interagency collaboration and tribal consultation on MMIP matters.

Priority #3: Improve Communications

Created a suite of multi-media platforms for ANA’s 50th Anniversary. ANA’s 50 ^th Anniversary webpage shares the history of ANA’s fifty years of serving Indian Country through interviews with former Commissioners and Community Partners, blogs, testimonials, in-depth spotlights on current and former grantees, as well as a photo exposition of the impact ANA grantees are making within their communities.

Priority #4: Become a Data-Driven Agency

Revised ANA’s Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO). One of ANA’s most significant accomplishments has been the revamping of its Notice of Funding Opportunity, or grant application process. In 2023, ANA dramatically simplified its grant applications and removed onerous scoring and evaluation criteria, resulting in a much shorter and more concisely written application focused on the community’s needs. In addition, ANA changed its funding approach – starting this year, ANA will fully fund grant awards upfront (forward funding). These changes also reflect ANA’s commitment to tribal self-determination and self-governance, as illustrated in Executive Order 14112.

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Administration for Native Americans

An Office of the Administration for Children & Families

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

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Washington, D.C. 20201