Traditional Leadership Youth Camps

As we look to the future there is nothing more important we can do in support of traditional Native people in their communities than help them pass their heritage, eye-to-eye, breath-to breath, to their young people. That is the goal of our Traditional Youth Leadership Initiative. It is through this program that traditional values are reinforced and strengthened within Indian communities, bringing Native boys and girls together with their most respected Elders/teachers in traditional settings away from the distractions of everyday life.

Our Traditional Youth Leadership Initiative provides Native youth with a powerful venue for preserving, strengthening and renewing Native cultural and spiritual practices, beliefs, values and worldviews. It is a spiritual setting for learning from Elders - for healing, nurturing, and praying in a loving environment.

The Youth Leadership Initiative provides a parallel program to formal education in targeted Indian communities – events planned and run by the Elders and based in the culture.

These programs, which run throughout the year, provide a cultural focus and framework for young people just at the age when drugs, alcohol, crime, and other troubling influences begin to mesmerize them. The goal is to create a visible and participatory program within communities that bring Elders, youth, and families together, creating tomorrow’s traditional Indian leaders.

The long-term outcomes for the Traditional Youth Leadership Initiative are cultural and spiritual development of Indian youth, and a resiliency in them that leads to positive life choices; an integration of this spiritual and cultural wisdom in to their lives, the lives of their families, and their communities.

Our current programs are located in Native communities in Montana, Arizona, and New York State.