Colorado Plateau Foundation 10-Year Celebration

10 YEAR CELEBRATION

JIM ENOTE

The number ten is consummate and encouraging. Like when a young person looks at their hands, learns to count to ten, and then ponders how to count more.

The Colorado Plateau Foundation, at this auspicious ten-year juncture, is using this moment to reflect on what we learned. Throughout 2022, the Foundation staff contemplated challenges facing Colorado Plateau Native communities, disparities in philanthropic giving, our grantmaking trends, the power of communication, opportunities, and our next ten years.

Launching the Foundation as a fiscally sponsored organization as a small part-time team was the right way for us to begin. After testing and refining our core operational methods, absorbing the scope of what capacity building means, and learning to evaluate ourselves and not the grantees, we incorporated as a stand-alone Native-led foundation in 2019.

The heart of this compelling work is a capable staff and board that makes inclusion, parity, and transparency an inspiring and motivational part of the organization, creating a unified and highly collaborative team. The Colorado Plateau Foundation is an assessment-rich organization employing

consistent, constructive, and practical feedback from our staff, board, and grantees to enable this extraordinary team to reach its fullest expression.

This report is an abridgment of our first ten years of honorable learning. The next ten years will take the Foundation’s lessons and tie them together to create an informed strategy and blueprint for the sustainability of Native communities throughout the Colorado Plateau.

Jim Enote, CEO of Colorado Plateau Foundation

One of the first things we learn as humans, with the same fingers that count to ten, is how to tie things together. ”

“

The Colorado Plateau Foundation is an example to all of us for how to nurture, preserve, and build beautiful communities. ”

— Winona LaDuke Economist, Author, and Executive Director for Honor the Earth

Motivated by his experience with discrimination, repression, and asymmetries of power, Jim Enote pledged in 1996 to create a righteous institution that would support Native-led selfdetermination to solve the most complex problems facing Colorado Plateau Native communities.

In 2010, Jim began seeking investors to make the dream a reality.

In 2012 with a small part-time team and seed funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Christensen Fund, the Arizona Community Foundation agreed to serve as the fiscal sponsor for the Colorado Plateau Foundation. At the same time, the development of procedures and essential operations for grantmaking and grantee capacitybuilding began.

2012 was when the idea met opportunity, and the Colorado Plateau Foundation emerged to become an efficient and effective Native-led philanthropy.

CPF’s funding priorities evolved from asking Colorado Plateau Native leaders what situations on the Plateau deserve the most important consideration. Their consensus was clear:

+ Protection of Water

+ Protection of Sacred Places and Endangered Landscapes

+ Preservation of Language

+ Food Security through Sustainable Agriculture

In 2018 CPF filed for IRS 501(c)3 status and became a stand-alone public charity in 2019. Expeditiously and thoughtfully, an inaugural board developed essential governance policies and practices, and staff became fulltime and grew from three to six.

We live where we serve - This culminating statement about our genuine community grounding defines our team’s credible and practical relationship to the Colorado Plateau and its Native Peoples. We are conversant in the nuances of political, economic, cultural, and social conditions in the communities we know so well. We are of this place.

We live Where we serve. We are of this place.

The Plateau is rural and remote. Climate change exacerbates water scarcity and food insecurity, and basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, power supplies) are limited. Boom and bust economies have left some people feeling hopeless.

In a 2014 survey taken around shopping preferences by Navajo Nation members, 51% of respondents preferred to purchase groceries off the reservation due to lower prices and a greater variety of foods . The shortest roundtrip distance to an off-reservation grocery store was 155 miles from the five towns included in the survey.

BELOW The Poverty Line

The percentage of people living below the federal poverty line in the United States is 12.8%, based on 2020 census data. Despite these and many other challenges, for many Native peoples, customs, traditions, and identity keep them on the Plateau - among family and community.

The Colorado Plateau, roughly centered around the New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado four corners area, is a high and semiarid environment. Ten tribal nations reside on the Plateau, while several neighboring tribes have ancestral and enduring ties to the Plateau region.

Source: US Census Bureau, 2020 Census Demographic Profile.

FUNDING DISPARITY IN THE U.S. for Native America

Native American-led regional initiatives address challenges in innovative and inspiring ways, using community-centered approaches to create meaningful change. At the same time, the philanthropic community underfunds these organizations. Few charitable dollars reach Native communities nationwide, much less on the Colorado Plateau, where vast distances compound access challenges. Analyses of philanthropic data indicate that only .4% of funding dollars go to Native communities, while 68% of philanthropic dollars benefiting Native people go to non-Native-led organizations. Also, 74% of funding for Native Americans is directed to urban initiatives, leaving out the vital work in rural communities.

Even considering the small percentage of Native Americans respective to the United States population (2%), funding to Native communities is disproportionate, topping at a high of 0.6%.

Benefiting Native Americans

BY ISSUE AREA 2015 AND 2016

BY SUPPORT STRATEGY 2015 AND 2016

Source: Candid, 2019. Grants may have multiple support strategies and may therefore by counted in more than one category. A support strategy could not be determined for 15 percent of grant dollars. Excludes grants to grantmaking intermediaries.

GRANT DOLLARS EXPLICITLY

Since the launch of CPF in 2012, more Native youth have come forth, proficient with modern technological tools and motivated by new visions of identity and self-determination.

In the US, the population of people under 39 years old is approximately 50.2% . On the Plateau, the numbers are significantly different. On the Zuni Reservation, 57% of the population is under 39 years old; on the Hopi Reservation, 58% is under 39 years.

Related to technological competency is rapidly expanding high-speed internet service across the Plateau. In 2012 the digital divide was a significant problem. Today, internet service is available to every grantee, and improved bandwidth for many communities on the Plateau is within sight.

Despite shifting politics and potentially unfavorable legislation and policies affecting Native nations, Native youth are growing into competency and leadership. This transfer of authority underlines the rationale and purpose for CPF to continue building organizational, community and individual capacity for generations to come.

Colorado Plateau Foundation values a culturally centered model of giving that meets grantees where they are in their development. We see grantmaking as more than just distributing funds: it is about actively participating in a network and community.

Initially, our grantmaking centered on building capacity to strengthen organizations from within and help them become stable so they can flourish. However, during our third year, grantees began to apply for grants to support community capacity building. We learned that capacity building should apply to organizational development and community development. An example is the application of capacity building for a language program managed by an organization or supporting community language mentors and teachers. Both approaches are justifiable and community-driven.

In 2012, the first year of CPF grantmaking, CPF gave $108,000 to seven organizations. As our financial position strengthened, our grant amounts allowed us to begin making capacitybuilding and general operating support grants to organizations demonstrating steady fiscal capacity and community approval.

In 2022, we gave $780,000 to twenty-one grantees while committing $240,000 to our first multi-year grants. Currently, 50% of our grants are for general operating support.

Since our beginning, we have continued to believe in a unique theory of change that articulates two primary assumptions.

1. That Native peoples on the Colorado Plateau are capable of accomplishing sophisticated and positive change to protect the Plateau environment and cultures, and

2. Protection of the Plateau’s environment and cultures must address asymmetrical power dynamics at all levels of influence and authority.

CPF grants create effective and influential organizations that become better equipped to prove that both assumptions are valid.

But we do more than get grants out the door. In 2013 CPF began our Learning Community, an annual grantee convening that allows us to meet with CPF grantees collectively, learn more about what works for them as cohorts, and enables them to collaborate in a regional network. CPF’s approach to site visits, Learning Journey, started in 2018 as a distinctive way to meet our grantees at their workspace. Learning Journey allows grantees to learn about themselves as much as we learn about them. We learn their entire story, theory of change, community history, and how they struggled and eventually evolved to create solutions.

As of November 2022, our total assets are projected to be more than 5 million dollars.

Grant awards for 2022 totaled $1,020,000.

Funding Dispursed

COMMUNITIES KNOW What is Best for Them

The White Mesa Concerned Community is an example of a Colorado Plateau Foundation grantee that exemplifies community-led work to address toxic uranium contamination in the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa. White Mesa Concerned Community, made of mostly Ute matriarchs, is pressuring the federal government and Energy Fuels Inc. to close the only operating uranium mill in the country, known as the White Mesa Mill. The advocacy of the White Mesa Concerned Community resulted in national media focusing on the people directly downwind of the mill.

“Colorado Plateau Foundation has made a big impact on our work to protect our community and our community’s health, our water, and clean air here in White Mesa. The funding CPF gives us helps us build capital to better organize our small community, and helps our people learn how to make their voice heard not just in Utah but around the United States and the word”- Yolanda Badback White Mesa Concerned Community CPF is deeply attentive to any perceptions of prescriptive grantmaking and takes care not to usher propositions into conversations regarding support.

Philanthropy in the Native American lands of the Colorado Plateau is best guided and led by the local Native community. The Colorado Plateau Foundation has the leadership, dedicated staff, and respect within the community for long-term, lasting impact.

— Kathy Hesse, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

THE COLORADO PLATEAU

Today, one-third of the Colorado Plateau lies within the sovereign lands of 11 different Native American tribes. The power of Native American tribes as sovereign nations, as governments that oversee over a third of the Colorado Plateau’s lands, and as the original stewards of this landscape renders Native leadership necessary to achieve any meaningful and authentic change on the Colorado Plateau.

Tribal names on the Colorado Plateau are familiar, and some are less known. Here you will find the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Apache, Havasupai, Hualapai, Zuni, Tewa, and Acoma. The Colorado Plateau houses eight of the nine counties in the United States with the highest percentage of Native language speakers. The only outlier is the Bethel Census Area in Alaska (Language fluency levels among Plateau tribes make the transmission of traditional knowledge remarkably well-maintained. Unfortunately, this region, the crucible of American high altitude and dryland agriculture with 600 generations of land-based knowledge, a place of consistent and enduring tradition, is alarmingly unrecognized and misunderstood by so many.

In 2019 CPF initiated a communication and outreach program to elevate grantee stories and advance the perspectives and influence of the Native peoples of the Plateau on a national stage. Additionally, our CEO’s 45 years of experience in cultural resources, land and water conservation, and philanthropy positions him as a thought leader on many matters related to Native America.

More than ever, quality communications guided by an ethos of truth are needed to create a more informed public.

ITA HOPI LAVAYI

“We are a small community of people trying to enhance the lives of young people for our people to know the importance of granting programs to enable us to have our visions come true.”- Debra Onsae, Hopi

Our languages contain thousands of years of knowledge and connection. Yet, many languages across the Plateau are endangered because of the struggle our communities face balancing our traditions with modern demands. Ita Hopi Lavayi (Our Hopi Language) Project believes that Indigenous people have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, architecture, agriculture, writing systems, and literature to future generations. Ita Hopi Lavayi, led by Debra Onsae (Hopi), plays a crucial role in revitalizing Hopi Lavayi by teaching Hopi youth through hands-on education and immersive learning.

Hopi Ita Lavayi is a fiscally sponsored program. CPF understands that only some organizations are ready for or want to secure 501(c)3 status. Onsae found CPF’s innate understanding of Plateau Native peoples compelling when searching for funding. Because of CPF’s funding, Ita Hopi Lavayi can reach students in towns and cities beyond the Hopi reservation but still on the Plateau.

“Colorado Plateau Foundation believes in Ita Hopi Lavayi’s mission to revitalize the Hopi language beyond the reservation. CPF’s funding has been a driving force for our organization,” Onsae said.

PROTECTION OF SACRED SPACES

Uplift began in 2014 as an initiative of the Grand Canyon Trust and the Landscape Conservation Initiative. Recently, Uplift has become a standalone youth-led organization under fiscal sponsorship. Uplift’s mission is to connect, train and mobilize youth across all Colorado Plateau communities for climate justice. Uplift hosts a Summer Fellowship program for Indigenous youth.

“Colorado Plateau Foundation is incredibly important for the Southwest region and Colorado Plateau as they are one of few of our funders that are not just our regional neighborhoods but relatives, community members, and mentors. Knowing that our community believes in us, especially as young people, gives us the strength to continue the work.” (Lyrica Maldonado, Education and Funding Coordination - Uplift.)

Climate justice for the Colorado Plateau is critical. Short-lived natural resource extraction on the Plateau has left many communities needing a just energy and economic transition . Ironically, low-income reservation communities are likely to be less polluting for emissions connected to climate change, unlike metropolitan areas like Phoenix, with more homes and businesses that run multiple air conditioners, heaters, and other high-energy conveniences.

“The next ten years will be a time of increasing global climate disasters. However, with foundations such as CPF, we can trust that our regional, local, and cultural solutions to the climate crisis will be funded and empowered.”- Lyrica Maldonado - Uplift.

NAVAJO

THE NEXT TEN YEARS

Our team is serious and capable. Our financials are stable and solid. We have experienced, and practiced leadership, an engaged board, clear plans and governance to guide us, and a sublime conviction inherited from hundreds of generations that came before us.

We are no longer emergent and have the authority and energy to contribute to a better future for Native communities on the Plateau. Our future strategy will comprehensively identify gaps in structures that aid Plateau communities, strengthen effective designs, clarify achievable solutions to problems, and anticipate shifts in access to resources and channels of influence. But there needs to be more.

Social, economic, and political divisions are growing throughout the world. Accordingly, a blueprint for the Plateau’s sustainability, particularly for Native communities on the Plateau, will require higher-order strategies to unify people and resources and build new alliances in uncommon and alternative ways.

We perform best in an assessment-rich environment and will continue to contribute as a beacon for community-minded strategies for Native communities on the Plateau.

In the arc of our ten-year history, the Colorado Plateau Foundation has experienced tremendous change. Once a fiscally sponsored venture, CPF obtained 501(c)3 status only four years ago.

2012 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Program

Native Movement-Peace and Balance Movement

Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture

Mesa Media, Inc.

Native Movement-Black Mesa Water Coalition

The Hopi School

Tolani Lake Enterprises

2013 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Program

Tolani Lake Enterprises

Acoma Learning Center

Painted Desert Demonstration Projects, Inc. North Leupp Family Farms

Mesa Media, Inc.

Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources

Painted Desert Demonstration Projects, Inc. Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture

Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources

Native Movement-Black Mesa Water Coalition

Grant Focus

Community Health

Protection of Water, Sacred Places, Language, Health

Community Health

Language

Community Health

Language

Community Health

Grant Focus

Sustainable Agriculture

Protection of Water

Language

Sustainable Agriculture

Language

Language

Sustainable Agriculture

Protecting Water

Protecting Water

Black Mesa Trust Protection of Water

Tolani Lake Enterprises-14R

2014 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Koahnic Broadcast Corporation

North Leupp Family Farms

Ramah Navajo School Board Inc

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Tolani Lake Enterprises

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Program

Tolani Lake Enterprises-14R

Acoma Learning Center

Black Mesa Trust

Painted Desert Demonstration Projects, Inc.-Hopi Tutskwa

Upper Village of Moenkopi

2015 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Hualapai Tribe

Dine Be Iina, Inc.

Native Movement-Black Mesa Water Coalition

Black Mesa Trust

WORK IN BEAUTY INC

Tolani Lake Enterprises

Moenkopi Developers Corporation

Mesa Media, Inc.

Koahnic Broadcast Corporation

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Sustainable Agriculture

Grant Focus

Protection of Water, Protection of Sacred Places, Sustainable Agriculture, Language

Sustainable Agriculture

Protection of Sacred Places

Protection of Sacred Places

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Language

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Grant Focus

Language

Sustainable Agriculture

Protecting Sacred Places

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Language

Language

Protecting Sacred Places

Protecting Sacred Places

2016 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Mesa Media, Inc.

Black Mesa Trust

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute

White Mountain Apache Tribe-Ndee Bikiyaa, The People's Farm

Tolani Lake Enterprises

Tolani Lake Enterprises-Many Farms

Advancing Communities Foundation

Acoma Learning Center

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Ramah Navajo School Board Inc

Native Movement-Black Mesa Water Coalition

Conservation Legacy-Acoma Farms Corps

Grant Focus

Language

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Protection of Water

Language

Protection of Sacred Places

Sustainable Agriculture

Protection of Sacred Places

Sustainable Agriculture

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice-White Mesa Concerned Community Protection of Water

2017 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Advancing Communities Foundation

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute

White Mountain Apache Tribe-Ndee Bikiyaa, The People's Farm

Conservation Legacy

Conservation Legacy

Covenant Pathways

Pueblo of Acoma-Acoma Learning Center

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Hualapai Tribe

Uranium Education Coalition

Zuni Youth Enrichment

Native Movement-Black Mesa Water Coalition

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice-White Mesa Concerned Community

2018 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Pueblo of Acoma-Acoma Learning Center

Advancing Communities Foundation

Black Mesa Trust

Black Mesa Water Coalition (Native Movement)

Conservation Legacy, Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands

Covenant Pathways

Hasbidito (Rio Puerco Alliance)

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute

Hualapai Tribe, Cultural Resources Department

Ita Hopi Lavayi (Terra BIRDS - Fiscal Sponsor)

Mesa Media, Inc.

Ndee Bikiyaa (White Mountain Apache Tribe)

Tolani Lake Enterprises, Inc.

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Grant Focus

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Language

Protection of Sacred Places

Language

Protection of Water

Sustainable Agriculture

Protection of Sacred Places

Protection of Water

Grant Focus

preservation of language

protection of water

protection of sacred places

All Four Priority Areas

protection of sacred places

protection of water and sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of language

protection of language

preservation of language

sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of sacred places

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

2019 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Acoma Learning Center

Advancing Communities Foundation

Grant Focus

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

protection of water

Black Mesa Trust protection of sacred places

Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Resource Legacy Fund

Conservation Legacy, Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands

Covenant Pathways

Dine’ Citizen’s Against Ruining our Environment

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute

Hopivewat Learning Center, Inc.

Ita Hopi Lavayi, Terra BIRDS

Ndee Bikiyaa

Tolani Lake Enterprises, Inc.

Utah Dine Bikeyah

protection of sacred places, water, preservation of language, and sustainable community based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

protection of water and sustainable community-based agriculture

protecting sacred places, water, and sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

protectiono of sacred places and preservation of language

protection of language

sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of sacred places

White Mesa Concerned Community, Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice sacred places, water

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

2020 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Acoma Learning Center

Americans for Indian Opportunity

Arizona Ethnobotanical Research Association / Ita Hopi Lavayi

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

Grant Focus

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of language

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

Black Mesa Trust all areas

Covenant Pathways

Flower Hill Institute

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute

Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Inc.

Native American Cancer Research

Native Americans for Community Action

Ndee Bikiyaa, The People's Farm

Southwest Organizing Project / Pueblo Action Alliance

The Hopi Foundation / Natwani Coalition

Tolani Lake Enterprises, Inc.

Utah Dine Bikeyah

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

protection of water and sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of language

sustainable community-based agriculture

protection of water

sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

protection of water, sustainable community-based agriculture

preservation of languages, sustainable community-based agriculture

sustainable community-based agriculture

protection of sacred places

preservation of language and sustainable community-based agriculture

2020 DISCRETIONARY AND CAPACITY BUILDING GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Ancestral Lands ConservationCorps

Grant Focus

sustainable community-based agriculture

Uplift protection of sacred places

White Mesa Concerned Community sacred places, water

2021 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps

Grant Focus

protection of water, sustainable community-based agriculture

Black Mesa Trust protection of water, sacred places, and language

Chinle Planting Hope

food security

2021 CPF GRANT AWARDS

Organization Name

Grant Focus

Conservation Legacy Southwest Conservation Corps, Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps sustainable community-based agriculture

Covenant Pathways food security sustainable community-based agriculture

Fundamental Needs Inc

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Inc

food security

food security sustainable community-based agriculture

Indigenous Knowledge Collective preservation of languages

Keres Childrens Learning Center

National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project Inc

Ndee Bikiyaa, The People's Farm

preservation of language

food security sustainable community-based agriculture

food security sustainable community-based agriculture

The Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc, Tutskwat Oqawtoynani protection of sacred places and endangered landscapes, food secuirty through sustainable community-based agriculture

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Inc, Uplift

protection of water, protection of sacred places and endangered landscapes

Hopi School Inc, Hopitutuqaiki preservation of language

Tolani Lake Enterprises Inc

food security sustainable community-based agriculture

Utah Dine Bikeyah protection of sacred places and endangered landscapes

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

2022 CPF GRANT AWARDS

protection of water, preservation of languages, food security through sustainable communitybased agriculture

Organization Name Grant Focus

Arizona Ethnobotanical Research Association, Ita Hopi Lavayi

Black Mesa Trust

Chinle Planting Hope

Conservation Legacy, Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps

Preservation of language

Protection of water, sacred places, and language preservation

Sustainable community-based agriculture

"Sustainable community-based agriculture, protection of sacred places and water”

Covenant Pathways Sustainable community-based agriculture

Flower Hill Institute

Fundamental Needs Inc

"Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice, White Mesa Concerned Community”

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute Inc

Hozho Voices Of Healing Center Inc

Keres Children's Learning Center

Ke'yah Advanced Rural Manufacturing Alliance

KUTE Inc, KSUT Tribal Radio

National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project Inc

Navajo Way Inc

Ndee Bikiyaa, The People's Farm

"Seventh Generation for Indigenous People's Fund, Tutskwat Oqawtoynani”

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Uplift

The Hopi School Inc, Hopitutuqaiki

Zuni Youth Enrichment Program

“Sustainable community-based agriculture, protection of water and sacred places”

Sustainable community-based agriculture

Protection of Sacred Places and Water

Protection of water and sustainable community-based agriculture

All four focus areas

Preservation of language

Protection of water, preservation of languages, and sustainable community- based agriculture

Protection of water

Sustainable community-based agriculture

Preservation of language

Sustainable community-based agriculture

Protection of water, sacred places, and sustainable community-based agriculture

Protection of sacred places and water

Preservation of language

"Sustainable community-based agriculture, protection of water, and preservation of language”

Jim Enote

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Jim Enote is a Zuni tribal member and has spent over 45 years working professionally to protect and steward cultural and natural resources. He is a lifelong farmer, planting for 66 consecutive years. He also serves as the Chair of the Board for the Grand Canyon Trust, a Board member of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and serves on the Governing Council of the Wilderness Society. Formerly, he served on the Board of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. Jim is also a National Geographic Society Explorer, Carnegie Foundation Senior Fellow, and a New Mexico Community Luminaria. Jim lives in Zuni, New Mexico, his hometown.

Heather Herold

DIRECTOR OF GRANTS & OPERATIONS

Heather Herold was born and raised in Southern Arizona and has called Flagstaff home for almost 15 years. Heather worked for the Grand Canyon Trust’s Native America program before joining CPF and has worked in higher education, Native-led research, and field archaeology previously. Heather holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Applied Indigenous Studies and a Master of Arts in Applied Anthropology from Northern Arizona University. Heather is a Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional. Her interests include cultural heritage work, alternative philanthropy, and nonprofit management. Heather serves dual positions at CPF, directing operations and finances and supporting the fundraising program.

Marissa Nuvayestewa

PROGRAM OFFICER

Marissa Nuvayestewa is Tewa and Hopi. She is Corn Clan and lives in Tewa Village. Her experience in philanthropy has taught her the importance of strengthening communities from within while listening and working closely with community organizations to build local capacity. This is essential to her current role serving the Colorado Plateau region. Marissa enjoys going for long walks, gathering local wild edible foods, planting, fishing, and caring for the land.

Emily Fredrickson

OPERATIONS & PROGRAM MANAGER

Emily is originally from Boulder Colorado but now calls Flagstaff home. She brings several years of experience in program management, human resources, social work, and operations to her career. Prior to joining CPF, she worked in corporate HR for Union Bank, in Community Outreach and Philanthropy for Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, and for Union Station Homeless Services to envision and execute a mentorship program known as the Community Allies Program. Among her many passions, Emily is a dancer, a bread baker, and loves all outdoor activities. She is thrilled and honored to be a part of the Colorado Plateau Foundation; where she gets to listen, learn, and continue growing every day.

Darrien Benally

COMMUNICATIONS & OUTREACH MANAGER

Darrien Benally is a member of the Navajo tribe. Her clans are Tł’ízí lání, the Manygoats clan, born for Naakai Dine’é, the Mexican People clan. Darrien was born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona where she currently resides. Darrien received her Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Indigenous Studies from Northern Arizona University in May 2019. Currently, Darrien is enrolled in NAU’s Master of Arts in the Communication degree program. Darrien is passionate about empowering Native communities through communications. Darrien’s work at CPF is centered around ethical storytelling that elevates the success of Colorado Plateau Native communities.

Rebekah Chattin

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Rebekah Chattin grew up between the Navajo Reservation and Zuni Pueblo. Her clans are Dibé Łizhiní, the Black Sheep Clan, and born for Naasht’ézhí Dine’é, the Zuni people. Rebekah graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Applied Indigenous Studies and minors in Chemistry and Indigenous Health Studies. She has worked with the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention, helping research Navajo people’s knowledge and experiences with Helicobacter Pylori Infection. Rebekah provides support for the CEO, staff, and the CPF board. She is passionate about the importance of female Indigenous representation and guidance in crucial decision-making and leadership roles.