AMERICAN INDIAN Community Housing Organization: A COMMUNITY RESOURCE SINCE 1993

By Andrea Busche

In the Twin Ports and surrounding communities, there is a significant population of Indigenous residents. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, for instance, is one of several tribes with a large presence in our region.

For generations, many local Indigenous people have practiced the sacred and traditional ways of their ancestors, regarding growing and harvesting food, creating art and producing sacred medicines.

But Indigenous people have long been oppressed. The American Indian Community Housing Organization was created in 1993 with the overarching goals of supporting this population through community action, housing options, support services and education. Located at 202 W. Second St. in Duluth, the services that AICHO provides the community center include permanent, supportive housing, a domestic violence emergency shelter, youth programming, educational offerings for all ages, legal advocacy, food and art markets and a gift shop.

AICHO’s offerings are open to the general public.

“Our services are open to anyone,” said AICHO CoExecutive Director LeAnn Littlewolf. “While we take a culturally specific approach, we are an equal opportunity employer and have very diverse participants and staff. One of our values is generosity, and we are always looking for opportunities to bring people in.”

History

AICHO board member Tina Olson explained a bit more about the organization’s history.

“AICHO was started by a group of Indigenous women, including Vicky Ybanez, one of our original founders, who all had a social change mentality. We wanted to provide services for Native women that weren’t available in the community. It started with a shelter, and eventually we added clean, affordable housing and more.”

AICHO has 29 employees and a variety of volunteers. AICHO also maintains partnerships with True North AmeriCorps, and the AmeriCorps VISTA program, and is governed by a sixperson board of directors. Many of AICHO’s leaders and board members are women.

“We have wonderful leaders, and we wouldn’t have a successful program without our staff,” Olson added. “We are truly a community. The board believes in AICHO’s leadership, and the people who work here really care and have a heart for it.”

Offerings

As noted, AICHO provides a variety of services. The Gimaajii Mino-Bimaadizimin offers 29 units of permanent, supportive housing. The Dabinoo’Igan domestic violence shelter is able to support 24 people. AICHO also retains a legal advocate on staff, specific to domestic violence issues.

AICHO has a community center, with event space and conference rooms. Several public events are held there, including art shows, traditional ceremonies, feasts, political debates, food drives and vaccine clinics.

There is also a rooftop garden, Indigenous Food & Art Markets, and the Indigenous First Art & Gift Shop, which works to promote the creations of Indigenous artists. From the AICHO website: “We sell quality gifts and goods with a mission of advancing, promoting, and investing in Indigenous and diverse artists and entrepreneurs.”

“We support over 80 Indigenous artists, and get to be a part

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This "birchbark" basket made from paper sits in one of AICHO’s garden sites next to AICHO’s Headquarters building. Ode’imin is the Ojibwe translation for strawberry. The young children at AICHO made birchbark baskets out of paper and decorated them at an AICHO event. Ojibwe language is very important to the culture and AICHO incorporates it into a lot of their programming of their lives,” said Khayman Goodsky, coordinator at Indigenous First Art & Gift Shop. “They create paintings, clothing, beadwork, and we also have some food producers.”

Education

Education is also a major part of what AICHO has to offer.

“At AICHO, our cultural art and cultural programming is based on Indigenous knowledge, ways, and the perspective of reconnecting and connecting folks to American Indian culture,” said Ivy Vainio, AICHO’s Art, Culture, and Communications coordinator.

“We are all about reclaiming and restoring traditional ways,” added Olson. “We like to teach healthy options for eating, including how to grow your own food. And we teach children about respecting their elders.”

At AICHO, the educational offerings are open to all ages.

“We are family friendly and intergenerational,” Littlewolf said. The opportunities to learn and explore are bountiful at AICHO. The rooftop garden space is a place for youth to learn to grow and harvest food; they can later sell their items at the market.

Field trips for children are also available.

“We’ve taken field trips to Native Wise Farm on the Fond du Lac Reservation, where kids got into canoes to harvest wild rice,” Vainio said. “And then we can teach them the entrepreneurial side by having them participate in the food and art market.”

Other educational opportunities include language symposiums, cooking demonstrations, plant walks, learning to make Indigenous healing teas, storytelling, drumming classes, discussions about suicide prevention, creating sacred traditional tobacco and foraging to create traditional medicines.

An art gallery, featuring a variety of mediums and styles, is available for public viewing. The AICHO Indigenous Food & Art Markets, held each summer, highlight the hard work of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) food producers and artists. These markets are held at the One Roof Community Housing parking lot, located at 12 E. Fourth St. in Duluth.

Funding

AICHO receives funding through a variety of sources, including federal, state, county and local funds. Local donors and partners, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Northland Foundation, and many private citizens, also help support AICHO. The organization also raises funds through its Indigenous First social enterprises (such as gift shop sales), and rental income.

All are welcome

While the organization was created with the intent of supporting Indigenous people, all are welcome at AICHO.

“Everyone is welcome here,” Littlewolf said. “We are intentional at making our spaces inclusive and respectful of all people.”

“Please come in, give us a call, or follow us on our social media platforms,” Vainio added. “We also list all of our offerings on our main AICHO web page, which is aicho.org.” D