This week an Indigenous nonprofit in Bozeman announced participants for an intergenerational program to preserve knowledge between tribal elders and young Indigenous women.
The Spirit Aligned Leadership Program will have twenty one Indigenous women work on projects in their tribal communities from all over the US and Canada.
Gail Small is the Intergenerational Indigenous Women's Fellowship program director. She said that the oldest Indigenous women in the program are in their 80s.
“One of the women, the elder women, said this will be my last big effort. They are reflecting back on their life and intentionally choosing what knowledge they are going to pass on. And they live that knowledge,” Small says. “So it's not like they are writing a book or doing a video.”
Spirit Aligned Leadership Program is the only nonprofit in the US that focuses on knowledge sharing for Indigenous women.
Small said that Indigenous knowledge is precious. And with COVID-19 taking the lives of many Indigenous elders, Spirit Aligned wanted to work fast to preserve Indigenous ways of being.
“We quickly realized the loss of tribal elders. Like in my tribe alone we lost over 60 elders. And we were seeing just the impacts just rolling through tribal communities,” Small said.
The pairings will work on projects that align with the elder's interests and life's work. Including mapping stars for the ceremony, language revitalization efforts, and Indigenous food sovereignty.
Taylar Stagner is Yellowstone Public Radio's Indigenous Affairs reporter.
