The Native Cultures Fund Story
Supporting California Indian culture bearers, artists, lifeways, and knowledge transmission.
Founded by California Indian leaders and Native led, the Native Cultures Fund has practiced community grantmaking and program development at Humboldt Area Foundation since 2002.
NCF grantmaking committees continue to be made up of Native California culture bearers, language revivalists, artists, and educators — former grantees make the grants. The Native Cultures Fund has made over $2.9 million in grants to 389 community-based projects in more than 100 California Native communities.
Beginning in 2016, the Native Cultures Fund oversees the Jack Montoya Memorial Scholarship to support Native students in California, who are actively strengthening their cultures, to attend a four year university or graduate studies program.
In addition to grantmaking and schlarships, the Native Cultures Fund supports programs like the the Live Your Language Alliance conference for knowledge sharing among Indigenous language teachers and learners. NCF curated the River As Home exhibition, helped to advocate for Yurok language to be adopted for language credits into the Eureka public schools, and co-founded the Humboldt's California Indian Big Time with Native students at Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly HSU). We continue to advocate, connect, and support Native peoples in the movements that arise from within California Indigenous communities.