Indigenous Advocacy

What

Initiating, convening, and catalyzing the work of passing legislation in Colorado to include Native American/Tribal Sovereignty education as a requirement in K-12 state educational standards.

Why

Colorado state educational standards currently leave out and/or misrepresent Native American culture, heritage and currently reality. This is harmful for Native students, perpetuates systemic oppression, and denies non-Native students the opportunity to learn historical and current truths that are critical for building future relationships and policies that recognize the existence and value of tribal-nations and lead to more inclusive communities.

Who

Philanthropiece is currently seeing partners to support this initiative. If you are working on passing legislation to support changing the educational standards in Colorado to integrate Native American education, please reach out to Jake Matlak, Director of Programs, at [email protected].

We are currently connecting with Colorado state legislators who we believe are aligned with this effort and are researching the efforts of the states of Washington and Wyoming, who are actively teaching curriculum that has been developed and approved by Tribal Nations. For more information, please see: