Supporting California Indian Culture Bearers, Artists, Lifeways, and Knowledge Transmission
This article is part of the ’24-’25 Donor Yearbook & Annual Report. Click here to download the full report (PDF).
A vision of Northern California Native leaders since the 1990s, the Native Cultures Fund (NCF) has supported more than 400 artists, culture bearers, and tribal researchers, sharing over $3 million through grants to Native communities and individuals over its past 25 years of community work.
NCF has three main areas of focus: grantmaking and scholarships, programming, and relationship- and field-building. Grants are used for the preservation, revitalization, and perpetuation of the rich California Tribal cultures across NCF’s service region. Initiated and led by Native peoples, NCF is a partnership between Native communities, HAF+WRCF, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and other donors. Since 2002, NCF has been housed at HAF+WRCF.
Our Approach
Led by Native Peoples
All grant and scholarship recommendations are made by committees of Native culture bearers, scholars, and elders from across our regions, with committees changing each fall and spring. To honor the tradition of reciprocity, we also invite past recipients to join our review committees. In addition, we look to cultural leaders to help provide guidance and leadership in developing ongoing strategies and priorities for the fund.
Our Work
Funding
Nationally, less than .04% of philanthropic dollars go to Native causes and organizations, with an even smaller percentage supporting projects that focus on cultural sovereignty and the transmission of traditional values. NCF is working to change this and is honored to share resources with Native communities. NCF is often the first introduction to philanthropy for many of these grassroots organizations and communities.
Relationship- & Field-Building
NCF works to bolster the field of philanthropy, increasing the capacity of national and statewide philanthropic partners to better serve Native peoples through education, advocacy, collaborative funding, and coaching. Concurrently, we offer services to Native organizations and communities through one-on-one consulting, grant-writing assistance, and networking opportunities.
Programs
In partnership with community leaders, we create and sustain programming that offers culture bearers, language revivalists, and Native educators the space to build community, share best practices, and strengthen the cultural renaissance in California. NCF also supports programs to promote widespread understanding of Native cultures and history.
Our Impact
NCF has continued to build upon the insights gained from its 2019 Program Evaluation to strengthen how we serve our communities. One way we do this is by maintaining a built-in feedback loop with the communities we support, ensuring their voices guide and inform our work. We recognize that cultural communities throughout the state are dynamic, living, breathing societies that are in constant movement. As such, we continue to listen, evolve, and develop new ways to support cultural revitalization in Native California.
Our Reach
NCF is honored to have engaged in this community work for over 25 years. Because of our deeply rooted, multi-generational relationships with the many communities across our service region, we have been able to witness firsthand the healing journeys of these communities. We have seen the reclamation and revitalization of California’s First Peoples and are honored to be small part of these stories.
CURRENT PROJECT HIGHLIGHT: Tomol Build, Barbareno Chumash Tribal Council
The Chumash are a maritime culture and have been working to continue reclaiming their cultural heritage and rights to their ancestral lands and waterways. For the last 20 years, Chumash peoples have sailed four vessels to bring the Chumash people together for ceremony and healing. They revitalized the tradition of navigating across the channel to Limuw Island in their traditional vessel, the tomol.
As two of the original vessels are no longer seaworthy, the Tribe has worked with elder Chumash builders, who built the tomols in the 1970s, to complete a new tomol for their annual journey in August of 2025. This presented an opportunity to introduce youth to a traditional practice and its related skillsets, furthering this knowledge among a new generation of Chumash peoples.
To complete this vessel, the Chumash worked with community folks in the north of the state to secure the redwood needed to build the tomol. In addition to supporting the tomol-building tradition, the project also highlighted and demonstrated the connection between Tribal people all along the California coastline; it also reinforced the awareness of longstanding trade routes and practices of cultural sharing.
The Jack Montoya Memorial Scholarship
The Jack Montoya Memorial Scholarship was created in 2016 by the estate of the late Eunice Nielsen. Former Native Cultures Fund (NCF) director Chag Lowry traveled to the Bay Area, along with local community members Pimm Tripp-Allen, Leo Canez, and the late Amos Tripp. During the journey, they all got to know Eunice.
As they got to know each other, Eunice was very impressed by Amos Tripp. Amos, one of the first California Indian Attorneys, was deeply rooted in his role as a Karuk dance leader. He played an essential part in the cultural revitalization and communal healing that took place along the North Coast. Amos was a mentor for countless generations across the community. He radiated a joy and light that impacted all who were fortunate enough to know him. Once, Eunice asked Amos how she could support more students so that they might grow up to be like him. He shared that children who grow up in families who practice their culture understand the importance of providing for and giving back to their communities. Eunice created this scholarship to support those students and named it after a mentor in her life, Jack Montoya.
Each year NCF shares up to $150,000 with culturally active Native students across the state. These students are enhancing their knowledge and are committed to returning to share it with the communities that raised them. This scholarship is creating its own network of scholars, and we are proud to witness our graduates return home and live out their commitments to community.
This year, we are excited to announce that we have now shared over one million dollars in total with our scholars across the state. NCF is honored to be the home of the Jack Montoya Memorial Scholarship, and we look forward to seeing the continued work of all our Montoya Scholars.
Support the Native Cultures Fund by clicking here.