Home
Focus Areas
About Us
Mary Holiday Black, the first citizen of the Navajo Nation and the first Utahn to receive the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, has died at the age of 80.
She was born on the northern side of the Navajo reservation in Utah, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
Her mother was a rug weaver and her father was a medicine man, and she learned basketweaving at a young age.
"She learned not only the techniques of gathering, dyeing, and weaving the willow (sumac), but also the rich store of meaning associated with baskets," the NEA says in a statement.
"Women in the community maintained the tradition of weaving ceremonial baskets at the same time they wove rugs to sell to trading posts.
Black remained active at basketweaving by passing her skills along to her children."
She introduced several innovations during the 1970s that proved critical to its survival, sparking a renaissance of Navajo basketry.
She stretched the traditional limitations of design, keeping the black-white-and-red color scheme but expanding the baskets beyond the size appropriate for ceremonial use.
Some of her coiled-tray wedding baskets, used in a number of ceremonial rituals, reached five feet in diameter. Read the Entire Article
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
"I didn't want to acknowledge any life challenges I had along the waywhich left me feeling burnt out from not showing my whole self," says Trish Boes, founder and CEO of UnlimitMe. But now, she...more
The world's largest mangrove forest is on the verge of becoming a ghost forest. Fires are raging in Bangladesh's Sundarbans forest, which is also home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, and firefighters...more
"When I came to Harare from Zaka, I had nobody and knew nobody, but I had to define my career path and carve my own niche, hence the confidence that all these important people here now have in...more
Foundation: Whitefish Community Foundation
"But wait. We're not done yet." That was the message from Lois Davis, CEO of the Whitefish Community Foundation, as it handed out $520,300 in grants to 68 nonprofit organizations in the...more
The Greater Hermiston Community Foundation is accepting applications for its 2024 grant cycle. Local organizations serving Hermiston, Umatilla, Stanfield, Echo, and Irrigon are eligible to...more
Want to invest in companies that are good for the planet but also good for the bottom line? Look no further than Nordis Capital, a Montreal-based investment firm that aims to invest in companies...more
The Italian government has put the kibosh on a plan to build ground-mounted photovoltaic systems on agricultural land, Bloomberg reports. According to a draft of a new agriculture law, "the areas...more
An international nonprofit is looking for a regional director to lead its efforts in Africa, and it's looking for someone with "strong interpersonal leadership skills" and a "growth...more
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, and all the major broadcast news networks are getting in on the fun. ABC News, for instance, will feature an...more
When Sharon Kotsonas moved from Puerto Rico to Gilbert, Ariz., 20 years ago, she didn't think much of the culture. "I was 19 when I moved," she tells the Gilbert Independent. "And then from...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Influencing Social Good Through Retail
When Hannah Davis traveled to China to teach English, she noticed how Chinese workers and farmers were often sporting olive green army-style shoes. Those shoes served as her inspiration to create her own social enterprise, Bangs Shoes.
