Native SOAR provides multigenerational mentoring and professional development services that center on the needs of American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) students throughout the K-20 educational system. Native SOAR does this by drawing upon asset-based AI/AN pedagogies to provide culturally responsive virtual and in-person mentoring and support services, which ultimately contributes to the University of Arizona's recruitment and retention efforts. In alignment with the University’s Native American Initiatives strategic plan, the project aims to provide Native students the tools to successfully navigate the University of Arizona experience before, during, and after college entrance. 

Natasha Chantel Riccio is a PhD student at the UArizona Arid Lands Resource Sciences department. Natasha will work with Dr. Benjamin Wilder, Director of the UArizona Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill. Natasha's research is at the nexus of ethnobotany, ecology, genetics, and agriculture, incorporating multiple perspectives to build a larger whole. In particular, Natasha's research explores climate-resilient agricultural models through a transdisciplinary approach to studying human-plant relationships grounded in cultural Knowledge. Natasha is especially interested in Agave murpheyi, a species of agave domesticated by the Hohokam and farmed throughout the Sonoran Desert by Indigenous peoples. Natasha has begun conversations with collaborators from the San Xavier District, the San Xavier Coop Farm, and the Akimel O'odham community to develop a network of sanctuaries for these bio-culturally significant plants.

Nikki Tulley (Diné), is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science with a concentration in Hydroscience at the University of Arizona. Nikki is currently working on the project “Assessing Navajo COVID-19 Risks and Increasing Indigenous Resilience,” led by Dr. Karletta Chief, Professor at the UArizona Environmental Science department and Director of the Indigenous Resilience Center. Nikki will work during the summer conducting surveys to Navajo water haulers to identify water hauling, water quality, and water relief needs. 

Chantel Harrison (Diné) is a Professional Science Master’s student at the UArizona Applied Biosciences program in the Controlled Environment Agriculture track and a student-trainee in the IndigeFEWSS (Indigenous Food, Energy, & Water Security and Sovereignty) project funded by the National Science Foundation. Chantel has experience developing research initiatives related to nutrition and nutrition education with a solid commitment to giving back to her community members. Chantel will be working with Dr. Murat Kacira, Director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, to address food sovereignty, food insecurity, and the food-energy-water nexus in urban and rural Indigenous communities. 

Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan (Tohono O'odham), PhD candidate from the San Xavier District, will be working with professor Dr. Ronald Trosper of the UArizona American Indian Studies Department. Jacelle is majoring in American Indian Studies with a minor in Journalism at the University of Arizona. Jacelle's research focuses on the San Xavier District's efforts to cope with the loss of water from the Santa Cruz River and the impact of applying the water allotment policy to the District. This community-based research argues that the Tohono O'odham people of San Xavier have demonstrated resilience by establishing two community organizations: the San Xavier Allottees Association and the San Xavier Cooperative Farm, which utilizes allotted lands.  

Dr. Ruth E. Taylor-Piliae, Associate Professor at the UArizona College of Nursing, will be working with Christine Hodgson, PhD candidate at the UArizona College of Nursing, to conduct the community-based research project Understanding the Resilience of Children Living on an Indian Reservation: A Mixed Methods Participatory-Social Justice Investigation with the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana. The study, approved by the UArizona and Fort Peck Tribes’ IRBs, aims to understand the resilience of children living on an Indian reservation to inform preventive health interventions by acknowledging tribal customs and beliefs and Indigenous Knowledge. In addition, the study will address health inequities and lay the groundwork for future research in other tribal communities. 

Award to support the hiring of a Project Coordinator for the Native American Code Writers Program hosted at the UArizona College of Education.

Year 2 to fund an Administrative Assistant to the newly appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, (UNSRRIP/Special Rapporteur), Francisco Cali Tzay. 

Funding support to complete the design and then launch the UArizona Native American Web Portal Research Data Base and Inventory of Resources and Programs (“Grand Challenges” pillar- identified in the overall 2019 Strategic Plan for the University of Arizona).

The Library Preservation Project, conceived to preserve and give public access to valued, one-of-a-kind documents, some dated back to the 1930s, involves three phases:

Phase I consists of securing over 8,000 water resource documents, reports, and maps from NNDWR Library at the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library. For now, the only people who will have access will be researchers that will be pre-approved by NNDWR on a case-by-case basis and facilitated by the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library.

Phase II consists of preparing and digitizing the collection. At this point, Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library plans to recruit and hire students to help with Phase II work, including preparing the collection materials for digitization, creating metadata, and performing quality control. Leads secured funding from CERES for phase II.

Phase III is a collaborative effort between the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library and the UArizona’s Communication and Cyber Technologies to create a database to host the digitized library. Once the collection is digitized, most of the collection will be publicly available, with NNDWR determining which resources will require restricted access.

The Library Preservation Project honors the tribal and information sovereignty of the Navajo Nation and their data and resources while working with the NNDWR to provide access to essential information to improve all aspects of water resources in the Navajo Nation

The award supports the work of Dr. Tsosie-Paddock and will further advance faculty diversity at UArizona and strengthen education and equity for Navajo students. Dr. Tsosie- Paddock has been teaching the university’s only first- and second-year Navajo courses along with numerous Navajo-related courses in AIS.

The award will help Redstar develop and implement a strategy to utilize the film From the Mountains to the Sea to engage a national audience to explore the health and healing of our rivers through an Indigenous lens. This interactive campaign and materials will be developed to build conversations centered on diverse Indigenous worldviews, values and perspectives about the future of our nation’s rivers.

The aims of the engagement strategy will be: a) to highlight the interconnectedness between our health and the health of our rivers, b) to Share the learnings that emerged through Indigenous knowledge exchange, and c) to Explore Indigenous pathways to heal our rivers through sustainable, systemic change.

Funds to support the hiring of a Program Coordinator for the UArizona Native American Initiative office led by VP Dr. Karen Francis-Begay.

Award to support a partnership between the College of Education’s Indigenous Teacher Education Project (ITEP) and the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL), led by Drs. Jeremy Garcia, Blaine Smith, and Valerie Shirley to initiate the “Indigenizing Coding Education” project. The project will enable the establishment of relationships with local Native nations and tribal schools, with the goal of co-constructing a digital literacies and Native American Code Writers Program that strives to include Indigenous knowledge, languages, and values of the communities.