Minnesota’s Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation have received a $7.7 million investment from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation in support of Indigenous education across the state, the Bemidji Pioneer reports.

The funding will enable a five-year project to develop tribally endorsed curricula and education resources that align with Minnesota’s 2023 Indigenous Education for All (IEFA) legislation. The law aims to elevate Indigenous narratives focused on Native history, culture, sovereignty, and socioeconomic experience with the goal of addressing long-standing education disparities and bolstering Indigenous self-determination. The grant will also support ongoing oral history projects and youth leadership development efforts.

“This investment supports tribal leaders’ ability to use their full power to educate our people and to tell our own histories,” said Leech Lake Band education director Laurie Harper. “We believe the IEFA legislation is an opportunity for tribal perspectives and knowledge to be integrated into Minnesota classrooms in a way that exercises tribal sovereignty and self-determination, building a new model of curricula that is community-centered, tribally led, and replicable by other tribes throughout the state.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/The Palmer)