Creating opportunities to learn about indigenous cultures from indigenous peoples; Creating opportunities for indigenous cultures to preserve their past and improve their present for a stronger tomorrow.

WKI produces and administers cross- and intra-cultural educational programs, events and activities, relevant freely accessible web and internet-based resources, and printed resource materials, and partners with on and off-reservation indigenous-led organizations to create opportunities designed by indigenous people for indigenous people.

Web-based resources have been accessed by over 200,000 people world-wide, email-based learning groups have a combined (free) membership of nearly 1,000, and an estimated 2,500 people have participated in local events and activities.

Beneficiaries of our efforts come from mainstream society, Urban Indian America and a number of tribes. Past projects have included Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days, an educational event attended by approximately 2,000 people over a 7 year span.

A variety of new projects are under development at this time as we undergo a strategic planning process, and include community, economic and leadership development, community organizing, and population research among other critical areas.

In 2003, we began to work with on and off-reservation grass-roots organizations as both a consultant and fiscal agent in an effort to increase opportunity creation for indigenous people.  The results so far have been the creation of the Native American Culinary Assocation for American Indian professional chefs, assistance to traditional elders for preservation of cultural and spiritual traditions and cultural immersion for tribal youth, and technical assistance and fiscal sponsorship for two direct service organizations serving South Dakota reservations.
 
At present, we are providing technical assistance and fiscal sponsorship to support efforts toward the creation of an emerging American Indian philanthropic organization in Tennessee, a Native Community Financial Development Institute, and a grass-roots policy and research effort.

From our 2009-2014 Strategic Plan

The primary mission of Wisdom Keepers, Inc. has been the creation of educational opportunities that preserve cultural traditions and the creation of opportunities for indigenous people and cultures to improve their current conditions and increase skills that will ensure they enjoy a stronger “tomorrow.”

Wisdom Keepers, Inc., was founded as a grass-roots organization in 1997, filed for its non-profit state charter in approximately 2000, and received its 501-c-3 determination of status in 2003. Since its creation, it has worked to provide cross-cultural, intercultural and intra-cultural educational opportunities in East Tennessee, and to provide broader delivery of its educational resources to a global audience via the Internet.

For the first seven years of its existence, WKI focused its efforts on cross-cultural educational projects that alleviated myths and stereotypes and increased cultural awareness. WKI planned and managed Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days for the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum from 1999 through 2005.  WKI brought members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee, and Eastern Band of Cherokee on-site to deliver hands-on educational activities at the day-long event to over 2,000 individuals in and around East Tennessee.  The event’s printed resource books used in place of handouts have been delivered to private, public and school libraries throughout Tennessee, and have been requested by organizations and libraries throughout the US and England.

WKI’s internet resources and educational listservs, Native-Cooking-L and Native-Lifeways, experience high rates of membership and use as well.  Additionally, WKI was instrumental in establishing a higher standard for the selection of culturally qualified providers for advisory, project management, and project presentation positions.

In 2003, WKI expanded its mission to accommodate requests for technical assistance in the form of fiscal sponsorship, consultations, and community organizing that came from grassroots native organizations on and off reservations, and began to work more earnestly on increasing awareness and understanding of American Indian culture, values and issues on a local, state and national level. Those requests resulted in the creation of the Native American Culinary Association, securing funds to assist with the perpetuation of annual cultural traditions carried out by traditional elders on an Oklahoma reservation, and technical assistance and support for two native-led grassroots organizations providing direct services to impoverished residents of two or more reservations in South Dakota.

In 2005 with the assistance of a grant from the Appalachian Community Fund, WKI worked with members of the Tennessee and Southeastern native communities to develop and introduce Tanasi Journal, an American Indian written and published newspaper focusing on American Indians living in or original to the Southeastern US. Although the print version of the paper was unable to survive the economy of the times, the Journal ultimately became successful after it was shifted to an online news publication in 2007. Production on the volunteer-driven publication has slowed for the past few months following the resignation of its Editor-in-Chief. A search for her replacement is underway.  However, the Journal continues today as the only Southeastern regional American Indian news publication in the US.

WKI’s interest and progression into community and economic development projects began in early 2007 when its founder and chair, Valerie Ohle, became involved in and one of the founders of the Tennessee American Indian Research initiative whose efforts and research are providing the first realistic picture of the condition of Tennessee’s American Indian/Alaska Native population since Michael White’s Let the People Speak report in 1979, and the first ever state-wide study of Tennessee’s American Indian/Alaska Native population. WKI has secured and provided updated technology equipment and software for the project, and serves as a sponsoring entity at this time.  WKI also provides technical support and fiscal sponsorship to the Native American Funding Exchange, an emerging native philanthropic organization.

WKI is continuing in its new mission to implement community and economic development projects through its current support of the First Peoples Community Development Corporation of Tennessee project as a sponsoring entity.  First Peoples’ CDC is a being developed as a Native Community Development Financial Institute that, once fully implemented, will deliver financial, business and technology literacy educational programs, and offer access to capital and asset building opportunities for American Indian/Alaska Native residents of Tennessee, especially those located in Appalachian Tennessee.

WKI’s goal in lending support to the First Peoples’ CDC project is creating opportunities to identify and cultivate new economic and community development leaders through participation in the project’s literacy programs, stimulate economic development and self-reliance, and to meet its mission of improving the current conditions of indigenous cultures and increasing skills that will ensure a stronger “tomorrow.”  "

Vision
We believe racism against and oppression of indigenous people and cultures are based on the absence and suppression of culturally accurate knowledge and understanding, compounded by perpetuation of myths and stereotypes, and that both have severely impacted the ability of indigenous cultures to realize their legal right to sovereignty and self-determination. Our vision is to become a leader in creating a society that is not bound by skin color, culture, religion, or gender, but by values and accomplishments judged by knowledge and understanding.

Values
We place the highest priority on the following core values:

Spirit & Culture: We advocate and support educational, developmental and economic opportunities that do not compromise individual, family, organizational or community-held spiritual and cultural traditions.

Education: We advocate and support culturally appropriate and culturally, historically accurate education that ensures the elimination of myths and stereotypes, and that upholds the preservation and perpetuation of individual, organizational and community-held spiritual and cultural traditions.

Accessibility:  We are dedicated to making our services available as widely as possible in venues that encourage and accommodate participation by all, regardless of physical, economic or other restraints.

Community Participation:  We advocate and support equal and ample opportunities for community participation in our planning processes and in any organizational or project staff positions.

Community, Economic & Leadership Development: We are dedicated to developing and offering programs that encourage the growth and development of healthy families, clans, organizations and communities, to providing access to learning skills necessary to build the personal, organizational and community capital and assets of indigenous people, and to creating opportunities to strengthen the skills of existing community leaders and identify and develop future community leaders.

Sustainability: We are committed to ensuring WKI’s permanency and sustainability through active pursuit of supportive community partnerships, continuous expansion of its grant and donor-related funding, and creative but thoughtful, forward thinking project selection.

Commitment: We are dedicated to providing the highest level of constituent support and service to our project participants, community partners and funders.