Crystal Echo Hawk is leading the way in changing how funding for Native Americans causes happens in philanthropy. Her insights in this interview with The Chronicle of Philanthropy can give donors a look at how and why Native Americans are overlooked.

A New Approach to Advocating for Funding for Native American Causes

Crystal Echo Hawk’s advocacy took an unexpected turn about a decade ago. A citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Echo Hawk had worked most of her life to advance the rights and well-being of Native Americans, just as earlier generations of her family had done through the law and nonprofits. Yet her daughter was being abused and bullied at school for her traditional Dakota name from her father.

The school’s principal blamed the parents, she remembers. You should have given your daughter an English name, he said.

Shortly after, the couple’s daughter asked to stop using her traditional name. Later, she began to experience severe mental-health issues. “As we tried to access health care, it was assumed that I was either unemployed, an alcoholic, or an overall bad mother,” Echo Hawk remembers.

Founding IllumiNative

Those painful experiences gave her new perspective on the work that she and her family had pursued for so many years. Little could change, she concluded, until perceptions about Native Americans changed. In 2018, she founded the group IllumiNative to tell authentic stories about Native peoples, lift their visibility, and counter racial stereotypes. It backed a new line of research into views of Native Americans, and Echo Hawk became a regular in Hollywood and the media fighting commonplace yet harmful narratives.

Today, green shoots of change are evident in American culture, with IllumiNative helping to seed the ground. The Washington Commanders, a professional football franchise, changed its name under pressure from Echo Hawk and others. Lily Gladstone, an actor of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage, was nominated for an Oscar last year for her role in the Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon — the first Native American to get the nod in the best actress category. And the TV shows Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and Prey — all with Native Americans in lead creative roles — have won acclaim and audiences.

IllumiNative this year formed a media-production and financing company to invest in and support Native creatives and promote authentic Native storytelling. “Americans are becoming increasingly aware of Native peoples and Native issues,” Echo Hawk, 51, says. “There is a hunger to learn even more, and there is a greater demand to see more Native representation in TV, film, media, and other sectors, including social media.”

Other big events in the past year for Echo Hawk: The IRS granted IllumiNative 501(c)(3) status. She won a coveted Skoll Award for Social Innovation. And Melinda French Gates gave her a $20 million grant-making fund to direct to groups and causes as she sees fit.

Read the full interview at The Chronicle of Philanthropy website.