Multi-Indigenous Community Action (MICA)

The heart of Indigenous identity is our unique and irreplaceable cultures. MICA, a Native-led organization, offers new frameworks, ideas, contacts, and resources to support Native communities’ work in reclaiming and defending our cultural sovereignty.

Why Culture? In a survey of 238 tribes, protecting and revitalizing our languages, sacred and cultural places, and cultural ways of being were identified as Native communities’ highest priorities. For our people to survive, our cultures must not only survive, but find new ways to thrive. Without our cultures, we lose our identity as Indigenous peoples.

Our Results

The Native Nations, communities, and families we serve are strong, determined, resilient—and also isolated, under-resourced, and faced with persistent inequities. Communities identify their priority issues, and MICA works with them to develop systemic solutions and resources. MICA has provided technical assistance to over 200 Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities including revitalizing 73 tribal languages, protecting 52 sacred sites, restoring 47 traditional cultural practices, and bringing broadband internet to two entire reservations. MICA does not charge communities for our assistance.

A Trusted Ally

Trust is everything in Indian Country. For two decades, MICA has built relationships and credibility in over 300 tribal communities. Our founders, Cherokee Chief and Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee Wilma Mankiller, MICA CEO and former Otoe-Missouria Tribal Chairman Della Warrior, and MICA Vice-Chair Dr. Valorie Johnson (Seneca-Cayuga/Eastern Cherokee), a W.K. Kellogg Foundation program officer for 24 years, created MICA as a vehicle to bring the skills and contacts they had gained nationally home to tribal communities. MICA Board members and staff, including Chairman Walter Echo-Hawk (past president of the Pawnee Nation) and Rick West (founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian), are well-known and trusted throughout Indian Country.

Current Programs

Representative programs include Rethink Revitalization, a cohort of 10 young community language leaders working together to stem language loss by addressing historical trauma in themselves and their communities; Braiding the Sacred Native Foodways Restoration Project; Protect Oak Flat; developing a Tribal Land Co-Management Tool Kit; Elders of the 4 Directions Project, which amplifies the voices of Native Elders; and our fiscal sponsorship program serving eight outstanding community projects like the Mohawk Girls’ Coming of Age Program.

Why MICA?

The “MICA difference"—proven approaches, world-class resources, honest and respectful partnerships with tribal communities, enduring relationships across Turtle Island, and most of all, hands-on support—has resulted in a 94% project success rate.