Empowering Native Americans through UNITY

Cheyenne Kippenberger: Turning troubled teen years into a mission

Looking back at her years growing up in Hollywood, Florida, Cheyenne Kippenberger recalls troubled times. She struggled with anxiety and depression as a teenager, even dropping out of high school for a time. A member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida — a state with only two federally recognized tribes — she felt cut off from other Native American youth. UNITY gave her a connection, at first through Instagram posts she saw. “I loved the idea of this space being created for Native Youth from all across Indian country,” Kippenberger says. “Maybe I could be one of the kids in those pictures one day.”

As she turned her life around, returning to school and going on to graduate from college, Kippenberger’s connection to UNITY deepened. She decided to run for her tribe’s ambassador position, which led her to a UNITY conference in Orlando. From there, the relationship grew, culminating with Kippenberger — then 23 — being named a peer guide for UNITY’s Healing Indigenous Lives Initiative, which facilitates training and mentorships with a focus on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. “It’s been a beautiful journey of not only finding myself,” she says, “but also channeling that understanding back out to the youth I get to work with.”

Mental health challenges, from depression and anxiety to bipolar disorder and PTSD, are widespread in the Native community, Kippenberger notes. “There’s a stigma around these conversations, there’s a lack of accessibility to resources and there’s a lack of resources in general.” UNITY has given her the platform to speak out on this intensely personal issue and advocate for culturally competent care. Kippenberger is now a communications coordinator for Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute and founded her own business, CK Consulting. “UNITY was part of my path and my healing time,” she says. “I have a responsibility to pass on my knowledge to youth and an obligation to guide.”

Marco Ovando: Bringing fresh food to underserved rural areas

A member of the Shoshone Paiute Tribe, Marco Ovando’s home on the Duck Valley reservation straddles the border of Idaho and Nevada.  It is a region of high-mountain desert, pine forests, and streams and lakes. “This little oasis in the middle of sage brush for hundreds of miles has helped the tribe develop a mindset of self-determination, resiliency and the ability to find resources,” says Ovando.

Still, the nearest grocery story — or Wal-Mart or McDonald’s — is 100 miles away. Given the region’s short growing season, that isolation means fresh and healthy foods can be scarce for the 1,400 residents of his valley, a situation that has inspired Ovando to advocate for food sovereignty in rural areas like his own. “It’s a challenge to transport fresh produce to these communities because of where they are located and infrastructure,” he says. Ovando has been involved with a University of Nevada at Reno program that provides families in his valley with small greenhouses to enable them to grow their own food. “It’s cool to get that kind of boots-on-the-ground action.”

Ovando is also keenly interested in preserving his tribe’s heritage as a nomadic people who knew how to farm and fish in a vast region in the Northwest. “I’m trying to make sure those areas remain preserved for a new generation that wants to know what that almost-lost knowledge is,” he says.

Ovando became involved with UNITY in 2015, hoping for a sense of purpose and something to aspire to. What he found was the confidence that came from seeing other Native youth like himself and having a shoulder to lean on. At the age of 19 he was named a UNITY Earth Ambassador, with food sovereignty and cultural preservation as his causes. More recently, he graduated from Boise State University with a degree in Political Science (focusing on American government and public policy) and is an intern for the 2024 Udall Foundation Native Nations Institute at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy in Washington DC. “UNITY has provided a great platform to share those concerns about what’s happening at the local level to a national audience,” he says.

Kylie Hunts-in-Winter: Helping Native women stand strong

Throughout the country, from rural reservations to urban centers, Native women are reported missing and found murdered at an alarming rate. Official crime statistics fail to capture the magnitude of the tragedy, according to landmark 2018 study by the Urban Indian Health Institute that identified more than 500 cases of missing and murdered Native women and girls in 71 cities. “Every single Native person knows someone, or has heard of someone, who has gone missing,” says Kylie Hunts-in-Winter of Tempe, Arizona, who has made the cause of missing and murdered indigenous girls and women (MMIGW) her passion.

Hunts-in-Winter, whose family is from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, began studying a variety of martial arts at age three. After years of mastering her skills and competing in hundreds of tournaments, Hunts-in-Winter is sharing what she’s learned to help protect her peers. With the defense classes she teaches at high schools, reservations, centers for Indigenous people and virtually, Hunts-in-Winter aims to educate women about dangerous situations and arm them with basic self-defense skills. “I teach not only physical self-defense but also mental awareness,” says Hunts-in-Winter. “This is a hands-on way to have an impact on my community.”

With her Instagram account, @bravewoman_, Hunts-in-Winter shares the stories of girls in martial arts with more than 100,000 followers. As she was growing up, she found few role models, so she hopes her page can show other strong young women that they are not alone. At the age of 17, Hunts-in-Winter was named to UNITY’s 25 Under 25 list of Native youth who exemplify the organization’s mission, recognition that is helping her spread the word about MMIGW. Now at Harvard University, Hunts-in-Winter studies government and law, with a focus on women and Indigenous people, and is co-president of the university’s Jiu Jitsu club where she teaches workshops on self-defense. “I know I will always be an activist, helping my Native community in whatever way I can,” says Hunts-in-Winter.