Diversity Foundation of Minnesota Inc

The founding purpose of the Diversity Foundation Inc, is to help "Bridge the Cultural Gap" between & among people of differing races, ethnicities, religions and walks of Life. Our Current programs emphasizes Euro-Native American "Reconciliation & Outreach" service projects to aid South Dakota's Crow Creek Tribe and other impoverished Reservations across the Great Plains. (US 2000/10 Census ranked Crow Creek among poorest County & Reservation in America) Most people aided are descended from the once Proud "Great Sioux (Dakota) Nation", whose members for centuries had lived, hunted and tilled the rich farmlands across southern Minnesota, their "Ancestral Homeland" until the US Government's unscrupulous 1851 treaties, forcing the Dakota to small reservations (prison camps) with further injustices, broken promises and starvation leading up to the 1862 US-Dakota War.  After the war, survivors were imprisoned, then in spring of 1863, 1300 Dakota herded on overcrowded barges & forced exile to SD's desolate Crow Creek POW (aka reservation)  

Since 1995, Diversity Foundation (DF) volunteers have been filming & documenting hundreds video hours with Native American elders, sharing their publicly "untold" stories & little known chapters of American history.  DF has also helped facilitate, film & photograph numerous intercultural reconciliation events across Southern Minnesota (ie Mankato, Winona, Rochester, Twin Cities, Wabasha, Pipestone etc) & majority Dakota/Lakota Indian Reservations across Great Plains & Canadian Dakota Reserves.  DF's intent is to digitize & transform these "Living History" photo's & recordings into historic/educational documentaries for a wide variety of Native & non-Native audiences (ie schools, colleges, families, media & history centers, broadcast documentaries etc ) 

Recently during Covid19 Pandemic Crisis, The South Korean President Moon Jae-In's Govt & Embassy donated well over million KN95 masks, shields & sanitizers to US Dept. of Veteran's Affairs & Commander Loudner's National American Indian Veterans (NAIV) to Express South Korean Nation's Appreciation" to Legendary Navajo Nation's "WWII Codetalkers" (& other Tribal Codetalkers) who'd helped USMC defend South Korea during WWII & Korean War.  I was honored when Commander Loudner called & asked me to help him coordinate & deliver over100,000 Covid-19 KN95 masks, shields & sanitizers to our Great Plains Indian Reservation's Tribal Veterans, elders & their families.  Loudner is an 88 year Korean War Veteran, who recently had a stroke & can no longer travel,  so DF agreed to help his NAIV deliver these masks. .. Not realizing then, this was another unpaid position & we'd need to cover own transport expenses,  therefore we'd also need to raise funding to lease delivery trucks & cover our transportation expenses?   Because the Covid-19 Virus is spreading even more rapidly throughout America's Indian Reservations,  many living with overcrowded housing & inadequate Covid healthcare with extreme shortage of Masks. Hence DF's "Urgency" to raise the Immediate funding necessary to deliver these essential KN95 Masks & shields out to our Great Plains Reservations ASAP.      

Over past 25 years, DF has helped coordinate & facilitate humanitarian relief drives, delivering numerous Semi trailers of used beds, furniture, clothes, food and other household items to Crow Creek & other economically disadvantaged Tribes....primarily donated from southern Minnesota churches & communities, Often Donors unaware, their present European Communities were Minnesota's same "Pre-European" lands, for millenia, known as "Dakota's Ancestral Homeland".  Over past 2 decades, DF has also been partnering with USMC "Toys For Tots" program, annually delivering "Toys & Hope" to thousands of disadvantaged Native Youth & families from impoverished Tribes across N & S Dakota, Minn, Nebr & the Great Plains, where majority tribes have no TFT alternative.  In 2019, as a USMC Native American TFT Coordinator, our DF was fortunate to have our Best TFT Year,  delivering TFT to 17 tribes & approx 16,000 Native youth.  There are several more underserved Reservations in Northern Minnesota, our DF would still like to include Christmas Toys & Gifts for their Native Youth & families as well.  Our Diversity Foundation has Immediate need to raise funds necessary for DF to pay costs to lease TFT trucks, forklifts, storage, shipping & handling fees & other expenses to delivery our Christmas "Toys for Tots" to more Native Youth & Reservations this 2020 Christmas TFT Season.                   (See DF's 2019 TFT photos attached below)