Frequently asked questions

The people who know best how to address the damage wrought by colonialism are those most impacted by it. Native people need resources to heal from the damage colonial settler wrought, maintain culture, provide for the material well-being of their communities, and advocate for their needs. In New York City, the organization that handles all of these issues is American Indian Community House. New York City is home to 110,000 Native peoples. AICH serves not only those whose ancestors have always been local, but also the Native peoples who now make the city home.

Native land literally underpins everything about our lives in the U.S. Our homes, schools, places of worship, culture, recreation, agriculture, businesses, and friendships are all made possible because Native people were and are displaced from their ancestral lands. This can feel overwhelming, but the Manna-hatta Fund Collective calls on you to think of this as an opportunity to be bold in your own giving. We should all give a meaningful gift, an amount that is as big as our individual budget will allow.

The median income in NYC is around $50,000. For individuals, we’ve suggested a $24 monthly gift as a start, but you can adjust up or down. If you have investments, you can consider diverting a percentage of those dividends to meaningfully account for wealth amassed on stolen land.

For nonprofits or businesses, you might consider 2.4% of your operating budget or profits. Or, you might want to start with $2,400 a year. Whatever is in your budget - but we encourage you to be bold!

In the case of family or corporate philanthropic organizations, please note that American Indian Community House is a 501c3 registered nonprofit that can receive grants. Please consider including them in your giving at higher levels.

Manna-hatta Fund is a volunteer-led fundraising project housed under the 501(c)3 nonprofit American Indian Community House (AICH) and all funds are directly deposited to AICH. Most DAFs can locate AICH using their EIN: 23-7088777.

If you need more information to make a donation through a DAF, please fill out this DAF form and a volunteer from Manna-hatta Fund will connect you to an AICH staff if necessary. Please note that if you as a donor or a DAF representative are able to fill out information yourselves, rather than request labor from our volunteers or AICH elders and leaders, that is much appreciated. (Donors, if you aren’t sure if you can fill out information yourselves, please consider looking into that option. Not all DAFs require an administrative burden for grantees.)

One way of defining colonialism or the process of colonization is one of resource extraction, land theft, and genocide. European colonists waged wars through military, starvation, forced assimilation, rape and sexual assault, slavery, and displacement. European settlers sacrificed Native peoples to build their homes and businesses on Native land, a shameful legacy that benefits all Americans of European descent while continuing to harm Native peoples to this day. The legacy of these brutal acts continues in our institutional refusals to recognize the rights of Indigenous groups, to reckon with the painful history of European colonial settler ancestors and heroes, and to provide for reconciliation and reparations.

New York City wouldn’t exist without that original theft from Native peoples. It also wouldn’t exist without the stolen labor of Black people who literally built the city for Dutch and British colonists, and later for Americans. Recognizing both of these legacies is absolutely essential for realizing justice and peace. Looking for a way out of your relationship to such legacies is pretty useless. This wasn’t some one off act in the distant past. Violence against Indigenous peoples and Black people is active, happening right now, with your tax dollars.

That said, we do not experience the benefits of settler colonialism evenly, and those made wealthy by the theft of Native land and displacement of Native communities bear a special responsibility to address these wrongs. Our families might be or have been refugees or immigrants fleeing colonialism, injustice, and war in some other part of the planet. White supremacy has its roots in the violence of European Christianity, under which the Crusades, the Holocaust, and colonial conquest were carried out. While it is primarily the responsibility of those of European Christian descent to grapple with these monstrous wrongs, a different lineage does not exclude you from honoring Native peoples’ land, culture, and autonomy through gifts to the Manna-hatta Fund.

We welcome all people living in NYC, on the ancestral lands of a diverse array of Native peoples, to support the future of Indigenous peoples in our city and beyond by giving to the Manna-hatta Fund.

The histories of how people have and continue to come to this land are complex. This project is primarily focused on engaging people from European ancestries because of the history of settler colonialism here, however it is not in any way limited to that. We welcome folks of color and people from any ancestry who feel like it is right relationship with your histories and ancestries to give as well. We also welcome conversation and feedback, please be in contact if you would like to engage further around this.

Actually, Peter Minuit (who was a Dutch colonial leader) exchanged gifts with Canarsie people who were passing through Manhattan. (They typically resided in what is now considered southwestern Brooklyn.) The Dutch leaders, backed by their judicial and military apparatus, presented this exchange as a “sale” and claimed they had acquired the property legally and fairly. The Indigenous peoples did not practice private land ownership, and thus did not “sell” anything. Rather, the Dutch offered gifts, as did the Canarsie, as they traditionally would have with groups they traded among or honored with signs of respect. The gifts of the Canarsie, and the many other Indigenous peoples who met visitors with similar offerings, certainly did not intend that their ancestral homes would be seized, their sacred sites disrespected, and their culture forcibly destroyed. This is why it is so important to honor those initial gifts, as settlers who occupy and benefit from this legacy of colonization of native lands.

Yes! We must push our colonial government to uphold treaty rights, repatriate land and sacred objects, acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty, and hold space for a deep acknowledgement and apology of all that we have done. Indigenous leaders must be respected and allowed to guide the process. Let’s make that happen, but first things first please start making your monthly gift so that we can loop you in to making this future possible.

First, not all Native peoples are part of federally recognized tribes. It is a cumbersome process created by a colonial settler government, and it often fails to serve Native interests. One can’t assume just because someone is Native they are receiving any recognition or benefits. Even after a tribe attains federal status, it is a struggle to maintain community without access to the lands and sacred sites that underpin a tribe’s traditions and culture. Our colonial settler government provides some funding, but it often varies depending on party politics. Remember Standing Rock? That was a federally recognized tribe enforcing a treaty, which our government has decided to ignore to benefit a corporation.

The Manna-hatta Fund is organized in partnership with and accountable to leaders from American Indian Community House. We are a group of folks who have settler privilege and benefit from colonization on Turtle Island, with ancestors from a variety of places, and some of our people have been settlers on this land for multiple generations. We were inspired by the Shuumi Land Tax on Ohlone land (San Francisco Bay Area, California) and Real Rent Duwamish on Duwamish land (Seattle, Washington). If you want to know more about the backstory, feel free to ask us at info(at)mannahattafund.org.

Check out this guide to creating Indigenous Solidarity Funding projects that was co-created by organizers from Manna-hatta Fund, Sogorea Te Land Trust, Real Rent Duwamish, and the Indigenous Solidarity Network.

Make checks out to “American Indian Community House” and send to the following address:

American Indian Community House

275 Madison Ave

Suite 2014

New York, NY 10016