Stewart Huntington
ICT
The NDN Collective, a prominent Native grantmaking and advocacy group, has a new president.
Wizipan Little Elk Garriott, who just wrapped up a stint as the No. 2 official at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will take over the leadership position in South Dakota.
NDN Collective founder Nick Tilsen, who had previously served as president and chief executive officer, will continue to serve as CEO.
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Garriott, Sicangu Lakota, served for three years in the Biden Administration’s Department of Interior as the first assistant and principal advisor to Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. That posting came under the leadership of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, the first Native American to hold the job.
“It was an honor and a privilege just to be able to be a part of the team,” Garriott told ICT. “I think we were able to get a lot of stuff done. “You know, it’s one thing to come in and celebrate some of the historic appointments. But you still got to get stuff done. And I think we accomplished a lot for Indian Country.”
Garriott pointed to record funding and resources steered to Indian Country on Haaland’s watch as well as the investigation into the country’s Indian boarding school history during which Native children were removed from their families and sent off to school in a concerted assimilation campaign.
The Federal Indian Board School Initiative produced two investigative reports which contributed to President Joe Biden’s historic apology to Native people for the nation’s boarding school history.
“I’m really proud of that track record,” Garriott said.
He wants to build on that record at NDN Collective. The organization is the nation’s largest Native American grantmaker, having distributed or earmarked $109 million over the last five years to more than 1,400 Indian Country grantees.
“I wanted to be able to join NDN because it’s an organization that gets stuff done,” he said. “And so that work is going to continue to, you know, help deploy resources to Indian Country around investments and social impact investments.”
Prior to his stint at Interior, Garriott served a decade as chief executive of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation serving his Sicangu Rosebud Indian Reservation. While there he helped start a Lakota language immersion school and a 1,200-head buffalo herd.
Garriott was born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, where he attended St. Francis Indian School. He has a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Yale University and a law degree from the University of Arizona.
His new colleagues welcomed him to NDN.
“Wizipan’s combined experience of working deeply in his own community on grassroots and tribal solutions, all the way to working in two presidential administrations will prove to be catalytic for the work here at NDN Collective,” said Tilsen, Oglala Lakota.
“(He) is a dynamic, proven high-integrity community and national leader,” Tilsen said. “I couldn’t be more honored to be working by his side to build collective power for our people and to protect Unci Maka. His dedication to fighting for tribal sovereignty and indigenous self determination is second to none.”
NDN Collective Vice President Gaby Strong, Sisseton Wahpeton/Mdewakanton Dakota, praised the experiences he brings to the organization.
“Wizipan’s experience and leadership comes at the right moment for NDN and the work we all care about,” Strong said. “Our people and our land are at the heart of it all. Wizipan has that same heart for the work with the wisdom and experience to back it up. There’s synergy and evolution in our organizational growth and our collective movement. Wizi joins us as part of that.”
Garriott, who today is splitting time between his Rosebud home and his new job based in Rapid City, South Dakota, says he won’t waste time before rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.
“A lot of what NDN is known for is standing up for Indian people, standing up for Indian rights,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to do that work to help our people realize and assert their constitutional rights. So all of that is part of the portfolio that I’m going to be helping to lead and working with such an amazing leadership team that we have already in place.”
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