San Isidro Farm, A community project of Southwest Indian Foundation (SWIF)
Grants Awarded
The Southwest Indian Foundation has bought a 280-acre farm in the Zuni Mountains with intentions of fostering a teaching farm for regenerative ranching and producing healthy food. The property, besides serving as a healthy outdoor recreational hub, will offer economic development opportunities and serve as a testament of community health and quality of life. The Foundation has collaborated with youth organizations like the New Mexico Interscholastic Cycling (NICA) League, enhancing the appeal of the farm as a multipurpose destination, inclusive of a public access trail system, a camping site and potential future amenities such as a lodge. The need now is to hire a local New Mexico design firm to create a master plan integrating all these components while outlining a roadmap for future advancements and funding pursuits.
“Our primary goal at the Southwest Indian Foundation is to lessen the poverty and unemployment among the Native Americans of the Southwest, specifically members of the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, Laguna, Acoma, and Apache tribes. Through self-help initiatives, community development projects, and charitable donations, we hope to restore dignity and self-reliance to these native peoples.” When Fr. Dunstan Schmidlin started the Southwest Indian Foundation back in 1968, he felt a sense of urgency. With a true Franciscan’s love for the land and the harmony for creation, he was deeply troubled by the plight of his Native American brothers and sisters. Where once these first Americans had lived close to the earth, they now seemed displaced in their own land and disillusioned with their own dreams. In the relentless march of progress, they had somehow been left behind. They were the forgotten Americans. We have always striven to maintain the original intentions of our Franciscan founder. First, to recognize the great human potential of each individual and second, to offer those in need a hand – not a handout. To our way of thinking, a mere handout destroys a person’s dignity and self-initiative. We believe that true charity must restore pride and independence. Southwest Indian Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization whose service is strictly limited to Native Americans Our services include: Substantial school grants and individual tuition assistance, homes for battered women and children, wood stove installation, Christmas food baskets for needy families, alcohol counseling, and emergency assistance in the areas of food, clothing, heating fuel, and temporary shelter. Beyond those services, we run 3 main projects. For over 20 years we have been building and donating homes to homeless Navajo families. In conjunction with our home building program we have also developed a workforce development training program for unemployed individuals who are ready to reenter the workforce and, most pertinent to this grant application, 2021 we purchased and have been operating a 300 acre farm in the Zuni mountains as a type of wellness center with two major goals: first, to become a learning farm where we learn and teach regenerative farming and ranching to help mitigate the effects of climate change and local food deserts and secondly, to provide a place where locals can come enjoy the beauty of nature and have the opportunity to participate in a variety of outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, cycling, cross county skiing, birdwatching and more! We also hope to make the farm a destination venue for special events and to attract visitors from across the country to bring economic development to the area.