Native American Community Academy
Grants Awarded
The Native American Community Academy (NACA) serves urban Native students in grades K-12 by providing a culturally integrated education that fosters academic preparedness, strong leadership, and healthy lifestyles. By incorporating Land-Based Healing and Learning (LBHL), NACA helps students heal from historical trauma and deepen their connection to their identity and the environment, ultimately strengthening both the students and the local community. Expanded curriculum and experiential outdoor activities enhance students' understanding of climate change and environmental stewardship while promoting holistic development.
The Native American Community Academy (NACA), a charter school aimed at offering a culturally inclusive education for Native students in grades K-12, aspires to mold them into confident leaders who are academically grounded, secure in their identity, and healthy. An integral part of NACA's unique curriculum is its land-based healing and learning (LBHL) component, aiding students who've faced historical disruptions from ancestral lands due to mandatory relocation and assimilation, by facilitating restorative connections with the land proactively supporting their growth into healthy adulthood.
NACA aims to enhance the educational experience of 431 K-12 students by integrating Land-Based Healing and Learning (LBHL) programs focused on food cultivation, seed saving, wild food gathering, and processing into their daily curriculum and afterschool activities. This initiative not only fosters students' connection to the land but also equips teachers with the necessary skills and confidence to incorporate LBHL into various subjects, ultimately promoting sustainability within the local community.
During the 2020-21 school year, NACA will enhance in-school Land-Based Learning (LBL) across all subjects, emphasizing the relationship to the land to better understand history, science, and politics. By fostering environmental stewardship and outdoor skill-building through community partnerships and Knowledge Keepers, students will gain a deeper appreciation for their Native identity, the interconnectedness of land and community, and the importance of protecting the earth, ultimately promoting a more active and engaged lifestyle.
The Native American Community Academy Foundation is a non-profit organization that was established to help fundraise for the Native American Community Academy (NACA). Founded in 2006, NACA is a Native-led, tuition-free K-12 public charter school that is authorized by Albuquerque Public Schools. The school’s mission is to engage students, educators, families, and communities in creating a school that prepares students to grow from early childhood to adulthood, and to strengthen communities by developing strong leaders who are academically prepared, secure in their identity, and healthy. Zane Rosette serves as the Executive Director of the NACA Foundation, as well as the Principal/ Executive Director of the Native American Community Academy. NACA’s students are predominantly Native American and have represented more than 60 different tribes over our history. In the 2023-24 academic year, NACA serves 431 students (85% Native American, 13% Latino, 1% Black, 1% Caucasian). Approximately 42% of students are considered economically disadvantaged, 19% are English Language Learners, and more than 23% have a diagnosed disability. NACA has made it a priority to develop programming that focuses on experiential outdoor learning, which aims to help students establish a deeper connection with the land and gain extensive knowledge about Indigenous approaches. To achieve our objectives, NACA offers consistent and intentional professional development opportunities, along with support for classroom teachers, to enable staff to effectively integrate and employ outdoor experiential learning techniques (Land-Based Healing and Learning) across all subjects. Recent accomplishments include: 1.) In 2022-23, approximately 70 NACA teachers and staff participated in experiential outdoor learning opportunities focused on land-based healing and learning (LBHL) held once per month during early release Fridays. 2) NACA is developing Indigenous Science curriculum and lesson plans for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students. The curriculum includes a full program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and frameworks for students in kindergarten through eighth grade are currently being finalized. Our frameworks revolve around two key areas – Food Keepers, which focus on gardening and composting, and Medicine Keepers, which involve utilizing nearby grounding sites such as the mountains and the river to harvest both domesticated and wild plant foods and medicines. Our students wash, cure, jar, and label these items, which they then transform into an array of products such as teas, infused oils, salves, compresses, and more. The lesson plans have been piloted over the course of the year, and best practices in Land-Based Healing and Learning approaches are shared with other Indigenous educators through NISN’s online Resource Hub, which disseminates resources and best practices (nisnresourcehub.org). 3) Last year, NACA’s full enrollment took part in experiential outdoor learning opportunities. The classes were centered around field trips both on-campus and off-campus. The students engaged in lessons that utilized the school gardens such as the elementary herb gardens, the hydroponic gardens, the high school terrace garden boxes, as well as the school hoop house.